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Bulldozing parents
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Years ago, kids went to college and figured out how to organize their time, and what they were doing after they graduated. But today’s helicopter parents don’t want to let go. It’s not enough that parents help, or even complete their teens’ college applications. It’s not enough that they contact their children’s college professors to negotiate grades. No, now they are even getting involved in getting their children into graduate school.
This extreme over-involvement may be the backlash of latch-key kids, who were practically abandoned in their after school hours; now, parents have every second after school scheduled, and are likely to show up to sports events to watch their kids. Where once after school activities were a way to keep kids entertained while parents worked, now they are used as gateways to selective high schools and college scholarships.
Parents back in the day also rarely involved themselves in high school life; forget about college. Colleges now have well-attended parents’ weekends, where parents can meet their child’s professors, eat in the cafeteria and try out the athletic facilities. Parents who shell out upwards of $56,000 a year for private university education can make these demands, and while it is nice to nice the men and women who are educating your children, it can be infantilizing to the children, who are trying to negotiate life on their own. If parents are still holding on during grad school, when do these kids get to grow up?
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