Parents calling professors about their college students' homework. Parents showing up in place of their college children for orientation. Parents going with their college graduated students on interviews -- and then calling the HR department to complain when their kids don't get the jobs.
These are but a few of the true stories about today's helicopter parents.
I am in wet Wisconsin this week for my in-laws surprise 80th birthday bash put on by my wife and her two brothers. While here I read a great editorial on helicopter parents in USA Today written by a "reformed helicopter parent."
And then when the kids made it to a decent college, many of us remained fixed in hover position. I still remember a few rounds of a paper on Othello from one kid, and another on the divine command theory from another.The result: Little Susie has made it through four years at her respected university. Phew.
She's ready to launch, right? Not so fast. Many of these helicopter young'uns have absolutely no blooming idea what they should do next. They've been so busy with their internships and tests and labs that they've missed the essential purpose of all that frantic activity -- figuring out their passion, following a stream as it flows into a larger river and then jumping on a boat and seeing where it takes them.
Well said! We now have to introduce failure into our curriculum so our aspiring entrepreneurs have a clue as to what might await them -- they have no experience with failure as children of helicopter parents. Worrisome, no?
