Great article about helicopter parents this week in Newsweek: “The Fine Art of Letting Go.”
If you have time, this is definitely a good read.
Something I found very interesting in this piece, written by Barbara Kantrowitz and Peg Tyre, is that it illustrates the concept of helicopter parents pretty well with great examples such as the following:
“It takes will power to hold back. Rosalie Fuller knew what she had to do when her oldest son, Brinson, 20, left for Appalachian State University. “I’m trying very hard to force them to leave the nest,” she says. Fuller, 48, who lives in New Bern, N.C., and her husband, Walt, 53, a timber buyer for Weyerhaeuser, have agreed to pay for Brinson’s tuition, room and board, but he is supposed to pay for fraternity dues, car insurance and general expenses. In the middle of sophomore year, Brinson ran out of cash and the Fullers decided to take over his car-insurance payments but nothing else. Then his grades took a plunge—all C’s and D’s. The reason: too much partying and not enough studying. In an e-mail, Rosalie told him how many hours a week she spent working for a company that sells aviation fuel in order for him to go to college. “I told him that I would never again pay for a semester like this.” Brinson got the message.“
The article also mentions a website that might help you get into the head of college kids’ parents — well, at least their moms: Mothers of Freshmen