Helicopter parents should be shot

I'm sorry, but parents like this should be shot:

Helicopter parents -- so named because they hover over their children -- have reached the workplace. The same generation that turned parenting into a competitive sport, prepping 3-year-olds for preschool, then replacing the umbilical cord with a cellphone once they reached college, are pulling up their virtual Aeron chairs and "helping" them at the office.

Yes, we are still talking about a minority of parents. But a survey last year of 400 respondents by the career Web site Experience Inc. found that 25 percent said that their parents were involved in their jobs "to the point that it was either annoying or embarrassing."

Career service directors were the first to feel the tide of parental love. Julia Overton-Healy, who runs that office at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, tells of a call from a parent demanding to know the time and place of her son's on-campus job interview, so she could be there, too. Seniors at Roanoke College in Virginia freely acknowledge to their career director, Toni McLawhorn, that their resumes were actually written by their parents.

"Employers are having a nightmare with this," says Stephen Seaward, director of career development at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn. "I've heard of instances where parents were calling employers on their child's behalf and asking why they didn't get the job or where they've called to negotiate salaries. Meanwhile, the employer is thinking, 'Can this student handle himself if they have to have someone do this for them?' "

Such parents are deliciously easy to mock. Too easy. Although I certainly started out intending to criticize, what I came to feel during a week of interviews on the subject was sympathy.

These days, everything about being a parent -- particularly in certain socioeconomic circles -- says "jump in, get involved, take charge."

Gone are the days when Jimmy could come home and ride his bike around the neighborhood until dark; now a responsible parent knows where his or her child is at every moment. Gone are the days of pickup baseball games in the corner lot; they are replaced by structured leagues, with parent- coaches who wear their hours logged as a badge of honor.

Time was when decent students simply applied to college and were accepted. Now it requires a spreadsheet to keep track of their ever more complicated resume-building. (Emphasis mine.)

Maybe it is because I didn't talk to them personally, but I lack the sympathy of the author.

Listen, I am sympathetic to the idea that it is a lot harder to get jobs or into college (especially elite schools) than it used to be. Things are just far more competitive. Parents love their children, and they want them to succeed.

However, writing your children's resumes, calling your child's boss, or lecturing your child's professors about bad grades is completely unacceptable. When you do stuff like this what you get are children who are utterly incapable of solving their own problems (not to mention you get children who are very annoyed with their parents).

Honestly, it distresses me that I would need to even have a policy on this, but when I am a college professor if I get a call from a parent questioning the kid's grade, that kid is failing. It's unfortunate that a kid would have to pay for the craziness of their parents, but frankly it's best to discourage it by making clear from the beginning what you intend to do. The kid will at least have some ammunition against their parents to explain why they shouldn't call.