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Fly, fly away ‘Helicopter parents’ prove reluctant to let their children pilot college life alone Jennifer Webb
Contributor
Volume 128 Issue 31
utdailybeacon.com @utkdailybeacon
Illustration by Dillon Canfield • The Daily Beacon
Growing up is hard. For some parents, letting their child grow up is even harder. A growing phenomenon for the current millennial generation, “helicopter parenting” is the term coined for parents who hover over their children long after they’ve flown the nest, reaching out to professors, advisors and friends to remain an integral part of their child’s life. Assistant Provost of Student Success Ruth Darling said she has had lots of experience with helicopter parenting and witnessed the effects it has on students. She described a helicopter parent as one who still insists on making day-to-day decisions for their child. Darling said this kind of parenting can take away a student’s ability to make a decision independently. “They can’t make decisions on their own, we see it all the time,” Darling said. “They can’t manage things on their own, they can’t manage their money, they can’t manage their daily lives, their time management, they’re not allowed to develop the skills. Part of it is they are not allowed to suffer some consequences because there is always somebody fixing it for them.” Darling said she once encountered a student whose mother had come to campus to do research for her daughter’s paper because her daughter claimed not to have the time. “That’s a helicopter parent, they’re taking away that learning opportunity and that’s what helicopter parents do,” Darling said. Bonnie Hufford, an instructor in journalism and electronic media, said a helicopter parent once contacted her years ago, going beyond her daughter to discuss with Hufford her student’s grade. “I did have an incident with a student maybe five or six years back where the parents got ahold of me and wanted me to talk about the daughter’s grades,” Hufford said, explaining it was easy to turn the parents down because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which makes it illegal for a student’s education records to be released. When Hufford saw the student again, she said it was evident the student was humiliated her parents hadn’t let her handle her own academics. “Of course I saw her in class the following week and she was so embarrassed,” Hufford laughed. “She said, ‘I’m so sorry my parents called you, I didn’t know they were going to.’” Though reaching out to professors is not uncommon, Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center faculty member Stan Guffey said it is not the most prominent issue the university sees when handling helicopter parents. >>See HELICOPTER PARENTS on Page 2
Monday, February 23, 2015