Helicopter Parenting
I've had this weird surge of people's parents basically renting an apartment for them.I had a mom call me the other day to ask questions about the apartments. I would answer her questions and she would occasionally hand the phone to her son who didn't really seem to care, so he would hand the phone back to the mom whenever she, in the background, would instruct him what to say: "ask if they have a clubhouse" or "ask if they have break ins" and then he would hand the phone back to her and she would continue the conversation.
I had another person that same day whose mom called in because her daughter, a grad student, was busy at work and couldn't call me directly at that very moment. The mom wanted her daughter to come in for an appointment, so she set one up and said she would call back if the daughter couldn't make it. Also, when the daughter came in later, I was to tell her "your mom told me to tell you that she wants you to take this apartment" which felt weird saying a 24 year old.
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p.s. I find it funny how the stock photo of the helicopter is meant to make it look like it's flying when really it's just a helicopter sitting on the ground
July 11, 2010 at 12:44 PM
This happens ALL THE TIME in academia. I can't decide if it's worse when the student isn't involved in the conversation at all, or when I'm playing Telephone between the parent and the student and the message gets all garbled between them. top