College students come from all different kinds of homes. Some come from homes where parents are like the students’ best friends, while other college students come from homes with parents who are hoverers. They never let the student leave their side without knowing exactly what they are doing and exactly who they are going to be with.
Many college students find that hard to believe, because they think that only happens to children that are in middle and high school. A new study in the Journal of Child and Family Studies found that being overly involved in your grown-up kids’ lives can do more harm than good. Many parents think that hovering over their child will help them succeed and do better in life when in all reality, it actually hurts them and can cause depression and incompetence in their child’s day-to-day life, according to healthlandtime.com.
Some students’ parents have found a healthy balance, however. Senior Communications major Danielle Webber said that her parents push her towards excellence while encouraging independence.
“My parents still try to push me to do my best, but they also respect that I am in college doing my own thing,” Webber said.
On the other hand, some students have “helicopter” parents, meaning that the parents are present in many parts of the student’s daily life. Freshman Intregrated Studies major Katelyn Taylor feels that she has parents like this.
“My parents are definitely helicopter parents. I believe that some helicopter parents can hover too much and cause their child to hide stuff and potentially become wild in their older age. However, I think that parents who don’t hover cause their child to do actions that get the wrong type of attention,” Taylor said.
According to Forbes Magazine, professors have a higher sense of respect for college students that handle their grades and class work for themselves. When parents try contacting the professor about their child’s grades, professors see that as a student being too afraid to talk to the professor.
Assistant Professor of Communications Dr. Teresa Collard expressed that luckily, she doesn’t see many helicopter parents in her line of work.
“We don’t have a lot of helicopter parents in the Communications Department,” Collard said.
“Sometimes [these kinds of] parents slow their students down in terms of independence. However, millennials have a closer relationship with their parents over other generations so they often want their parents there, which complicates the helicopter situation. Ultimately, students who attend a university need to be able to stand on their own two feet and make mature and independent decisions about their academic career. The most supportive parents are the ones who let their child make such decisions.”
Most parents are not the typical “helicopter parents,” but there are still some students who have to deal with it. Some parents do everything for their child such as filling out financial aid info, signing up for classes and paying all of their bills. Other parents expect their child to pay for everything and still keep up-to-date on all of their schoolwork and activities.
