"Helicopter Parents" Of College Kids Have Gone Viral

Cheezburger

These overprotective moms are trying to move into their kids' college dorm rooms so they can keep babying them.  See all our content on FAIL Blog: http://www.failblog.org Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FailBlog

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00:00Is it too much to ask the college to install cameras in my child's dorm room? I just want

00:05to make sure they're sleepy enough and staying on top of their cleaning and laundry.

00:11That's psychotic. These overprotective moms are trying to move into their kids' college dorm

00:16rooms so they can keep babying them. Most parents of college students are eager to support their

00:20kids' independence. But for overly involved helicopter parents, sending their kid to

00:24college sends them spiraling with fear and unable to control their wildly inappropriate meddling.

00:29Posts from a Facebook group for parents of college freshmen at Purdue University went

00:33viral for examples of helicopter parenting that need to be seen to be believed. Does anybody have

00:39this RA's phone number? I need to get in contact with someone to decorate my child's door for his

00:43birthday. Is there any way we can get the housekeeping team who does the bathrooms to

00:48go into my son's room? He's just really having a hard time keeping it clean without me there.

00:52The term helicopter parent refers to an overprotective and highly involved parenting

00:57style. Just like a helicopter hovers, so do these parents. They typically involve themselves in all

01:02aspects of their children's lives, sometimes doing more harm than good for their kids. So what

01:06happens when the child of a helicopter parent is preparing to fly the nest and head off to college?

01:10In recent years, forums and Facebook groups have popped up for the anxious parents of college

01:15students who are forced to hover from a distance. In online communities for parents of incoming

01:19freshmen at different universities, questions, complaints, and concerns about their kids'

01:23well-being range from excessive to outrageous. Is it appropriate to email my child's professors

01:28at the start of the semester to introduce myself and establish a line of communication?

01:33I just want to make sure I'm aware of any issues before they become a problem.

01:37How involved do other parents get with their child's professors? Where can I get a list of

01:42professors' emails? You may be wondering what's so bad about a parent who still wants what's best

01:47for their child, even if the child is away at college. Well, some college-aged children of

01:51helicopter parents are sharing just how stressful and even damaging their parents' obsessive

01:56behavior can be. Last year, a few anonymous college students shared their helicopter parent

02:00experiences in an article for Slate. One student's mother tracks her location non-stop. Mom watches

02:05as she leaves her dorm and heads to the dining hall, then leaves the dining hall to go to class,

02:09and finally to the library to see just how much studying her daughter is getting in. Another

02:13student shared that when she was a freshman at a college about 1,000 miles away from her hometown,

02:18her parents constantly monitored her location and called her to ask why she was where she was.

02:23Once, she overslept by 20 minutes and missed her parents' check-in call and woke to the campus

02:27police knocking on her door. Despite their best intentions, experts say that overly controlling

02:32parents of teenagers often experience the opposite results. Like the old saying,

02:36strict parents raise sneaky kids. Parental urges to help and fix can actually discourage

02:42their children from learning independence and add unnecessary stress to their lives.

02:46So how can parents support their kids' transition to college in a healthier way?

02:50One university psychologist suggests that parents try focusing on fostering concrete skills like

02:55teaching their child how to make appointments or do laundry or refill medication. Otherwise,

03:00they run the risk of going viral for all the wrong reasons.

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