27th June 2012 12:45
By Blue Tutors
‘Helicopter’ Parents who won’t let their children grow up.
The Mail Online today (07/06/12) reports on the increasing presence of parents at university open days and freshers weeks, events which used to be attended by the students only as they started the long process of fledging.
Keith Hicks, a university spokesman, said: ‘[Having parents around is] symptomatic of good relations between the parent and [child] but certainly you have a growing interest from parents in what their son or daughter is getting out of university, and quite rightly.
‘We have seen a difference with that step up [in tuition fees] to £9,000 a year, but even with £3,000 a year there was greater involvement by parents.’
Middle-class parents who have paid for GCSE and A-level resits are also more likely to question the decisions of university examiners, according to David Palfreyman, bursar of New College, Oxford and director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies.
‘Mum and dad have paid for a re-mark and a resit at each phase of the A-level process,’ he said.
‘The students just carry on that mentality at university and so do mummy and daddy. The family is investing in it so it is not surprising if mum and dad work out that there is this appeals process.’
With tuition fees and other expenses involved it’s no surprise that the decision as to which university to attend is not taken lightly, but parents do need to let their kids begin to fend for themselves. The progression to university is one of the first steps towards adulthood, it needs to be taken alone, without mum and dad in the background. An important part of education is learning how to fend for yourself, whether academically in a less spoon-fed environment, or practically, by doing your own washing. It’s up to the child to take responsibility for their own lives, do them a favour and let them get on with it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155634/Now-helicopter-parents-land-freshers-week-hover-campus-sleep-childrens-dorms.html#ixzz1x6TDQ8Px