Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
When you're a kid, you're trying to make sense of the world and how you might get the most out of it.
Once you're on your own, you realize that you have to think for yourself, even as the world confronts you with things for which you aren't prepared.
Some modern-day parents, however, don't want to give their kids the chance to experience these necessary challenges.
A painfully fascinating article in the New York Post reveals that some parents aren't just piloting helicopters over their kids' lives, they're actually trying to live them.
Instead of the kids, you understand.
It seems that some academic institutions and other experts are aghast at what's going on.
They're discovering that parents are impersonating their kids in order to, well, what exactly?
"I've had parents calling up and impersonating their children, asking questions that could have been easily asked by their kids," said one college administrator. "One lady didn't even bother to disguise her Long Island soccer-mom voice."
Such a voice is, indeed, hard to disguise.
Still, what do these parents think they'll achieve? Other than the undying contempt of their kids when they find out.
The same administrator told the tale of a student who emailed in order to register for a peer-mentoring program.
"We paired him up with a [mentor], did the registration. And when he never showed up, his mom admitted she had signed him up without him knowing," the administrator revealed.
Impersonation isn't the only technique parents use.
Some apparently call the school and ask the school to wake their kid up, so that he can go to class.
Perhaps the most joyous example came from former president at Frostburg State University in Maryland, Jonathan Gibralter.
He said that a mom asked to do her daughter's internship for her, as the young woman was experiencing far too much anxiety.
One would have thought that a better sort of parenting involved being there for your kid, as opposed to being there instead of your kid.
One expert the Post talked to blamed technology. It's now too easy to care. (Translation: interfere.) He said parents expect to be updated all the time, because that's the way life is, right?
Some will indeed, have sympathy with these parents. Their intentions are only good, they'll say. They just want the best for their kids.
This, of course, is the most hairless balderdash.
Many of these parents haven't given kids independence before they go to college.
Worse, what many of these parents want is for their kids to act and achieve in a way that their parents can cheerily boast of to their friends.
Perhaps some of these parents have nothing better to do. Perhaps they're even nostalgic for their own college years, having made a shuddering mess of their lives ever since.
It's hard enough, though, for colleges to have to deal with, pot-addled, hormone-driven kids. Do they really need to deal with all these parents too?
Ah, but that's what happens when you make education a business. Everyone thinks they're a shareholder.
Article by Chris Matyszczyk culled from Mindbodygreen.
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