The Hall Monitor

Back off, retired college president Roger Martin told baby-boomer parents “on our op-ed page”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/OPINION03/608280331/1076 yesterday. Let your college kids get on with it by themselves.

This group of students heading off to college actually has a name, did you know? It’s the Millennial generation, he says. They’re a great bunch of kids: more academically focused than their predecessors, a little less prone to overindulge in recreational substances. And fond of their parents.

Who respond by hovering.

He told horror stories about parents who attend the first week of lectures, call the college president if their baby gets a bad grade. Or who – and I must say I’m worried about the sanity of these people – drop by each week to do their children’s laundry.

Now, it’s one thing to do a load or two when they come home for a holiday with a duffle bag filled with dirty clothes. But haven’t 18 years of smelly socks been enough?

I must admit, I did have some of these symptoms. I loved reading my kids’ course catalogs. I drank in the atmosphere of their campuses. I wanted to go back to college myself.

But a reality check during my son’s freshman orientation kept me from going off the deep end.

The college officials were clever—they let us sit with our children for an opening convocation and then yanked the kids out of the auditorium. The parents were left trapped inside listening to speakers.

And they were honest—they told us up front that while our kids were off taking tours and playing games we would be talking about money.

In the course of telling us all the ways we’d be parting with our cash, the food services director made a presentation. New cafeterias with food court styling. Food plans ranging 12 to 21 meals a week. Guest passes. Omelet stations. Alternatives for the allergic and the vegan. Campus credit cards good at student haunts.

He asked for questions. One determined mom raised her hand.

“What if my son doesn’t like the food?” she asked anxiously.

There was a long, long silence.

“I haven’t lost a freshman to starvation yet,” he said.

Yup, time to back off.

SECOND THOUGHTS, 9/12: Then there’s the kids’ point of view. Gary Trudeau catches it deftly in today’s Doonesbury, as Michael gets a request for intervention from his daughter, who’s just started her freshman year. “It’s not fair” is such a universal cry, isn’t it?

 Print This Post |  Email This Post