Don’t make their GP appointments, don’t manage their money - universities’ advice to helicopter parents

Parents are finding it harder to let go, and universities are responding by making them ‘part of the team’

As a father of five, Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of West of England, knows all about parental anxiety. Yet he says parents whose offspring have started university must learn to listen from afar without judging – even if those young adults are experimenting with drugs or drinking heavily.

University may be a door to adulthood, but the parents of today’s students have wedged their feet firmly inside. With parents keen to know that the £9,250-a-year tuition fees are being spent wisely, there is now an established culture of them attending open days. And new research shows that perfectionist parents, who have grown used to managing everything at school, are often not letting go of the reins at university. Some are even organising their offspring’s finances from their laptop at home and booking them doctors’ appointments.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PGPP62
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