The new reality of Adutescence
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The new reality of Adultescence
A recent posting of mine discussed how some grad programs are faced with the challenge of dealing with students who have very active parents – active in the way that the parents were advocates and watchdogs over their kids from preschool on.
I came across an article the other day that was published last summer in the Greensboro/Winston Salem Business Journal that went a bit deeper in to the issue. The article is titled, “College Parents: Be propellers, no helicopters.” Written by Leo Lambert, the president of Elon College, the article refers to the matter of delayed adulthood, or "adultescence," caused by the Baby-boomer parents who have been heavily involved in their children's lives are reluctant to sever those ties at college.
Of course, I continue to get emails and phone calls from colleagues all over the world who experience this reality in the workplace. The one incident that stays in my mind is the parent who called the HR manager 27 times to advocate on her son’s behalf regarding a position.
Some Baby Boomer executives I work with respond with utter disbelief when I tell them these tails, but the list of HR types and senior managers I know talk about the Parent factor with increasing frequency. They say to me (especially the older ones) that this is ridiculous. Ridiculous or not, it is part of the new reality.
Michael Berger
A recent posting of mine discussed how some grad programs are faced with the challenge of dealing with students who have very active parents – active in the way that the parents were advocates and watchdogs over their kids from preschool on.
I came across an article the other day that was published last summer in the Greensboro/Winston Salem Business Journal that went a bit deeper in to the issue. The article is titled, “College Parents: Be propellers, no helicopters.” Written by Leo Lambert, the president of Elon College, the article refers to the matter of delayed adulthood, or "adultescence," caused by the Baby-boomer parents who have been heavily involved in their children's lives are reluctant to sever those ties at college.
Of course, I continue to get emails and phone calls from colleagues all over the world who experience this reality in the workplace. The one incident that stays in my mind is the parent who called the HR manager 27 times to advocate on her son’s behalf regarding a position.
Some Baby Boomer executives I work with respond with utter disbelief when I tell them these tails, but the list of HR types and senior managers I know talk about the Parent factor with increasing frequency. They say to me (especially the older ones) that this is ridiculous. Ridiculous or not, it is part of the new reality.
Michael Berger
