Home      Login

Abstract: 

In a letter written as an adult to his parents, Daniel Kast, a student affairs officer at a major metropolitan university, reflects on his experience dealing with today's “helicopter parents,” and how different his own college experience was, at a time when the principle of in loco parentis still guided university policy with respect to conduct and discipline. Certainly parental engagement is better than neglect, but as the author explains, “fending off belligerent questions from a ‘concerned’ parent of one of the University’s undergraduates, it seems that every other day I am dealing with the fallout from one disciplinary case or another—and it is hardly ever the students themselves rocking the boat, but the parents who can’t accept the consequences for the actions of their son or daughter.”

Keywords: In loco parentis; “helicopter” parents

Affiliations:  1: University of Denver.