>On a Friday in late August, parents of freshmen starting at Wake Forest University, a small, prestigious liberal-arts school in Winston-Salem, N.C., attended orientation sessions that coached them on how to separate, discouraged them from contacting their children’s professors and assured them about student safety. Finally, as their portion of orientation drew to a close, the parents joined their students in learning the school song and then were instructed to form a huge ring around the collective freshman class, in a show of support.
Just right off the bat, what the fuck? My start to my college career was me and my mom lugging my stuff 300 miles to the dorms, unloading, her hugging me good bye, then not seeing her again for 2 months.
Extremely similar talks to parents trying to disuade them from helicoptering happened to me at orientation for Texas A&M in 2008, and my sister at Texas Tech in 2013. These are two not particularly prestigious and definitely not small schools, so I think it's a pretty nationwide phenomenon.
Just right off the bat, what the fuck? My start to my college career was me and my mom lugging my stuff 300 miles to the dorms, unloading, her hugging me good bye, then not seeing her again for 2 months.