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Tune out now if you're one of those parents who do everything for their mostly-adult child because you're not gonna like what I have to say.
If you are a parent of a college age kid, DO NOT:
1) Make phone calls to your child's department, advisor, college, for them. They are grown-ups now and they need to learn how to do these things themselves. They will never learn if you keep doing it for them. Unless of course you want to end up with 40-year-old children with no life skills who cannot solve simple problems without calling you, their 70 year old mother or father to do it for them.
2) Call your child's department/advisor/college and complain about their grades and how hard they worked and why didn't Johnny/Janey get an A when they worked so *haaaaard* (ignoring the fact that they went skiing several times weekly using the brand new SUV that you bought them and for whose gas you pay) and you're paying out-of-state tuition and therefore are entitled to a good grade. If your child earns a good grade, they will get it. If not, they won't. It doesn't matter how much tuition you paid. They're the ones wasting your money, not us. Also, there are procedures for appealing a grade. Have your child find out what they are, and follow them. Do not do it for them.
3) Attempt to intimidate the person who answered the phone into bending college rules or policies for you, because your child is special and should thus be treated as such. There are 29,000 other kids at this school and I'm sure every one of their parents feels the same way.
If you *do* go ahead and do one of the above things, DO NOT:
1) Interrupt the poor schmuck you called countless times while they are trying desperately to answer your question in words of one syllable since you seem to have trouble understanding large words. Have the courtesy to listen to the full answer before asking your next question.
2) Do not keep pestering said poor schmuck about things they have no control over, like other departments.
Please, I am begging you, for the sanity of clerical workers in Academe all over the globe, make your kids learn to do things themselves. I know it's hard, but you can do it. I have faith.
If you are a parent of a college age kid, DO NOT:
1) Make phone calls to your child's department, advisor, college, for them. They are grown-ups now and they need to learn how to do these things themselves. They will never learn if you keep doing it for them. Unless of course you want to end up with 40-year-old children with no life skills who cannot solve simple problems without calling you, their 70 year old mother or father to do it for them.
2) Call your child's department/advisor/college and complain about their grades and how hard they worked and why didn't Johnny/Janey get an A when they worked so *haaaaard* (ignoring the fact that they went skiing several times weekly using the brand new SUV that you bought them and for whose gas you pay) and you're paying out-of-state tuition and therefore are entitled to a good grade. If your child earns a good grade, they will get it. If not, they won't. It doesn't matter how much tuition you paid. They're the ones wasting your money, not us. Also, there are procedures for appealing a grade. Have your child find out what they are, and follow them. Do not do it for them.
3) Attempt to intimidate the person who answered the phone into bending college rules or policies for you, because your child is special and should thus be treated as such. There are 29,000 other kids at this school and I'm sure every one of their parents feels the same way.
If you *do* go ahead and do one of the above things, DO NOT:
1) Interrupt the poor schmuck you called countless times while they are trying desperately to answer your question in words of one syllable since you seem to have trouble understanding large words. Have the courtesy to listen to the full answer before asking your next question.
2) Do not keep pestering said poor schmuck about things they have no control over, like other departments.
Please, I am begging you, for the sanity of clerical workers in Academe all over the globe, make your kids learn to do things themselves. I know it's hard, but you can do it. I have faith.
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