Through the grapevine, I hear that college students nowadays have their parents come to job fairs to help them apply for jobs.  When I was at UC Berkeley, there was an engineering job fair toward the end of the school year.  I went with my resume, cover letter and was prepared for questions they may have for me. I went to the booths and handed my resume and cover letter to the employers, and introduced myself — all by myself. It seems that today, parents will attend job fairs with or without their sons/daughters. Parents will hand employers their child's resume and say, "Hi, my son/daughter would be a great candidate for your firm.  Please contact them." 

As if this isn't bad enough, it actually gets worse!

I have a co-worker who has a pre-calculus student with a MAJOR helicopter parent.  This parent accompanies her daughter to my co-worker's after-school tutoring sessions. The parent stands over her daughter and tells her, "Ask this question, ask that question."  What does this teach our students about personal responsibility and accountability?  How is this student going to manage in the real world without her mom? It is, in fact, seeping into the workplace as well...

My department chair's wife works for an insurance company. One of the firm's employees wasn't feeling well one day, so this employee actually brought in a note from his mother asking his manager to excuse him from work for the day.  In this same firm, young high school and/or college graduates are also going so far as to ask their employers, "Can I have a new manager? I just don't like you as a manager [for one reason or another]."

Again, what does being a helicopter parent teach kids about personal responsibility and accountability?