The phenomenon of a new generation of children who have been raised by “helicopter parents” never fails to amaze me. I was recently told — to my astonishment (and I’m getting harder and harder to astonish) that parents are now actually accompanying their kids to job interviews. At first I thought this was sick satire but Googling the question settled my skepticism. They are.
I’ve complained about life imitating satire before, and today I learned (via Ed Driscoll, guest blogging at Instapundit) that there is a law which applies:
Muggeridge’s Law, which posits that there’s no way that any satirist can improve upon real life for its pure absurdity, has become absolutely ironclad over the last four years.
I have a rhetorical question about kids raised by helicopter parents.
“WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE HAVE A WAR?”
Seriously, what are the helicopter parents going to do? Accompany their kids to war on the battlefield?
(If real life improves on that one, I give up.)
UPDATE: Many thanks to Sarah Hoyt (guest-blogging at Instapundit) for the link, and a warm welcome to all!
Comments welcome, agree or disagree.
Comments
20 responses to “Can’t anything remain satire anymore?”
Nope, the parents are going to work tirelessly to prevent the country from sending their kids to war. Even if it results in the destruction of the country. Quod erit demonstrandum.
[…] IT’S GETTING HARDER TO TELL: the difference between satire and reality […]
The kids (actually, young men and women) who go off to fight for their country aren’t gonna be the ones with ‘helicopter’ parents, so the issue won’t arise.
In a war, they’ll provide air support, obviously.
My wife is a helicopter parent, just like everyone of her friends. It seems like they all are having a “helicoptering” arms race where they each try to one up each other in how they smother their children. i am the complete opposite, as I try to give my daughter the space she needs to make her own mistakes and learn on her own. This dichotomy is a constant source of strife in our marriage, like most of our friends. My wife and her friends get together daily on the phone, email and text to reinforce how they are right to smother, encouraging and one-uping each other. Good times.
It’s already happening. There was a reality show called “Going to War” which followed an Arkansas National Guard unit deploying to Iraq. A Dad reupped to go with his son, the son then punched out on some kind of psych problem. The Dad deployed and then gets his jaw mostly blown off by a mortar attack.
Hmmm… and i thought that this could never ever happen in the West where children are so openly embarrassed and contemptuous of their parents right from the time they turn into teens. Am I missing something here ? How does this even happen ?
Speaking of parents accompanying their kids to interviews, I am reminded of Will Ferrell and John C Reilly “tag-teaming” for a job interview set up by their step parents – the movie was step brothers, was’nt it ?
The whole scene is laugh out loud funny but after reading this i am not sure why this cannot happen in real life any more – if you have helicopter parents accompanying their children to job interviews, can inseparable twin brothers be far behind ??
Life has reached reductio ad absutdum. I don’t laugh often now.
I work with my sister at a household name Fortune 500 company. Completely different departments. I mentioned my disgust that consumers are having their PARENTS call in if the adult consumer doesn’t get what they want. We don’t market or sell to anyone under 21. Let’s leave it there. My sister said “Oh.I can top that. The VP of HR is reporting that calls from EMPLOYEE’S parents are getting out of control.” Really people? Mommy and Daddy are calling in if your boss expects you to show up on time,do your work and take criticism?!? Say it ain’t so.
Recently had the joy of interacting with one of these parents. Engineering grad shows up with Dad in tow for the interview. I introduce myself and invite the candidate back. Father starts walking back also. I tell him it won’t be long and the secretary would be happy to get him a coffee.
He then wants to start the interview right there in the Lobby questioning me about the job, pay, benefits, responsibilities. Every question I directed at his son was answered by him. Now this was a chemical Engineering graduate applying for a technically challenging position where he would be working 50% of his time on his own. I gave up right there and I shook both of their hands, wished them luck and started back to my office with the father uh uh uhing behind me.
“Helicopter parent” is just a nice way to say “control freak who cannot let their kids grow up”.
If these parents were to increase their brood size, they would have to abandon helicopter parenting. Too few chicks means all that parental investment is over-focused.
Then there’s that great quote:
“No matter how cynical you get, it’s almost impossible to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin
I work closely with the HR director of my employer and while I have never heard of a parent coming to a job interview we have had parents call to follow up on them and to inquire about the benefits of their employed children.
The former guarantees that the candidate will not get the job. Period.
The latter results in a polite message to the parent that we cannot discuss such things with anyone other than the employee and a not so polite message to the employee that if it happens again there will be consequences.
When I commanded a battery, I had a mom call me and complain that her son shouldn’t have to get up at 0430hrs to make formation. I asked her if she wanted me to send her son back home. She said yes. With a dishonorable discharge for failure to adapt? Yes again.
So she’d rather have her son home and sleeping until noon with a dishonorable discharge than be a soldier. Luckily for the soldier, his mom’s attitude wasn’t his, he was a good soldier.
[…] You want me. I know it, and who are you to deny it? Or, as Eric plantatively asks…can’t anything remain satire anymore? […]
Leftist utopia: stay in mom’s basement, use mom’s insurance after you “graduated” from college where you’re told what to think. The Fed will pay for your disability with other people’s money.
Disability is defined by Obama as those who cannot find a job that they are trained for.
My 16 year old daughter went to a job interview on her own. But she called me from the interview site because the government requires a parent to sign her job application. (She also needed permission from her school.) So while I had no intention of accompanying my daughter to her job interview, the nanny state required it.
I’ve come to believe that the unifying philosophical thread of all leftism is an overwhelming desire for perpetual childhood. Actions that feel good while being sheltered from any serious, lasting consequences coupled with a parental authority setting boundaries and paying for everything. It explains everything from support for partial birth abortion to Obamacare to the new cultural norms that denigrate self-reliance and individual achievement.
[…] is almost beyond belief, but so are a lot of things that go on routinely. This is another of those things that would seem like satire to me if it weren’t […]