Thursday, March 10, 2011

Things Parents Shouldn't Do for Their Kids

Sometimes I get random people's questions directed to me while I am at work.  It's not all that often that I get these calls, and most of the time they are non-irritating, interesting, thought-provoking questions that I can easily answer.

Last week I got a call that was non-irritating, interesting, and thought-provoking.  This person was wondering how much new people in the profession earned, how much they could earn up to, if there were regional differences, etc.  Again, all appropriate and interesting questions.  My issue was that these questions were from someone's FATHER.

His story was that his daughter was a junior in college, and she was so busy studying that he wanted to find out some things for her about her chosen profession.

Dude, she's not SO immersed in studying that she couldn't call me if she was curious.  Your "helping" her is not helping her.  It makes you look completely overinvolved and takes the power away from your daughter.  Will you also write your daughter's resume for her?  Cover letter? Will you accompany her on job interviews? At what point will you get your nose out of your daughter's business and let her figure out things for herself?

Please slap me if I ever do stuff like that for my daughter.  At times like these, I have to be almost grateful that my mother was the exact opposite.  She was a little too underinvolved in my life - not there much, when she was there physically she wasn't emotionally there.  On the bright side, I can be incredibly resourceful and capable of figuring out things myself.  As I've been told by many, I'm a little too self-reliant and independent.  I suppose the bright side is that I never had to be completely embarrassed when my mom called a random person about job opportunities for me.

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