We’ve all heard of helicopter parents, the ones who are always overseeing everything their children do — hovering, scheduling, imposing their presence at every opportunity. That can cause big problems for those kids once they go to college or join the workforce. Julie Lythcott-Haims spent a decade as Dean of Freshman and Undergraduate Advising at Stanford University, where she encountered teens and young adults who weren’t ready for the real world because of their parents’ smothering, and offers suggestions on how to avoid those traps in her book, “How To Raise An Adult.”
On my show, she talked about parents who continued hovering over their children even after they’d left the nest, did college admission essays (and more) for their kids, structured their kids’ lives so much that they had no chance to think or play, and even provided attention-deficit pharmaceuticals to kids who hadn’t been diagnosed with that disorder.
Listen to our conversation here.