However, I will just say that "helicopter parents" are certainly a benefit of the priviliged - middle class and higher. It is almost smug, selfish and naive to take the position that these types of parents are a benefit in the workplace when all it does is further widen the gap between the "haves" and "have nots".

If a prospective applicant’s mommy or daddy started calling me to talk about the interview, that would reflect very badly on them to me. They’re not kids anymore, and not in college either. When you join the working world you become an adult, and it’s time to have mom & dad stop leading you by the hand.

By all means, seek out advice from mom & dad behind the scenes. But they need to stand on their own 2 feet."

DAR - you're absolutely correct, behind the scenes and no further. My stepson (during his senior year of college) stated, "I don't know what to do" (as to what job offer he ought to accept). The parent in me stated, "I can't make the decision for you, but if it were me … this is what I'd do." Well, I directed him to what I thought, was the best opportunity for him (at the time). Well, now my "big shot" aspiring adult son would probably have taken the last minute offer from G.E. in Milwaukee, WI; but neither of us new what the "ultimate" best path ought to have been. Moral: if you "work" behind the scenes on "career strategy" you cannot be a "majority" stakeholder (notwithstanding the fact that adult "kids" don't know what the hell they're doing until about the age of 26 anyways).

Well, Michael has done okay for himself. He is a Process Engineer for Wachovia Bank and aspiring MBA student (he ought to major in Supply Chain …) actually, it never ends.

To me, this exactly sums up the difference between parents who truly want to help their offspring help themselves (perhaps by opening up their network, offering advice behind the scenes, etc. etc.) and hovering helicopter parents (who annoy the h*ck out of me!! and that's more to do with how their behaviour smacks of myopic desperation than any reference to class or money).

Great discussion though, well done Ryan :)

Cara, my parents' attitude toward college was the exactly same as the one your parents had. And I am curious how you feel about that now. I gather you went to college "vocationally" - to major in something where you could get a job, make decent money, and gain financial independence. I did the same thing - majored in something I thought was painfully boring but where I knew I'd never have to worry about money or job security. I got exactly what I wanted - It's been ages since I had to worry about money or job security, but work has always been dull.

For me, I think it does suck to go to work and be bored out of my mind every day. But it would also suck to worry about money all the time. One of my college friends majored in English - fun, right? You get to read all those good books! Then switched her major to another hobby - photography - and came out of college with lots of student loans and never made more than $17k a year. I can't say that I would enjoy life clipping coupons either.

I've spent the past years at my boring job making all the money I can - I have been debt free for years and piling up savings like crazy. I'll have my condo paid off soon. The price I paid has been watching the clock all day, but I am in a very comfortable position financially now. And guess what? I'm still young and am now going back to school to switch into a career that I think will be interesting! I can't say that I regret spending my 20's and early 30's working just to make money. The sooner you do it, the less you have to mess with it later in life.

There’s no denying that the workforce is going to change in the next five or 10 years. The optimistic prophecy made in the 1970s – that Gen Xers would have great job opportunities as Boomers left the scene – is finally going to happen, though I think these benefits are going to go to mostly Millennials.

We have to put on our big boy (and girl) pants and cheer these changes. For the first time since the late 1970s, college kids will be making enough money to actually pay back student loans. Employers won’t feel that they hold all the cards and might actually even start calling back every applicant again.

It seems to me that we will have the most productive workforce since the 1950s. Generation Y kids are bright, creative, and confident. Let’s not forget that test scores have been steadily going up for years. (http://home.earthlink.net/~mmales/genx.htm)

And Generation X freelancers – who have proven themselves through the quality of their work – will return to jobs with much more real-world experience than Boomer middle managers had at the same age. The only irony is that we’ll still have to deal with overbearing Boomers as they meddle with their kids’ lives at the work place.

Randy Moser