‘Helicopter parents’ hover over kids’ job search

“But believe me, I’m just going to hand him the bag,” she said of the stack of jobs brochures and business cards she had gathered. “The rest is up to him.”

She says parents sometimes worry that today’s young people aren’t as motivated to work as previous generations, so they feel inclined to do some nudging.

Marisa Wetzel, who graduated from New York University in May, knows what that’s like. During her job search, her parents called her frequently to track her progress and to suggest friends who might have connections.

“Obviously, it can get a little annoying at times — but it’s done with my best interest at heart,” says Wetzel, 22. A month after she graduated, she landed a job as a publicity assistant in New York City.

She and other students say they use their parents as sounding boards because they trust their opinions — and don’t want to repeat their mistakes.

But Ellis, at Delaware Valley College, says some students are too dependent.

He puts some of the blame on baby boomer parents, who have a reputation for coddling their children, but even more on the students.

“They’ve become so accustomed to having their parents take care of every aspect of their lives — and not assuming any responsibility or taking any initiative for themselves — that they expect their parents to continue to take care of things for them,” Ellis says.

Eileen Tarjan, a human resources specialist at NCH Marketing Services in Deerfield, Ill., says she gets tired of making offers to students, only to hear them say, “Can I have the weekend to talk about it with my parents?”

“Why can’t they just say, ‘Let me think about it,”’ she asks.

And it doesn’t stop there. A few colleagues have told Tarjan that parents are now calling to discuss their kids’ first performance reviews.

She shakes her head: “It’s unbelievable.”

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