If You Fail To Prepare Your Children For Adulthood, Prepare For Them To Fail At It

We attended a parent orientation when my daughter started college. It was pretty boring until the representative giving the orientation asked if any of the parents had questions. Here are my favorite two.

Parent #1: “My son has trouble getting up in the morning. Can someone wake him up, please? Otherwise, he’s going to sleep through class.”

The representative looked like he was being pranked.

Representative: “We will treat your son like an adult and expect him to attend class. If he fails to attend class, there will be consequences.”

And the second one:

Parent #2: “I’ve heard that there is a lot of partying at this school. How will you protect my daughter from partying?”

Again, the representative looked like he couldn’t believe his ears.

Representative: “We do not go into students’ rooms to look for substance use or to monitor their behavior. If they cause a problem, we will address it, but it’s not our job to prevent poor decision-making.”

Neither parent seemed very happy with their answers.