Parenting to a Degree

How Family Matters for College Women's Success

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Education & Teaching, Higher Education, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Parenting to a Degree by Laura T. Hamilton, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Laura T. Hamilton ISBN: 9780226183671
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: April 29, 2016
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Laura T. Hamilton
ISBN: 9780226183671
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: April 29, 2016
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Helicopter parents—the kind that continue to hover even in college—are one of the most ridiculed figures of twenty-first-century parenting, criticized for creating entitled young adults who boomerang back home. But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years.
           
Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life—from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women’s work/family plans and the ideal age to “grow up.” Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters’ careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents—whose influence is often limited by economic concerns—are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter’s lives. Finally, paramedic parents—who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds—sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all.
           
Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new—and sometimes problematic—relationship between students, parents, and universities. 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Helicopter parents—the kind that continue to hover even in college—are one of the most ridiculed figures of twenty-first-century parenting, criticized for creating entitled young adults who boomerang back home. But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years.
           
Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life—from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women’s work/family plans and the ideal age to “grow up.” Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters’ careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents—whose influence is often limited by economic concerns—are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter’s lives. Finally, paramedic parents—who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds—sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all.
           
Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new—and sometimes problematic—relationship between students, parents, and universities. 

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Political Theology and Early Modernity by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book And Bid Him Sing by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book The Scientific Journal by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book How Life Began by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book The Shape of Life by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book The Natural Goodness of Man by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Setting Plato Straight by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Butcher's Moon by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book The Color of Mind by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Nollywood by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq during World War II by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book A Naked Singularity by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Living Legislation by Laura T. Hamilton
Cover of the book Economy of Words by Laura T. Hamilton
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy