DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, JUST SEND MONEY

Completely revised and updated guide to assist parents in evolving from their lifelong supervisory role to observing from afar, with a new focus on how to navigate the often confusing and treacherous waters of parenting a technologically dependent generation.

Parents might not be ready to relinquish control over their children’s lives, but they’d be wise to remember that college institutions view students as adults with decision-making abilities. But parents can, and should, still remain a major influence in their children’s lives, college consultant Johnson and educator Schelhas-Miller (Human Development/Cornell Univ.) write in their revamped guide to parenting through the college years. They provide easily applicable tips on how to achieve the fine balance between their child’s continued dependence and burgeoning adulthood. Concise in their points, the authors tackle everything from declaring a major to frat parties to campus security. With insight on how to allow a child to develop their own identity and make their own decisions and whether or not to Facebook-friend college-aged children, the authors urge against the tendency toward “helicopter parenting,” or hovering. This is particularly difficult in the age of the “Electronic Umbilical Cord,” to which the authors pay particular heed in their discussion of making the most of technology without overstepping boundaries. Most beneficial for parents, whether their child is college-aged or not, is the chapter entitled “When to Worry, When to Act,” in which parents are instructed on how to deal with problems and crises, and how to tell the difference. A valuable guide for every parent.