Parenting Gone Wrong

Disclaimer: I am fully aware of how judgmental I am being in posting these thoughts of mine. I also do not have children, nor do I know what it is like to raise them. That being said, I know what it is like to be a child and have a normal relationship with parents...

A colleague of mine was telling what he thought to be quite the hilarious tale of his oldest child yesterday during our staff meeting. To preface this story, he is actually a very smart kid and a great student. He is currently home for the summer, but taking a chemistry course online.

Friday's lesson plan included an online test review, but it coincidentally conflicted with the scheduling of Lollapalooza. I guess the child felt that he had a close enough relationship with his father (my colleague) to ask that he "cover for him" by logging into his account and participating in that day's class. There are so many things wrong with this situation, but let me start with what I found to be the most concerning... the father willingly did this for his son, no questions asked.

Let me reiterate that I am not a parent, and I am certainly in no position to be providing parenting advice, but if my child ever finds it acceptable to come to me, ask me to take one of their college classes for them while they go to an all-day music festival and expects a simple, "OK!" in response? They are out of their fucking minds.

I was not alone in finding this to be wildly inappropriate. More specifically, the other parents in the room were completely taken aback that this took place and - even more so - that the father was telling the story as if he were proud of what he had done. He proceeded to dig himself into an even deeper hole when he mentioned the professor actually "called on him" to explain one of the answers from the test, only to not respond and then later apologize to the professor for the computer freezing - which it obviously did not. So let's see... Impersonating a college student, check. Lying to a professor while impersonating a college student, check. Being completely controlled by your 18 year old son, check.

Our boss was pretty vocal in his disapproval towards what had taken place - he even went as far to survey the room to garner all collective thoughts on the matter. The response was more or less unanimous - WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?! 

Clearly he wasn't... Still making light of the situation, despite the parents explaining things to the contrary, my colleague remains oblivious to the fact that what he did was wrong. I spoke up and said, "I would have never even considered asking my parents to do something like that. And if I would have, they probably would have grounded me for having the audacity to think it was even a possibility."  And that's a fact...

I could not help but think what these actions are teaching my colleague's kid? I get that he's a good student, but that doesn't excuse the inappropriate series of events. He's an adult at this point, he either skips the class or figures something else out. Being an adult means taking responsibility for yourself and your obligations. The end result should have never been, oh I will ask my dad to do this for me... Something has gone horribly wrong if this is what parenting now looks like!