@ninakatarina FWIW, I think prejudice against, so-called, "HP"s of this thread title means that there is a real chance that your surmise was correct. (Now whether it was fair or not for you to hope for that is probably not for me to second-guess, or “mansplain” any further - I will now keep my mouth shut.)
@ninakatarina my d19 isn’t familiar enough with big cities and subway systems, so if she had something like that audition, we would take her at this point in her life unless she was going with a friend.
However, we wouldn’t go into the building. And I will join your petty party with a related example. My d had a scholarship interview over the last weekend. We drove her there (no license yet, ugh) but stayed in the car for the 10 minute interview. We figured she was old enough at 18 to walk into the door of the 2 story building that had a sign on the glass with directions. While waiting in the car we saw a dad and daughter get out of their car and the dad walked his daughter inside the building. I was petty enough to hope it helped my daughter get the scholarship 
really, the interviewers probably didn’t notice or care. Her actual handling of the interview itself should be all that is needed.
@ninakatarina no one is saying you’re a horrible person. If you didn’t want to drive your kid to the interview, that’s ok. I also see nothing wrong with the kids who had parents drive them there either…different families do different things.
@mom2twogirls and @ninakatarina I think what matters is how well the kids do in the interview. If the parents came into the interview room, that would be a problem. There are a lot of reasons why the parents are or aren’t there or why they did or did not drive their kids. If I were the interviewer it doesn’t matter to me how the kids got there…
@sfSTEM I do think that yes there are instances where parents literally do their kids homework for them…why the parents do that is beyond me. Doing what you’re doing and helping is not a problem at all…
@natty1988 actually, I have friends who have interviewed young people for various things (internships, for example) and they absolutely have noticed and commented negatively on parents arriving at an interview and waiting in the waiting area.
Well, guess it varies by person. How old were these kids? If it’s in college or after, most parents wouldn’t even be there. If we’re talking about high school or before, well the parents waiting in the waiting room would not be that unusual. And having parents drive you somewhere is not always a sign of immaturity…
Taking a pre-college kid to an out of town audition or interview is NOT a very strong indicator of helicopter parenting, it depends on the age of the kid, the public transportation options, etc. Parents can be giving a ride because that’s the only reasonable way to get there, and wait outside during their kid’s audition/interview because there is nothing to do around the place. My 17 year old daughter usual takes the train to dance, but one day a week the lesson starts at 8:00 PM, and we’d rather that she not take the train that late (that train isn’t always safe at night), so one of us drives her (she doesn’t have a driving license). Because she’s not yet 18, she cannot take Lyft. There is nothing to do around there, so I’ll be sitting there waiting for her, while I work on something.
However, it’s great of your kid can do it on their own, and even better if it is their preference. While I do not think that the action itself factors into the results of an interview or audition, it may give the kid a little boost of self confidence which could help their interview performance.
@MWolf very true. There are so many circumstances and factors that we don’t know about.
Honestly, if the kid can get there on their own, great! Nothing wrong with that. If the kid needs a parent to drive them there, great. Nothing wrong with that either!
@sfSTEM - I had a friend who routinely did her kids homework in elementary school and would write to the teachers that they were being unreasonable about assigning homework. Her kids struggled tremendously in HS.
And if my kid was struggling with homework, we would help when she was in elementary school but always told her to talk to the teacher. If there was an error in her homework, she absolutely lived with the grade ramifications. By HS, she sought out her own academic supports. IMO, that has served her well for college where she’s not afraid to ask for help, Many students are afraid to go to office hours or supplemental instruction for fear of looking “stupid”. DD knows that’s the pathway to success.
As far as driving/accompanying, I let DD take the lead on that. She was young for her grade so not a lot of driving experience until the end of high school. No public transportation where we used to live either. She asked me to drive her to a few interviews that were far from home in unfamiliar locations, and I would either sit in the car or go for a walk. One interviewer specifically asked her to bring her parents and he met with us at the end of his interview with DD (that was odd to me but we followed directions ). If she was going somewhere familiar or near by, she’d take herself.
I have an anxiety ridden high school senior who is scared to go anywhere new on her own. I would be thrilled and bursting with pride if she would travel to an unfamiliar place on her own, especially for an interview.
This must be the ultimate in helicopter parenting
<<<<<< distant places<<<<<<<<<
The kid in question traveled 200 miles on available public transport. That just isn’t distant LOL. And there is rail LOL, that goes somewhere, and drivable stations.
Hmmm…did someone say something about being petty?
I’m definitely an authoritative parent - I took three online quizzes to verify the fact 
- but my parenting style has evolved as my confidence has grown. Like another poster, I regret not advocating more for my children when they were young. I was easily intimidated by authority and always worried about fitting in (which I don’t and never will and the heck with it). I didn’t want to be a problem parent or cause trouble for my kids. I was raised by people who would only challenge a school in the most extreme circumstances (my mother was very proud of how - perhaps the only time she intervened - she got what she called the Great Bird of the State of Minnesota to swoop down upon a school that tried to put my intelligent and reasonably high-testing younger brother in special ed classes. It turned out they were padding their numbers to get a ton of extra money from the state). And I’m sure my parents’ parents would NEVER challenge a school under any circumstances. So I never quite got over that cultural hurdle to think it was OK. But I do think children need their parents to advocate for them, and I wish I had done better in that regard. I also believe strongly in children doing their own work and learning to manage their own work and their own lives. This happens at different rates for different people. For instance, my 18-year-old twins are very good at managing their lives and have been doing a lot of things independently for years. I, on the other hand, haven’t quite learned how to do it yet at age 58.
I am always a little bit shocked to find how involved some parents still are in managing their college-aged children’s lives. Yet, I will admit that I still want to be involved. No, wrong word. I still want to be informed. Wish me luck with that.
So I love the title of the article. I am sending the article to my kids in college and my wife with a heading “I told you so!”.
@MWolf that is so funny but true. I am no question the first one and just an involved parent. Teaching my kids to advocate for themselves is not a bad thing either.
The only time I had an issue with a teacher is when she refused to follow a 504 accommodation that was needed. The teacher didn’t think it was needed. After sitting her down with the 504 person and reviewed the accommodations things got better. She never read the original report since she didn’t really believe in them…
If you want to really see the parents of what @MWolf stated go to a chess tournament sometime.
@Knowsstuff I think that the greatest thing we taught our kid was to advocate for herself.
I was lucky that most of my college teaching was at a school with student body which did not have many people from the Helicopter Parent demographics. However, I heard some hair blowing stories.
Actually, I had a student field assistant whose mother used to make her sandwiches whenever she was going to the field. The mother also wanted to make some for me too, since evidently she was worried that I may be hungry as well.
As a parent on the music audition circuit this month and on the road at the moment x-c country for an audition, I really doubt schools care whether applicants bring their parents or not! I saw a parent at a music audition earlier this month standing right in front of the door her daughter was auditioning in, attempting to record on her camera, and squeeing at the assistant sitting outside the door throughout. At the end of the day, I hope that school judges that girl for her own merits and musical ability. I do think music programs, like any other colleges like all kinds of diversity throughout their program if they can get it.
When my kid and I get to a college, we get our directional bearings, I go to the info sessions and he goes off on his own to the practice room and the audition. I really doubt music faculty is grilling kids on whether or not their parents are on campus. Some kids might prefer to go on their own. Which is great. No one size fits all.
Anyway, wanting to check out where you might be dropping off a boatload of money next year is hardly overbearing parenting. I think there is a difference between true helicopter parenting and involved and engaged parenting. It does serve kids well to have involved and engaged parents. There are plenty of studies that say so. I pulled my oldest out of a school after first grade to homeschool. That kid hit the ceiling of their GT screener and was kept at the same level of reading for a full academic year when it was clear at home he was advancing through levels. Similar story with math. I’m sure plenty of people think that was over the top. Seems to have worked well. I don’t think it serves kids well to feel alone and defeated and unsuccessful academically for many years. I assume other parents are doing the best they can with the kids they have and the tools they have available to them.
@momofsenior1 well said!
@gwnorth Oh my god, the article is unreal! Seriously??
Both DH and I came from the generation of child rearing that was pretty hands off. We both acknowledge that we could have used a bit more involvement from our respective parents, but we both wound up with college degrees and financial security. Subsequently, we have fought the urge to go too far the other way, especially as DD does not have any sibling (more bandwidth to be hyper involved). Product of public school, she milked all opportunities because her expectations for herself were very high. Yes, we did get her a tutor for a math class she was finding challenging (more the instructor than the material). It bolstered the foundation for all of the other math classes she took afterwards and the STEM major/minor she is pursuing now, so zero regrets. She just filed her own tax return (including dealing with OOS taxes for a summer internship), so I guess we haven’t been as terrible as I thought?