So many of the comments here are spot on and should be taken collectively. Too many of us as parents have fought our children's battles at school, with bullies, little league, cheerleading etc. and not let them work it out. Too many parents have tried to be their kids "friend" and not authority figure. Too many times parents have knuckled under when kids balk at direction or advice. "Oh, he/she, didn't want to do that so I did't make them". Or too many times the parents said "you must pick your battles" only never to fight one, important or not.
I see too that Pop Culture and school champions "chase your dream and be happy" above all else. Leads to major disappointment when kid chases the dream of being a museum curator with a secondary degree in creative writing only to find out there are only 1000 museums and hence only 1000 jobs in the whole country for them and only the top 50 pay anything, no body is leaving those jobs unless they get laid off, and you don't start at the top so they either have no job or a crappy paying one.
Then they discover that $200,000 of student loan debt they took because they HAD to go out of state to study creative writing and anthropology at Boulder or Stanford means they have a $2000±/MO loan payment every month FOR TEN YEARS! Didn't count on that. (Help me. Bernie! Liz?? Beto???)
I'm only getting started.
