Reply #39: Helicopter parents. They're everywhere these days. [View All]

[MineralMan]

Even some really nice people have trouble letting their offspring handle things for themselves. Last summer, I took the 15 year old son of my wife's friend out fishing in my boat. Mom insisted on driving him to the lake, even though I offered to pick him up at their house on the way. Then, she sat in the parking lot in her car for three hours while we were fishing. Uff da!

It's not like I'm a stranger, either. I've known these people for years. The boy's 15 years old, stands over 6' tall, and seems pretty capable of riding safely in a boat. I even made him wear a life-jacket. I'm not sure what his mom's deal was. She's usually pretty good about stuff.

The sad thing is that I'm not going to ask the kid if he wants to go fishing again. He's a nice kid, too. I just didn't like spending three hours worrying about his mom sitting in a car in a parking lot. Seemed pretty silly to me. Who knows how she would have reacted if the kid got stuck with a hook in his finger or something.