pickles are gross.

A presentation given by a guest speaker in my career class really struck me. He mostly talked about how our generation has a lot of bad qualities when searching for a job, but there were a few good qualities in there like globally aware and technologically advanced. He threw out some terms that I guess are pretty big right now. Helicopter parents was a big one. Kid's parents are playing huge roles in their kid's lives nowadays.

Studies show that people are not 'coming of age' and making their own decisions until age 29, and a lot of that has to do with parents being too sheltering. Lets face it, most of our parents are texting us every day and wanting to know what we are doing and how we are doing (mine definitely do not fit into this category, but a lot of parents now do). He pointed out that parents are paying for their children's education now, and they want to make sure their investments reap benefits. They make sure every class signed up for is appropriate, and that we do well on each and every assignment and test. Most people my age have a security net in that they are welcomed to move back home with their parents at any time.

This helicopter parent syndrome is actually causing children to be less motivated, and less likely to make decisions, which ultimately leads to employers not wanting to hire my generation. They don't want to waste time and money by hiring someone that will leave in six months or even two years--often before the training period is even complete. An employee must stay with a business for at least four years before they are shown to be profitable to the company. Previous generations are more prone to making the decision and sticking with that decision for at least five years. The average person nowadays changes careers seven times in their lifetime.

Taking a look back into history, children were even on their own at fourteen or fifteen without parental support. This concept is just very interesting to me. Employers actually don't want to hire from my generation because we are less likely to make choices, less likely to stick to our choices and impatient. On the opposite side of the scale, we are more advanced in technology and we also are thinking globally, which is something all businesses are starting to pick up.

I think my parents are exempt, for the most part, from being "helicopter parents." I do have many of the securities of my generation, but from an early age I was learning to be independent. At this point in my life where I don't know which path to choose, my parents won't even help me make a decision at ALL. Sometimes, I wish they just would. At the same time though, I hate people telling me what to do. My aunt always talks about how independent I am. A lot of times that same independence gets me in trouble though.

So. Mainly my point of this post that the discussion was great, and that you should tell me what to do with my life because my parents are not helicopter parents. Mmkay thanks.