www.huffingtonpost.com: Sometimes parents just don't know when to let go, but it's rare when a judge needs to intervene.
That was the case for Aubrey Ireland, a 21-year-old music theater major at College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. She convinced a judge to grant her a restraining order against her parents, David and Julie Ireland.
4 comments:
Good for the student! CCM is a very rigorous school, and I can't imagine having parents who were this paranoid while trying to grow as an artist and as a person. I'm sure if I was a parent I would sympathize with this girl's parents, since she is their only child and I'm sure they were only looking out for her best interest. However, college is a time for experimentation and for young adults to begin finding who they are as professionals and as people. This girl seems to be doing what she needs to do in order for her to live her life the way she wants to live it, not the way her parents are forcing it upon her.
Though it is unfortunate that the student had to resort to a restraining order, I think it is a step in the right direction on her part. In today's society, overbearing parents can hinder their children's growth and development in life even when in their minds, they only have the child's best interest at heart. Obviously, these parents wanted their daughter to be successful, but the extent to which they took their duty to control or protect her was stifling. Now hopefully she will be able to focus on her work and studies without the constant interference of her parents. Also, perhaps as a result of the drastic measures that she had to take, the parents might have a realization of how overbearing they were being and maybe in the future they will be able to restore their relationship with their daughter in a healthy way.
On another note, it is quite astonishing how much some people rely on their parents even after college, in terms of gaining interviews or creating resumes. As an actor, I think part of what we learn without even really knowing it is how to be independent, empowered, and assertive, and how to take responsibility for one's own life instead of always relying on parents or teachers.
I think helicopter parents are the worst thing that has happened to this generation of young adults. By the age of 18 (and for many of us, before then) we've learned how to do our laundry, cook our own food, make our own friends, make decisions about our body, earn our own money and choose how to spend it, choose how we work and what we like to work on. I'm very grateful that my mother took a hands-off approach in raising me, because I learned to be independent early on, making my life as a young adult much easier. I cannot even imagine what my life would be like if my mother had decided to be a hovering sort of parent. I'm very glad that this student was able to escape from under her parents. Being the major funder of a college education doesn't make someone your master. If a debt institution had set in place monitoring systems on her cell phone and computer, it would be a breach of civil rights and there would be no debate as to how wrong this is. In this case, her parents were using the fact that they were paying for her education as handcuffs, and they choose to monitor her life. They were in essence a sort of debt service, and it doesn't matter who or what does monitoring of this sort, if an adult doesn't want to be watched, he or she shouldn't be.
I have to agree with Jess. I think it is crazy that the issue become so terrible. I understand how she would like to keep in touch with her parents and how cutting herself off was the last resort. I think it is great that she took the steps to solve this problem. I think it is wonderful that the university supported her and gave her a full scholarship.
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