Helicopter Parents Anonymous

My name is Nancy. I am a recovering “Helicopter parent.” Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.
I was far too involved in “helping” Syd choose a college. I admit it. Initially I was leery of Barnard. Both my husband and I had thrived in small liberal arts colleges in the middle of [...]

Lessons in Chemistry

My mom told me once, “It only takes one drop of water to make the bucket overflow.” That was the first thing I thought about when I spilled half of my camphor reaction mixture on myself during last Wednesday lab. That spill of a mere 20mL of solution made a reservoir of tears that I [...]

Message from a Barnard Mom in LA

First, congratulations! I remember how thrilled we were for Sydney (class of 2010) when she received her Barnard acceptance. But I also vividly recall the stress (for all of us) in the weeks following her admission. After much soul-searching (and revisiting three of the eight schools she was admitted to) Syd narrowed her [...]