Seeing parents as valuable partners can promote student success

Parents don’t have to be scary. I’ll admit, when I knew that I had both a student and parent(s) waiting in the lobby for an advising appointment, a touch of anxiety kicked in, and my advising approach became much more formal. I dreaded working with parents. I thought to myself, “Why are they coddling their kids so much? These students are adults, after all.” But then I became a parent, and everything changed. I began to imagine my small children as college students in the future, and how I would want advisors and others to treat them.