Today I witnessed for the first time serious "helicopter parenting" and was pretty dismayed. I was waiting for my take-out at a restaurant chain. I always order in person, so usually wait 10-15 minutes. As I sat to wait, I saw to my left two women in shorts and flip flops sitting filling out what looked like applications. Then they came over to the counter, and the daughter (closer, I realized it was mother and daughter) asked for the manager. The mother stood with her. When the manager cam over, and took the application, he asked the daughter, "Do you have a few minutes now?" She said yes, and so the mother said, "I'll wait over here."

The manager proceeded to an empty part of the restaurant with the daughter, but then the part that surprised me, was the mother then started asking all sorts of questions of the take-out cashier. She said, "Don't worry, we practically hire everyone, we're pretty desperate ..." but the mother proceeded to tell her what a good person her daughter is, her age, her high school, about what good, successful people her older sibling are, the colleges they went to, where her daughter intends to go, and she's sure her daughter will be a success in life, too, and going on and on about what a good person her kid is. For at least 15 minutes! With other employees, who clearly had no interest or influence in the hiring decision. And who had other responsibilities - as in actual customers - they could have been helping!

It isn't the kid's fault, I am sure she will be hired anyway (the cashier basically implied if she wasn't an ax-murderer, she's be hired), but how annoying!

Would you ever go into an interview with your child? Or coach your kid when filling out an application, to the extent of filling it out with him or her?

If you were a hiring manager, what would you think?

Opinions?