Sunday, September 30, 2007

Guest Post from Mrs. Mungowitz: UPS Performance Art

Mrs. Mungowitz was at the UPS store. This is from an email to her friends. I am just using it verbatim:

My husband tells me about helicopter parents who call their sons/daughters at college to make sure they get up in time for classes. Think we need new term for this, to account for new dimensions of services parents provide.

Went to the UPS store Friday to mail letters. Next door is a large grocery store. While waiting, in dashes a mother with a grocery cart full of food in bags, and she announces, "My son at college is out of food." (NOTICE, she said, SON.) The person waiting on me stops and stares (as do other patrons in the room). Mom then says, do you have a box large enough to fit all this?" It was quite a lot of food. Employee insured her that they did have a box large enough. She asked how much. He said about $10.00. She said fine, it was cheaper than DRIVING IT to HIM! I wanted to ask what college her son was at, but didn't and left in amazement.


He was "out of food"?

They don't have stores? Having parents send money is an old tradition, but boxes of groceries?

And, she said "at college," not "on Junior Year Abroad in the Galapogos." What sort of college doesn't have food service?

A real helicopter parent would have driven the food there herself, I suppose. This way, the abused, deprived boy still has to cook the food. Poor devil.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was in Japan many years ago, we heard stories of college kids (males of course) shipping their laundry home to their moms.

Hokey said...

i suddenly understand the importance of the nanny state. how will our future chilluns ever survive without it?

John said...

Maybe helicopter mom was just calling her son's bluff. I remember calling my mother to tell her I was out of food too. She'd put some cash in my checking account, and I would proceed to spend it on liquor and pinball.

She still jokes about all the times I called her in the middle of the semester to tell her I needed a new textbook.