Cutting the Apron Strings

Los Angeles-based writer Mona Gable tried to resist the urge to "help" her daughter Kate Sappell select schools during the college application process. Gable even wrote "Educating Mom," an article for the Los Angeles Times about learning to keep her motherly impulses in check.

Despite her best efforts, though, Gable quickly found herself becoming the one thing she never wanted to be, a so-called “helicopter parent”—the kind that is always hovering.

But this story—and Gable’s article—have a happy ending.

"I thought I wanted to go to the East Coast" for school, says Sappell. But she’d heard about the UO, and thought "It sounded like a really cool place." Though it wasn't on her (or her mother's) initial list, Sappell chose Oregon.

That decision seemed natural. In her article, Gable lauds the UO’s "environmentally progressive campus," "strong environmental science program," and "avid outdoor culture."

Mother and daughter visited the UO campus during Duck Days, the spring campus visit program, and "As I started to walk around, I fell in love with it," enthuses Sappell. "Coming from a big city with everything so spread out, it’s nice to come here and have a community."

Gable agrees, noting that Oregon offers "such a neat juxtaposition of having this big university in a small town."

It seems a lot of parents of high school students are doing a bit of soul-searching, just like Gable. She reports a "tremendous response" to the article from her readers, including one Eugene mother who has offered Gable a guest room whenever she wants to migrate north for some family time.

And it just may be a timely offer. "My husband was absolutely ecstatic about the UO from the beginning," says Gable. "I know we will be coming up for a football game!"

Gable’s advice for helicopter parents during the search process? "They have to own it," she says. "I think you need to trust your kids that they know what’s best for them, and makes them comfortable, and makes them excited."

Photo credit: Isaac Viel