Quote:
Originally Posted by greekdee
Based on what a mutual friend has told me, this mom did miss out on a lot during her own high school and college days, and does have some inferiority and acceptance issues because of it. She wants this girl to have the experiences she didn't, and I do understand that, but she has never (that I know of) encouraged her to find her own way; she's always pushed her towards the most popular and competitive activities in our community (and cheerleading is a big one). Believe me, she's not the only parent in this town who has gotten caught up in what's popular instead of pursuing the things that truly interest her child.
We also live in a community where there is, unfortunately, a lot of "keeping up with the Joneses" and one way people compete is with their children -- their trophy kids. It's almost like, the more academically, athletically and socially successful their children are, the more they think it validates them as good parents. It REALLY gets on my nerves!
There are a lot of people in our community who are Greek -- and many have children who have followed suit. As more and more of us have kids reaching college age, the talk about Greek life has really been on the front burner recently...I guess she is hearing a lot about it and has decided it's the next popular activity her daughter needs to pursue in order to be included and part of the social scene.
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IMO a lot of that went on where I grew up. Only most of the parents seemed to have a really accurate view on what it took to get in. And for some of these kids, it did matter because they came back home and will (I'm sure) be active participants in the social scene where the right sorority/friends/school does have a huge impact on their social success. Could be the case for this kid, and I hate that her mom might ruin it for her.
Maybe you could find a nice way of telling her that if this is that important to her (and her daughter, but it sounds like that's really a secondary issue to her) she should listen to those who have actually been through the system and have enough connections to know what recruitment is like now. I hate to think what will happen when unique snowflake is dropped from all those houses she's "guaranteed" to get into. Especially if unique snowflake actually wants this for herself as badly as her mother wants it for her.