In Loco Parentis/Loco Parents

Last year, when I enumerated the ups and downs of prof-ing, I forgot to mention one of the best parents: No Parents. Apparently, this generation of parents needs to be reminded to go home.  I have only had a few interactions with parents in my 17 years or so of prof-ing.  The few times have mostly been prospective students wandering around with their parents, pondering their future.  I have not had to deal with parents when dealing with plagiarism cases or bad grades .... yet. 

I think the NYT story linked above is probably exaggerating things a bit, but the students at McGill are probably a little less entitled and probably have had a great deal more independence than American students in general (holy generalizations, Batman).  But when my friends and I complain while eating/drinking/playing poker at the various conferences, parents are never the subject of complaints. 

I have always thought of this as one of the huge differences between prof-ing and teaching K-12.