In the United States, parents are increasingly turning to a new service — hiring a "local mom" for their college students. These helpers take on everyday and organizational tasks: delivering medicine and homemade soup during illness, sitting in hospitals, picking up laundry, calling exterminators, recommending doctors and realtors, bringing birthday gifts, and helping with cleaning or joining student organizations, according to infohub.kz.
Interestingly, it's not just about household chores — sometimes the "rent-a-mom" delicately steers students away from mistakes. One young woman kept going to a bar, but when she finally decided not to, the worker passed along a "stay-home relaxation basket" from her mom, filled with her favorite ice cream, cookies, and socks. In this way, the helpers serve as a kind of surrogate replacement for real parents.
Moreover, these workers can simply drop by to check on a student if they haven't been in touch with their parents. "Just stop by, say hello, take a photo, and send it to mom," women are typically asked.
Experts are wary of the new trend, The New York Times reports. Such companies have offered services on college campuses before, but their numbers have surged dramatically.
Sociologists and psychologists fear that this kind of service hinders young people's adaptation to adult life. According to sociologist Annette Lareau of the University of Pennsylvania, such overprotection makes students unaccustomed to relying on themselves and building social connections with peers.
In turn, Professor Larry Nelson of Brigham Young University emphasizes that help in learning useful skills is indeed important, but constantly doing the work for the student turns into plain overparenting.
Earlier, Kursiv LifeStyle wrote about how Kazakh youth are changing. One social media trend is Gen Z's rejection of lavish weddings.