The Rise of Snowplow Parenting

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The college admissions scandal.
For the past few weeks,
the whole country has been rocked by the news
that hundreds of parents have been accused
of bribing their kids' way into America's elite colleges,
and also USC. And now...
(laughter, groaning)
And now some of the people involved are beginning
to face the consequences.
This morning, there's word of new investigations.
While the first wave of defendants
charged in the scheme appeared in court,
coaches charged with taking bribes,
test proctors accused of helping wealthy students cheat
on their admissions tests,
facing federal charges in Boston.
MAN: Yale announced Monday that it has rescinded the acceptance
of one student linked to the scandal.
USC announced that it may expel students who are connected
to the college admissions bribery scandal.
Yes, the coaches who helped these parents in the scam
are now facing major jail time.
And I mean, of course they were gonna get caught, all right?
When the water polo coach shows up to practice in a Bentley,
there's gonna be some questions, all right?
And there are some people who feel bad for the kids
who did nothing wrong, you know,
because now they might get kicked out of college
'cause of what their parents did.
The truth is, it's sad, but it does make sense.
It doesn't really matter if the kids didn't know
their parents bribed their way in.
The point is, they got into the school
under false pretenses, all right?
I mean, if Tinder puts Chris Hemsworth's photo
on your profile, people are gonna swipe right,
but you can't blame your matches they they bail out of the date.
You know? 'Cause they get there, and they're like,
"Ooh, this is not what I was promised."
Like, "Yeah, but I didn't know."
It's like, "Yeah, but I know. Ooh, hoo."
(laughter)
And this whole college admissions scandal
has brought up a wider conversation
about a couple of things.
For instance, what's gonna happen
to Fuller House without Aunt Becky, you know?
Personally, I don't think they need her,
because, if you ask me, that house was already too full.
But a larger conversation people are having is,
how some parents are so obsessed
with giving their kids an easy life,
that they're willing to do anything.
But as strange as it seems,
this kind of parenting is actually a growing trend.
In the wake of the college admissions scandal,
there's been a lot of discussion about overparenting.
Well, say hello to snowplow parents--
moms and dads determined
to clear any obstacle from their child's path.
Yeah, according to a recent
New york Times Morning Consult poll,
76% of parents have reminded their adult children
of deadlines, including for school work,
and 15% say they have called or texted their college students
-to wake them up for their classes. -MAN: Oh, wow.
One more stat from that.
11% of parents with adult children
would call their child's employer
if he or she had an issue at work.
No, no, no, no, no.
There are parents out there
who are calling their adult children's bosses
if there's an issue?
Those are two people who should never be interacting
with each other, all right?
A parent talking to a boss is so crazy
that it's not even a combination in the porn world.
You understand that? Huh?
You understand that?
And they have every combination. all right?
They've got teacher, student.
They've got pool boy, housewife.
They've got dad, baby-sitter.
They've got astronaut, baby-sitter.
They got pool boy, astronaut.
But there's never been a porno that was like,
"My son needs a standing desk in his office,
and I'm not taking no for an answer."
-(laughter) -That's not a thing!
And if you thought those examples
of snowplow parents were weird, wait until you hear
how far one parent went to shield her kid
from something even scarier than missing class-- wet food.
This is an anecdote in the New York Times.
One girl, child,
did not like to eat sauce with her food,
so her entire life, her parents helped her avoid sauce.
Tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, okay, all of that.
They even called their friends' houses before dinner
to make sure there was no sauce available, but then she...
-If the girl was going over. -If the girl was going over.
So, if... when she went to college,
that's when the problem was.
She didn't know how to cope with the cafeteria options of...
sauce, so she ended up dropping out of school.
(laughter, groaning)
I-I don't even know where to begin with this one.
(laughter)
You dropped out of college because of sauce?
(laughter)
That was your big concern at college?
Everyone else at school is like, "Impeach Trump!"
"Abolish I.C.E.!"
And this girl's off to the side like, "And what about sauce?!
Dry food matters! Dry food matters!"
"Ah, maybe just sit this one out, Megan."
(laughter)
Like, I've heard of people being picky about food,
but "no sauce" is just so broad.
Like, what-what does that mean?
No-no tomato sauce?
No gravy? No condiments?
Are you okay with guacamole?
Hummus? Is that sauce?
Can you moisturize?
No, because, I mean, lotion is basically
just sauce for your skin. I mean...
So look...
this whole snowplow parent thing is pretty bizarre.
And you might be wondering: what kind of parents
would do such crazy things for their kids?
Well, we were wondering that, too,
so here at The Daily Show, we decided to make
a little documentary to find out who these parents are.
-Hi. I'm Arnold. -And I'm Deborah.
And we're snowplow parents.
Yeah, we try and clear any obstacles or challenges
-that may be in the way of our precious boy Billy. -Mm.
I knew he was special
from the moment he stopped wearing diapers at age five.
-Mm-hmm. -You know, we just want his life to be perfect,
so we fix all of his problems
before he even realizes it's a problem.
Yeah, whether it's buying him Instagram followers,
uh, paying a cheerleader to go to prom with him,
or even beating up potential bullies
before he gets to school.
-Hey! You a bully? -Huh?
(grunts)
I love my son.
DEBORAH: Look, I'm not gonna lie,
it's hard keeping up with it,
especially as he's gotten older.
But it got a lot easier once we quit our jobs.
(sighs) He still doesn't know that his grandma died last year.
-Mm. -It's tough keeping that ruse going.
(high-pitched): Hello, Billy?
It's your very much alive grandmother.
By the way, thanks for putting me in this awesome documentary
about gifted teenagers.
MAN: Oh, no, no.
What?
MAN: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Ooh!

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The Rise of Snowplow Parenting | The Daily Show

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