If your parents come to your dorm every weekend and do your laundry, help with your essay and make your bed, they may be “helicopter parents.”

Faculty and staff across the country have coined the term “helicopter parent” to describe parents who are overly involved in their children’s lives.

ISU administrators have become increasingly aware of this trend with increased involvement of parents in college students’ lives.

“The classic helicopter parent is one that hovers. And by hovering, it is a parent that is involved in the life of his or her student, and hovering isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” said Jane Jacobson, academic adviser and program coordinator for the college of liberal arts and sciences.

The term helicopter parent has come with the increased interest in the millennial generation. Although there is some debate over the age of the millennials, their years of birth can range anywhere from 1977 to 1995.

When baby boomers started to have children, advice books began to flow and “baby on board” stickers became commonplace. The urge for parents to be more involved in their children’s lives has carried through to the college years.

“I think parents are told to be involved in their student’s lives,” said Megan Parker, orientation coordinator for Iowa State University.

Parker said with the trends seen nationally in areas such as sex offenders and abuse, parents are told to watch their kids closely from a young age.

“Kids no longer go to the park and play like I did as a kid; the parents are now going with them to the park,” she said, “All through life the parents have been involved in these different stages because they have been told to be involved in their students’ lives. It makes that letting go piece a little bit harder. They want to stay involved.”

Iowa State works with families from the time students begin their college search. Parker said many parents are worried they will lose all contact with their children once they enter college, and telling parents to let go is to change their culture.

“They don’t want to hear that they should let go. They want to hear they can still be involved. Their role has just changed,” she said.

Students may realize there is a change in roles, but it can be hard to let go of an involved parent.

“My dad was there for everything in high school. Now it is a different level than high school, but he is still involved,” said Amie Lowry, sophomore in pre-business.

Many millennial students were raised working in teams, and that work ethic has carried into family relationships. Many students turn to their parents for advice when they have a problem.

“If I have a problem, I go to him,” Lowry said. “It is nice because he will listen to what I have to say instead of trying to be like ‘do this, do this, do this’ before I can explain it.”

Laura Jensen, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication, is the third child in her family to go to college.

“I come to them for advice and I tell them what is going on in my life pretty much all the time,” Jensen said.

Diane Jensen, Laura’s mom, feels that kids are the same from generation to generation, and they need the same guidance.

“Kids go through the same things we did when we were kids,” Diane said. “I think the same issues are there, just wanting to find the right major and hopefully a job and maybe a future spouse. A lot of those same things haven’t changed.”

Jacobson said the number of parents who want to be involved in their students’ lives has increased partially because of national and world events.

“I think the change I’ve seen is the magnitude of the parents who have this approach,” Jacobson said. “There have always been parents who were involved in the lives of their students, but I think it is much more the modus operandi; it is the way we parent at this point.”

Whether parents are making to-do lists for their students, driving to Ames twice a month to clean their rooms or rewriting papers, the involvement may stem from general concern for students’ well-being.

“Parents just want to know how the university is going to take care of the things they took care of for 18 years,” said Marc Harding, director of admissions and student services.

Iowa State is looking for a way to balance the interaction with parents and the rights of the students. One way the university decided to communicate with parents is through third party access on AccessPlus.

Third party access allows students to decide if they would like their parents to see certain aspects of their AccessPlus account. Students can set up the account through AccessPlus and choose which details parents can view.

“The whole decision to make third party access, I think, is a reflection of parental interest,” Jacobson said.

The Iowa State University Parents’ Association works with parents to create positive involvement. They offer an e-newsletter, a parent call-in program and a tuition raffle, according to the parent’s association Web site.

Ultimately, Iowa State is trying to work with parents to create a balanced relationship.

“Cutting parents off cold turkey when they drop their students off at the door is not a good strategy,” Harding said.