Parents learn how to let go in the technological age

When kids head off to college, parents are forced to separate themselves from what has been a constant hands-on job for years. Many parents rely on a book called "Letting Go." It's been around since the 1990s with several updates.

St. Paul, Minn. — Madge Treeger saw a need for a book about sending a kid to college, while she and co-author Karen Coburn were on staff at Washington University in St. Louis.

Year after year, they watched freshmen and their parents struggle through the separation. And Treeger herself was sending her own kids off to college.

"We had heard so many things from students about their parents wanting to be helpful but intruding in different ways and not understanding, and then going through it ourselves so it may have been our way of letting go ourselves," explained Treeger.

In the 2003 edition of "Letting Go," the authors noted that some parents were buying their kids cell phones before they left for college. But today, even grade schoolers have cell phones and are capable of being in hourly contact with Mom and Dad.

At the food court in Coffman Union on the University of Minnesota campus, it's lunch rush. Freshman John Jung is finishing his nachos. He talks to his parents maybe once a week, but he says that's unusual.

It's common for students to be on their phones as they walk between classes. Some of them are talking to their parents. Alex Edwards is also a freshman at the University. She says that many of her friends hear from their parents every day...

•	Parents learn how to let go in the technological age NPR Morning Edition, Friday, Feb. 8, 2008 Byline: Nanci Olesen, Minnesota Public Radio