What's a stealth parent?

Remember those hovering helicopter parents?

Dakota County Technical College VP Kelly Murtaugh tells me she and her colleagues are seeing an even more problematic type: the stealth parent.

Stealth parents (a term new to me) are harder to manage than helicopter parents because they control everything from behind the scenes, she says.

Helicopter parents might visibly accompany their children to registration, she tells me, but not their stealth counterparts:

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"One day a parent might suddenly come in say, 'This is not the schedule of classes that I sent my son to take!' You don't see it. You don't know it's coming. And their influence (on their children) is everywhere. They're more intrusive than the helicopter parent."

The result?

"Some of these students don't know how to make a decision."

Here's another blogger's short take on "stealth fighter parents" and why we're seeing them.