Of course nobody would want their (adult) kid to be the one hanging about like Billy No Mates because everyone else is with Mummy or Daddy and talking only to Mummy and Daddy, but come on - how did it get like this!
It is sad that now, presumably because university costs so much, parents have started being so involved that even students who would have been confident about going alone when that was the norm are now aware that if they do go alone they will be the odd one out and people will be staring at them with massively misplaced pity!
It sounds in thread on Uni open days as though prospective students are no longer meeting and talking to one another but are staying in a little bubble with their parent on open days!
I agree, but it's not even just this. I'm an admissions tutor, and parents are starting to take the lead on Open Days, where they're fronting up and behaving as if their 'child' is just a passenger, or an eight year old being encouraged to ask for something in a shop - I had a parent last year who kept asking quite aggressively for the specific results of the current year's graduating class, while her daughter hovered miserably in the background -- unless we spend a lot of time and resources on arranging separate parent sessions.
It all contributes to the idea of university being something parent-sponsored rather than freely-chosen, which really doesn't help students take ownership of their own learning, or their decision to be there on your degree course.