These types of parents need to step back way before their childs first job- it needs to happen much earlier in life. We have parents in our kids elementary school that spend all day in the school- so called "volunteers" who shadow their kids every move. Kids need to have that freedom to interact with others and succeed and fail on their own.

Agreed on all re: letting young adults learn the ropes themselves except one point: I believe EVERYBODY should have somebody else negotiate their compensation packages. Works for athletes and entertainers, why not "ordinary" people? Much easier to ask for something on somebody else behalf than for yourself. Takes the emotions out of the equation and makes both sides equal with professionals doing the negotiations on both sides--not just the employer's. Right now, employee-employer negotiations are totally one-sided.
Real estate purchase negotiations are generally handled by real estate pros on both side or attorneys. Believe all major purchases (automobiles etc.) and salary compensation packages should be as well. Would benefit all buyers/employees.

"Welfare was not practiced in the Doake’s household.

Upon coming home from Junior High school I walked into my fathers office, and began to demand an allowance. As you can imagine I was very persuasive, I explained at length that I could not fit in unless I wore the right clothes, and therefore I would need money to purchase them. I thought this completely reasonable. I, his son, must look good he, my father, must pay. An entitlement mentality only a child could possess.

The old man leaned back in his chair, leaned forward, turned over the sheet of paper he was working on, cleared his Texas Instruments calculator, that cost hundreds of dollars and was 5,000 years old, and said “Well Joe let’s see here . . “ and began to list out all of the costs he was providing for me. At the end he came up with a figure of my share of the family homestead. Then he declared “Joe, how do you want to handle your bill?” At this point not only did I not have an allowance, I was in debt! Growing by the second! Then he explained that I could wash and wax the car to pay him back, and if I wanted money I could go do the same thing for someone else, and he and I would call it even. That gave birth to an entrepreneur. All I needed was a bucket, my dirt bike, some soap, and wax. Pretty soon I had figured out a way to get a car from the local train station to my driveway without the benefit of a drivers license."

Regards to my above comment . . .

Your children are more capable then you think. Push them. They will surprise you with how smart they are.

There are moms in Westchester who literally wipe their kids' butts until they are 6...not surprised they call to get them jobs.

Having been on both the employer and employee side of the negotiations I know for a fact that an independent negotiator is a positive for employees. Concept just not ingrained in business culture--because employers don't want it. Unions are good for large numbers of workers but in non-union America on the white collar side they doesn't exist and never will in small companies. And they are disappearing on the blue collar side as well. I own a small company and have often negotiated with suppliers as a "manager." So much easier to blame "the boss" for not wanting to pay asked for price than to say "I want more profit in my pocket." On employee side, they negotiate compensation 1x/yr at best. In large companies the HR specialists do it daily. Experience is a natural advantage. And Nuke: If a negotiator could get you a higher salary or a lower price and you still net out to the plus, what's wrong with that? We all pay contractors daily to do jobs that we either don't do as well as they do--or don't want to do. Level playing fields are a beautiful thing--unless it's you that the leveling is being done against.

Ross--Not everybody has the negotiating skill. You may have many other skills that are valuable to an employer but not the ones that are valuable to yourself. I have an office manager who is great at customer service, record keeping and managing work flow but not comfortable with collections. I outsourced that part of her job and let her focus on the things she is good at. Great employees and people are often negotiation-challenged. Doesn't mean they have no skills.

Amen, Lisa.

Give them something to start with. Eventually, they won't need you. Don't worry, your job is done. They don't want your advice anymore. They can fend for themselves. Joan