Hoping this is not a harbinger of things to come ...

An amazing picture from the Jan 1, 2011, MailOnline in the U.K.:

These are parents of students at Central China Normal University who are sleeping over in a gymansium on campus (the Mail says the families are poor for the most part) to help ease the transition of their chidlren into university.  This takes "helicopter parenting" to a whole new level.  Presumably more affluent parents were nearby--just in better lodgings.