I think the idea of rejecting a candidate because they brought someone to wait in the lobby goes too far. I’m entirely against someone being involved in the interview–I’m hiring (or not) the individual, not their parents/spouse/whoever. That said, transportation may be an issue. If someone needs a friend, sibling, even parent to drive them to the interview I can’t blame them for that–I’ve had enough car trouble to sympathize. I would STRONGLY encourage the person to do something else during the interview, and would find them waiting in the lobby weird enough to worry about the candidate, but it wouldn’t be an immediate cause for rejection.

Not sure why this surprises you. Both stem from the same source: “MY child cannot possibly be less than perfect. If anything goes wrong in their life, it’s SOMEONE ELSE’S fault!” Or, in some cases, “I can’t let anything hurt my child’s self-esteem; that’s the most important thing.”

This leads to ignoring data about their child’s less-than-perfect behavior, and to the parent pushing back against anything that may frustrate the desire of their children.

By and large, I suspect they’re not the same parents.

And when they are, it is entirely consistent with believing your children are literally perfect, and incapable of doing any wrong, ever, in any way.

It’s a sort of narcissism by proxy.

So you turn a blind eye to the drinking and the sex….yet hold their hand in a job interview??? That makes no sense. It’s like too many parents have lost their ability to calibrate when they should step in and when they should back away.