It’s that time of year, friends: the time when your Facebook feed is plastered with proud parents posting their kiddos’ college acceptance letters, job placement contracts, or armed forces commitments. As parents, we want the best for our kids and want to help those post-high school plans and dreams become a reality, but according to the FBI, a few wealthy parents—including some celebrity moms—have recently taken “helping” WAY too far.

Like, to the tune of half a million dollar BRIBES too far. YIKES! I was completely bummed to read the news today that some very wealthy parents, including celeb moms Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Full(er) House’s Lori Loughlin are being indicted on criminal charges by the federal government (like, that’s serious!!) on charges of bribery related to getting their kids into their colleges of choice.

Umm. YIKES! According to USA Today, the charges range from paying someone to take entrance exams and standardized tests for wealthy students to bribing coaches to list them as athletic recruits when in fact, they were not. The Washington Post says, 

“Authorities said the crimes date back to 2011, and the defendants used ‘bribery and other forms of fraud to facilitate their children’s admission” to numerous college and universities,’ including Georgetown, Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and UCLA, among others. One of the cooperating witnesses, according to the court documents, is a former head coach of Yale’s women’s soccer team, who pleaded guilty in the case nearly a year ago and has since been helping FBI agents gather evidence.”

I should note here that it’s not just our fave TV moms who are implicated here, but lots of other non-famous rich people. Ugh. It all gives me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach! Rich kids grow up with all the benefits of wealth, and they still have to cheat to get into college? GROSS! 

The Post says our beloved Aunt Becky is in trouble to the tune of a $500,000 bribe and that Desperate Housewife Lynette ponied up $15,000.

WOW.

I guess I’m just super naive, but I’m also super disappointed. 

Did those two and all their alleged co-conspirators not read ONE parenting article on letting your kids fail? SPOILER ALERT: it’s actually good for them! Let them bomb the project, the test, the job interview, and yes, the college admissions test if they aren’t willing to put in the work! Making it easy for them will only make the rest of their lives SO much harder.

Yikes, you guys, I don’t think a chat with Danny, Joey, and Jesse is gonna fix this one. I’m not sure what kind of consequences will face these wealthy parents if they are convicted, but I know for sure they won’t be worth whatever they think they gained by getting their children into the college of their choice.

Did this news shock your socks off, too? What was your reaction?

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Articles by Jenny Rapson

Jenny Rapson

Jenny Rapson is a follower of Christ, a wife and mom of three from Ohio and a freelance writer and editor. You can find her at her blog, Mommin' It Up, or follow her on Twitter.