NJ parents love to tell you about their kids’ scholastic success (Opinion)

You may be seeing less stick figure families on the backs of cars and SUV's these days. They were the scourge of the early 2000's. I guess enough people got shamed into scraping them off and gave it up.

But there is no shortage of big-time university stickers on the backs of vehicles in suburban New Jersey.

I guess if you pay $20,000 a year to send a kid out of state to an expensive institute of higher education, you want the world to know. Why? I have no idea. This never made sense to me and seems kind of pretentious. Live and let live, I say.

As a society we have become more and more obsessed with letting people know about us on our cars and front lawns. I've recently seen lawn signs in my towns telling everyone who drives by that their kid just graduated high school.

The college bumper stickers are in the mail and they'll go on in September, I guess. Is it narcissism or overwhelming pride in their offspring and what folks did to ensure their scholastic achievements? From social media posts of pictures from graduation day to college visiting day, people seem to have the need to let you know how well their kid is doing.

A generation ago this might have seemed ostentatious and braggartly, but today it's routine. It's a status symbol. A sign to the world that this household did a good job and the person driving this vehicle is sending their kid to a good school.

There might be a handful of people that I would feel comfortable telling about my good fortune, my personal views or my kids' accomplishments, but I'm weird.

Most of New Jersey can't wait to put a sign on their lawn or car telling you exactly what and who they are. If you have one of these bumper stickers or signs for anything you've achieved or believe in, good for you. We're genuinely happy for you, whoever you are.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis Malloy's own.