What do you think of students getting editing help on essays/papers from their parents? Do you explicitly talk to your students about this in advance?...

As long as
parents are not writing the essays for their child, I'm all for parental help and editing. I
actively encourage my students to have someone else read their papers (it's even written on
their assignment handouts) to catch the mistakes that they don't realize they are
making.

One of the struggles within my high school is that many parents do
not speak English or it is at least their second language, and they are not really able to help
their children edit their work. Often because of this students turn to the internet and essays
they find online. At least with some help from parents, students are involved and hopefully
they're learning something from the experience.

When I was a student I always
had help from my parents. Not in the sense of them doing the work for me, but they were there as
support and for discussion. My mother was a teacher and was always asking the questions that
would pry the answer out of me, rather than providing the answer herself. In the end I think I
learned more about writing and the writing process from her than I ever did in my English
classes at school.