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Psst! Does your university-age kid long for an internship at, say, Elle Magazine or on the New York Stock Exchange? No problem. She can have it. All you have to do is outbid the other parents and shell out thousands for it.

As the summer student job market looms (or doesn't), a new twist on student internships underscores just how desperate we boomer parents are to “help” our offspring.

The Wall Street Journal's Sue Shellenbarger recently reported that a charity organization (CharityFolks.com) is auctioning off student internships. The opening bid for one at Elle in New York, for instance, is $1,500 (U.S.) but I'll bet it costs a lot more moolah than that. (Some go for as high as $50,000.)

“In the context of spending $50,000 a year on private education, this really presents a great value and the money goes to charity,” Charity Folks CEO Kelly Fiore wrote in an e-mail. Ms. Fiore says “thousands of Canadians” have used her site.

University of Dreams, another internship site not connected to charity, also offers a pricey route to student internships with a program that guarantees international two-month placements in everything from banking to theatre for a mere $8,000. It includes room and board, weekend outings, career counselling and even an academic credit. Vice-president Eric Normington says “several hundred Canadians” a year ante up.

We shouldn't be surprised at this. In this tough economy, boomer parents are working their connections like never before for the sake of their offspring. (“Jim, how's the movie business? Let's catch up soon.”)

But have we now graduated from whom you know to what you can pay? And all for a job that pays nothing or next to it?

I'm no fan of unpaid internships. Not only do they penalize the less-affluent kids who can't afford to work for free, but they are exploitive. Apparently some kids even consider taking out loans to cover the cost of working for free. This is madness. And shame on companies who encourage this to happen.

Never mind, say the Charity Folks people, this is a “win-win scenario.” Kids, companies and charities all benefit. The money goes to the employer's charity of choice, and organizations such as Save the Children and those supporting breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease research have benefited.

But is it good for the kids? I checked with some affluent friends. (No point in checking with the financially challenged – they would be either outraged or envious.)

Most said at first that buying an internship for their kid was troubling, to say the least. (I mean where does it end? Buying them a middle manager's job at IBM when they're 40?)

But more than a few admitted it was sorely tempting. One friend, who is wealthy enough to buy his kids their own starter company, but wouldn't, said: “Let's say you are at a charity auction. You can rent someone's condo in Tampa for a week for $5K, or buy an internship in a field that interests your son or daughter. If there was an internship at a sports-marketing institution, as this is our son's passion, it would be tempting.” And only, he added, “a little different from making a call to a friend to get your kid in the door. Both are unfair to the ‘kid off of the street.'”

Nowadays, many affluent parents tell me their kids are off doing wonderful things – interning at international museums or local media companies – and most say that whether or not their kids are getting paid is not their first concern. “Parents are supremely grateful for any work, paid or unpaid, that gets their kids out of the house, if not off the payroll,” says one well-connected woman.

Well, even if I had the money, I wouldn't do this. If my kids want to spend their own savings to buy an internship, I suppose that's their business. But I would advise them to try getting a paying one on their own merit, as one of my kids already did. If they get it, it will give them the confidence they need to go forward.

The most inspiring moment I recently had concerning students and work occurred at an Engineers Without Borders gala in Toronto. I saw a huge room full of gorgeous, young, ambitious engineering students who gave fantastic speeches about hope and love and justice, but also about cosmology and bridges and water systems in Africa.

Maybe their parents were helping them, but the only thing I heard that night about parents was when George Roter, the co-founder of Engineers Without Borders, told the room his parents had impressed upon him from a young age “that I had to serve society.”

I thought, this is what I profoundly wish for my kids – and all kids for that matter. Not literally building bridges, but making their own way on a combined sense of social purpose, ambition and accomplishment.

There's no auction site for that. They have to get up off their butts and bid on the dream themselves.