Parent is probably referring to situations where faculty are too busy researching, writing grants, or just plain don't feel like it, and tell students something like
"go play with it"
"look it up"
"google it"
"read the fudging manual"
Of course, there are many great faculty who _do_ care greatly about teaching and always help students.
At my Uni we had students from higher years do volunteer time during lab sessions for lower year students. You would just wander around the lab helping random people who were stuck.
Sometimes there would be some proffessors there too to help you out.
