It’s easy to understand why some parents might be overprotective. The world is a dangerous place, something most children have not actually fully internalized. However, there are some that really do take it all too far, “hovering” around their kids too often and way too long.
We’ve gathered some of the most extreme cases of "helicopter parenting” from across the internet. So get comfortable as you scroll through, prepare to really cringe, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and perhaps personal experiences in the comments below.
#1
My friend wasn't allowed to use scissors until he was in high school. His parents were insane. You should've seen their reaction when he joined the army.
Image credits: Felicity_Badporn
#2
Parents of a girl I went to college with didn't want her living in the dorms. So they bought a second house next to the campus so she could live with her mother.
Image credits: Blake001
#3
I work at a university. We had a parent get worried because he had not contacted her in awhile and wasn't taking her calls. We tracked him down and it turned out he was just ignoring her because she called multiple times a day and was driving him crazy.
Image credits: Gig472
#4
Friends with a girl in elementary school who had parents that wouldn't let her watch PG rated movies at the age of 12. Even with parental guidance! She wasn't allowed to come over to my house because I mentioned my favorite movie at the time to them and it wasn't G rated.
She nearly drowned at the beach a couple years ago getting caught in a riptide. Suffered permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen.
Her parents now have the forever child they always wanted. :/.
Image credits: Toil_x_Trouble
#5
Teacher here: A friend of mine had a mom who came to lunch everyday with her kid from kindergarten to last I checked (I've since left that school) second grade. A little much, but the kicker is, she used to spoon feed him. This child had no issues, was completely capable of feeding himself but she insisted on feeding him so she could monitor what he ate.
Image credits: Pizzaisthebestfood
#6
Newly enrolled freshman in college, and the poor kid's mom would come to the school and walk with him through the cafeteria line picking out what she thought he should be eating. She did this for all three meals. Poor guys was so embarrassed.
Image credits: anon
#7
Had a roommate freshman year whose mother called every day and stayed the first whole week of school. Ok.
She also would randomly fly up to stay a week or two (in the same bed) with her daughter, accompanying her to all classes, meals, and social gatherings. The mom was afraid her daughter would not be pre-Med anymore and would do anything to make sure she didn't change majors.
I think what made this an extreme story was the fact that her mom flew in multiple times in one year and called every day all the way from India to the US.
Image credits: anon
#8
A mother at a university parent session explained how her son enjoyed reading before bed and would occasionally leave his light on.
Being the considerate mother that she was, she didn't want to call to make sure he'd turned out his lights, since that might wake him.
So she wanted to know if there someone at the university could check on him each night.
Image credits: flannelbored
#9
My friend is dating a girl who is required, by her parents, to skype them every night at 9 pm sharp. She is 21 and in her fourth year of college.
Image credits: imbubbaa
#10
I work in childcare. Little boy fell over outside and scraped his face. Nothing too serious but his parents brought in a helmet and asked to make sure he wore it at all times while outside.
Image credits: g00nbags
#11
I was a charge nurse in a d**g and alcohol rehab and this 19 year old kid was admitted for h****n detox and treatment.
His mom wanted to be there for the entire admission process, which isn't out of the ordinary for families. However, after the kid was admitted and shown to his room, his mom wouldn't leave.
Detox patients would get assessments every 2-4 hours and were asked a series of questions to determine if they would need medication for withdrawal. His mother answered all of his questions for him and at the end of the assessment was like, "He'll take 10mg of valium for his anxiety." All while this kid layed in bed watching TV.
In this particular rehab, visitors, cell phones, and laptops were allowed, so we couldn't tell her to leave until visiting hours were over. That time arrives and you guessed it, she's still there.
As the charge nurse I had the honor of asking her to leave. Mom looked at me legitimately confused and replied, "I have to leave? I was going to stay here with my son. There are two beds in his room so I didn't think it was a problem."
I then explained to this mom that the second bed needed to be kept open for another potential admission, then I was yelled at for not providing her son with a private room and that "this guy" in the admissions department said she could stay throughout her son's detox and treatment.
I told her patients weren't allowed to have overnight guests. She was appalled because she thought that because she was the mother that she fit into some type of loophole or something. After she left, she visited every day and stayed from the beginning of visiting hours to the end. When she wasn't there, her son was on the phone with her.
Needless to say, this kid relapsed immediately after he finished treatment.
tl;dr - enabler mother actually wanted to stay in her adult son's room while he was in rehab.
*Edited typos.
Image credits: Sutie
#12
Was in court waiting to see the judge. Another case is going on about this highschool senior hitting a kid with his car on campus.
His mom goes up with him and when the judge started asking questions the mom answered them. The judge politely told her he'd like to hear from the son and she agreed.
The boy started to explain what happened when she immediately cut him off, told him he was telling it wrong. She begins talking again, and the judge visibly annoyed now asks her if she was there.
"No, but I know what happened" she assured him. When the judge told her multiple witnesses claim that's not what happened, she called them liars who were just out to attack her boy.
She continued to argue with everything the judge said. Until he finally had enough of this woman interrupting him and had her removed.
Image credits: TheEmeraldArcher455
#13
I was at home one day when my roommate brought his new coworker over to hang out. He was a nice guy, just your average dude. His phone rang as soon as he got there, it was his mom and she said he had to come home immediately. I said I'd give him a ride home, probably took about five minutes to get there. We pulled into his driveway and a few seconds later she pulled in behind us. She was crying. She had gone out looking for him in the five minutes it took us to drive over there.
Image credits: anon
#14
Ha, finally an AskReddit thread I have a good answer to.
I am still a teenager, so I'm still putting up with my parents' helicopter habits.
-My parents were furious when they found out I had watched The Hunger Games at a friend's house. Same thing happens whenever I watch a movie rated PG or above and they're not there to fast-forward through the kissing scenes and mild cursing.
-They don't allow me to spend money without telling them first. I once bought a pack of gum without telling them. It wasn't pretty. Long story short, I got my phone taken away for a week after being chewed out for a solid hour.
-My dad has software on my phone that tells him whatever I do on the internet. This includes texting and calling. He'll probably see this, but I don't care.
I'd better stop typing now, they might catch me.
#15
When I was a troop commander in the Army I had a kid who came up hot for c**e on a p**s test and then a week later was arrested by the local police department narcotics task force for being an enforcer in a local civilian-military d**g ring.
They charged him and remanded him back to Army custody where I immediately started the paperwork to chapter him out and let the civilian justice system take its course. The guy was 23 I think.
His mom called me several times to tell me that "Chris has never been in any real trouble before and he's such a sweet kid. Anytime anything happened in high school I helped him work it out. I need to come up and talk to you and get this sorted out."
I was dumbfounded. This guy was 23 years old, in the Army, and his *mom* thinks she can come up and "work it out" with me. I was polite for the first call but by the second or third phone call I had had enough.
I told her (again) not to bother coming to the installation, that her son wasn't a sweet kid or else he wouldn't have beaten some guy up for not paying money he owed to a local d**g dealer, and that the whole reason he was in this mess in the first place was because his mom had never let him be accountable for his actions. I told her that he was under my authority now and I had no time or patience for someone who didn't take their obligation to the Army, the country, or their buddies seriously enough to keep themselves out of trouble long enough to make our upcoming deployment to Iraq. When she complained that getting a dishonorable discharge would ruin his life I informed her that fortunately I didn't have the time to waste giving him a dishonorable discharge so he would be okay on that score (other than honorable is what he wound up with) but that the city of Harker Heights and the State of Texas might have more time than I did, so that was where she ought to focus her effort.
She said I was being unfair and called my boss, which was fine by me.
It blew my mind that a woman with a fully grown adult son *in the Army* would think it was appropriate or healthy to call and talk to her son's commander about his multiple counts of misconduct and general failure to be an adult.
But that, of course, is why he failed at being an adult in the first place.
Image credits: Diis
#16
My mom tried to get me pulled off of a deployment to Kuwait, including telling me she'd ground me when I got back. I was already 18 and living on my own, so... Not sure what the f**k her plan was there. She also tried to tell my commander I was using hard d***s, so I had to take a series of p**s tests, but that's cool, I perform better with an audience.
Image credits: ElHurricano
#17
Had my students do a short research project on genetic modifications (not focused on food only). 5 questions: what is it, how is it done, potential good, potential bad, your opinion. The parent made their student erase the potential good and write "there is no good reason, have you not seen Jurassic Park: Lost World" and "genetic modifications are the work of Satan." Sad thing is, the student and parents both were against genetic modifications but not for the same reasons. I wish I was in a position to say something but unfortunately I'm not. How dare their student use research and data to come to a conclusion in science and not a fictional movie and religious text.
Image credits: txbikerider
#18
My friend decided to take the bus with me one day, and while walking there his dad's car followed, then he parked, bought him a snack at the bagel shop, and then proceeded to follow the bus with his car when my friend and I jumped in. The ride was about 15-20 minutes.
Image credits: NewFoMan
#19
I wasn't allowed to hang out with girls when I was younger and one day I was at the school park with some of my friends and there were a couple girls there too. My mom called me on the phone to ask who I was hanging out with. I only mentioned my guy friends. Well apparently my mom was spying on me with binoculars (the park was just a few blocks from my house). As soon as she saw the girls, she drove to the park, got out and made a big scene about it in front of everyone, and made me go home. That probably wasn't even the most embarrassing thing she's put me through. There's been countless other situations.
Image credits: davish1
#20
I had a friend in middle/high school who was a Chinese girl, adopted by an old white couple who were SUPER weird and over protective...
Some of the things I remember about her parents:
* Mom volunteered at whatever school we were at, and would sit with us at lunch to make sure her daughter was eating.
* They drove a mini-van and made her sit in a car seat in the very back row until like freshman year of high school.
* Any time someone praised them for raising such a good daughter they would laugh and say "She's not our daughter, she's adopted!".
* They wouldn't let her ride the school bus, join any clubs, or hang out with anyone after school.
* When she got her drivers license, the dad bought light sticks (like air traffic controllers use). Any time she left the house, he would stand in the street with his light sticks and blocked traffic so that people wouldn't hit her as she backed out of the driveway... It was hilarious to watch but she was completely mortified LOL.
Image credits: inebriatedexistence
#21
Eventual friend in hs, his mother was there every day, all day. Was a private school, day student. She walked him to class, rehearsal, music lessons, the freaking bathroom. Took the entire year to get her to stop, he ended up hiding from her. This kid was brilliant. Perfect sat scores, accomplished musician, amazing actor. We gave him his first soda, gum etc. Father was an ex priest who screwed the organist. Mother was a ex-nun. Both bats**t crazy. We were all so proud when he went to college 800 miles away. Then it went very bad.
Originally the story was he committed s*****e, which made no sense. Everything was going his way. Had full scholarship, escaped his parents and even more amazing, a beautiful girlfriend (he redefined awkward). His mother kept insisting it was murder, that the mafia had k**led him, but nobody believed her in the slightest. Fast forward a few years and a few unrelated criminal investigations aaaand yeah it was the Russian mob. Apparently his gf's father took a strong dislike to him when he said something unforgivable (again, he redefined awkward) and had him k**led.
Image credits: evil420pimp
#22
Probably an acquaintance of mine. I have posted about it on Reddit before but he is pretty bad, so I'll share it again. This guy "knows" that his son is going to be a great NFL quarterback. The kid turned 10 recently and is a decent player, but his father has him work with different trainers and spend hours each day practicing. He takes vitamins, has a special diet, and isn't allowed to play other sports because his dad wants him to focus completely on football and doesn't want to risk an injury playing another sport that would sideline him for football. He can't have sleepovers or do any normal kid things. I know for a fact that the kid has told his father that he doesn't want to play anymore, but the dad doesn't care. He says that as a parent, he has to do what is best for his kid. My sons play sports too and they don't always want to go to practice, so I understand making them stick with something they signed up for. My kids know that they have to finish out a season, but I am perfectly fine if they don't want to sign up the next season. I just don't understand why someone would continue to sign their kid up for something they clearly do not want to do. It's a situation that I can't see ending well, honestly.
Image credits: anon
#23
I worked as a CSA for an airline, I had a guy checking in for his flight. I looked at his ID, he was 21. His mother was there not flying, just dropping him off and demanded I give her a pass to go through security with him because it's his first time flying alone. This is a small 1 terminal, 1 airline airport. She was seriously worried about him going through the process of checking in, going through security and getting on the flight.
Image credits: NachoPichu
#24
I work in an ER and I get sick and tired of helicopter parents bringing their offspring in for ridiculous reasons. He got a nosebleed a week ago, and again today. She's been having foot pain after PE. etc.
The worst are the parents that bring their over 18 y/o kids into the ER because they want them d**g tested. I love turning to the "legal adult" and asking "do you consent to this?" The parent normally turns BEET red and starts yelling at me about how they are the parent, and they pay the insurance, yada yada blah blah. At which point I remind them that their precious child is now and adult and without their child's express consent I cannot perform any tests on them. I've seen more than my fair share of light bulbs go off over the kids head, and them flat out refuse all lab work. I tell them, "alright, you heard him. I can't do anything." This normally ends in a call to the hospital administrator that will then tell them the same thing.
I am also not allowed to give out any information over the phone, as I cannot verify you are the legal guardian, nor in the room without express permission. It's fun to watch people's veins throb when they can't get their way.
#25
I run a huge Book Rental department for a good sized University. 15k students. It's a beautiful program, 95% of our student's books are covered by one $85 fee.
Anyway, I've seen some crazy stuff with parents. Honestly, there just isn't enough Reddit for me to relay all the stories. My number one however is ...
It's move in day. The worst day of the year. Hundreds upon hundreds of students coming to get their books all at once. Most freshman accompanied by their parents. This one lady marches up to the desk pushing other customers aside and dragging her mortified looking son along by the hand. She then demands that I tell her how she gets her son's books.
I tell her the best way for your son to get his books is to use his class schedule and go find them himself, as he will need to do this every semester moving forward. The Aisles are alphabetical and the courses arranged numerically once your in the right aisle.
She tells me that she doesn't believe her son is capable of doing that. Now at the time I didn't expect to be staying as the manager of the department or employed by the university so with nothing to loose ...
I said "Then your son isn't capable of succeeding in college." And she lost it. Absolutely started flipping out screaming that I called her son stupid. After her rage I said.
"I'm sorry mam ... but you're the one who suggested to me that your son is incapable of using the alphabet and numbers to preform a simple matching task. I was just going off of the information you provided." She stared at me. "In other words, I'm pretty sure you're the one who just called you son stupid when you told me that he is incapable of accomplishing a kindergarten level skill."
She throws another fit and then smashes the schedule into the kid's hand. He looks like he wants to die. She points off toward the shelves and tell him that she will be here if he needs her. Then she turns and glares at me, with a "we'll see." look. I wish her a nice day and go back to my office and continue to observe the chaos of move in day.
Kid found his books in five minutes and tried to sneak out without her noticing. Sadly her hover skill was greater than his sneak. She spotted him headed out the door and ran after him screaming his name.
Image credits: Centumviri
#26
A girl showed up to apply for a job. Her mom asked for the application. I ignored the mom and motioned for the girl to step forward and I asked her some questions. She looked at her Mom hesitantly and her mom told her to answer the questions. It was not a good sign that she didn't know if she could speak with us. She was 19 and this was going to be her first job. We decided to give her a shot. Her first shift it quickly became apparent that she was not going to work out and we let her go. The dad showed up the next day inquiring about why his baby girl couldn't work there. The girl looked so embarrassed, I felt bad for her but you could tell the parents never gave her any freedom to be herself or build up any sort of experience, life experience or work experience.
#27
I had a mother start emailing me 10 minutes after her son left a job interview with me, then start calling for 3 days straight, along with 5 or so emails a day, talking up her son and how perfect he was and this job is a perfect fit and she would make sure he would be here everyday......then she starts in with rules I would have to follow such as he can't stay more then 5 minutes after 6 because she has to make dinner, and since she would be driving him to and from everyday he mustn't be late. Then she starts asking if I could direct deposit his checks in her account so she can help him manage his money etc...... All this was going on without an inkling that I would offer him the job, she was just making these demands for him up front because this job would have to work around her schedule.
.......Needless to say I didn't hire him. He was a good fit too, but not with that baggage.
#28
Had a really rich friend of a friend who's Dad once picked him up in a helicopter.
Image credits: erldn123
#29
I had a friend growing up whose mother was very protective. The father not so much, but she was so bad that my parents called her mama hawk. I invited him to my 10th birthday party, which was at a laser tag place. His mom came, which was fine, but then while we were playing laser tag, she stood with him the whole time. Didn't play, just stayed with him. Really? What was she protecting him from?
He turned out surprisingly normal and now lives 1,000+ miles away from her. I'm not sure how she does with that.
Image credits: anon
#30
I had arranged to play golf with a few mates when we all about 18. One guy gets driven to the course by his mum, but rather than just being dropped off, she parked the car and decided to wait with us until it was our turn to tee off the 1st hole. And then she decides that she better stay and walk with us for the entire 4+ hours of golf.
A guy in the next group sees what's going on, and intervenes, saying "Hey lady, non-players are not permitted on the course, so you'd better just go home and let your son play golf with his buddies in peace".
#31
It was me! I was 22 and had moved back home for a few months after my divorce so I could save up enough money for an apartment (no credit so it was $1,500 to move in!). I went to visit an old friend 45 minutes away. She did not use cellphones so I told my mom I wouldn't be checking mine out of courtesy, but I would text when I got there and when I left. I got there, texted, and put my phone on silent.
After a few hours I got a bad feeling and checked my phone. My mom had checked the "find my friends" app and it had said I was in a drainage ditch (funnily enough it was right next to the restaurant we were eating at *because that app isn't always accurate!*) and said if I didn't call her she'd call the police. I called her, and *she had to hang up with the police* to answer my call. Because her adult daughter didn't answer the phone for a few hours *after I'd warned her I wouldn't!*.
#32
Not the most embarrassing thing, but the only one I feel okay sharing:
She would constantly go through my phone and read everything when I wasn't around, and I'd find out when she brought up embarrassing information in front of friends, family, a crush. Once she found my crush on Facebook and messaged him a long-a*s message that I don't even want to know what it said (all I know is that he was super uncomfortable when he asked me if I knew she had contacted him).
As for the worst part about it: I never felt a sense of freedom. I always felt watched. I was never a bad kid, but I felt violated every day and night. I felt like I never had my own sense of self.
#33
My mom once got a job application for me, filled it out, signed it, submitted it, got it back, emailed them confirming that I'd take it, then told me she picked up an application for me. So that.
She's done far more embarrassing and helicoptery things but I don't want anyone recognizing me so that's all for now.
Edit: oops I forgot about a worse case than this. A girl that was a year below me in high school ended up going to the same community college as me. Her mom sits outside all of her classes, listening in. She also makes her daughter dress the same as her and wear the same hairstyle. Her daughter is legitimately brainwashed. She doesn't have any friends because everyone is too creeped out by the situation and her mother probably wouldn't allow it anyways. I wish I could help her somehow but there isn't really a cps for young adults who are brainwashed.
Image credits: Tubaka
#34
For about a year or so, I took my daughter to an anxiety clinic to help her deal with a phobia she developed.
A certain amount of the therapy involved parents (or whoever had brought the kid) working with the child, the rest of the time, the parents hung out, waiting for their kids to finish the rest of the session where the kids went elsewhere.
One kid, Robert, had general anxiety, more or less. He'd quite clearly gotten it from his mother, who was a bit of a basket case, and would do stuff like *staying up all night redoing his homework,* so it would be done *right.*
That poor kid.
#35
Worked at a summer chess camp in a beach city. Not a serious one, so it was 2 hrs or so of chess related stuff, 7+ hours of playing elsewhere. We told the kids' parents to bring a swimsuit and change of clothes and towel for water balloon day.
This one kid's dad showed up to supervise water balloon day. It was overcast, so a bit chillier than usual. Hover-dad starts yelling that his boy is shivering.
He gets in my face and screams about how "my boy shouldn't be shivering, it's chess camp!" I say "Uh, he looks fine, but he can sit out the rest of the time." He then rushed into the grass field his kid is happily running around, wraps him in a towel, and hoists him over his shoulder. He ran to his car and left. The kid didn't return for the rest of the session.
#36
My mum is ridiculously over protective, even now that I'm living at the other side of the country at 23. These are just some examples.
- I wasn't allowed to use the dishwasher in case I fell in and stabbed myself on the knives.
- Once during revision season at university I didn't speak to her for two days due to being busy with nothing new to say. She got my dad, my aunt and grandparents to call me multiple times to check I wasn't dead in a ditch.
- She still buys me clothes when I ask her not to. She'll take off the labels and put them in the wardrobe then try to claim they've been there all along.
- If I try to take back the aforementioned clothes, throw them away or give them to charity she flies into a rage.
- When I was 18 I used to walk through a small park to and from college. This was in daylight and through a place I'd known since I was 1 years old. When she found out she flipped and made my dad collect me from college in the car.
Image credits: Stlieutenantprincess
#37
My old boss demanded his daughter download a "track your child app" when she did her study abroad in europe for 8 weeks. What makes it bad is that he was acting like he was trying to do her a favor because "knowing where she is gives me the ability to tip her off on any cool nearby activities" and he acted like she was an ungrateful brat when she understandably declined. So he took her car away and made her miserable up until the day she left for study abroad.
#38
Pretty common theme story here but my dad works with student nurses on placement as a facilitator in the Intensive Care Unit at our local hospital. One of the students got caught posting patient information and s**t talking other (experienced) registered nurses on her Facebook page. The matter got taken to the university who has since dropped her like a ton of bricks. Her mother turned up at the university to demand to know why her precious daughter had been booted from uni and screamed about how it was unfair and that they were ruining her little girls future all because of 'some silly Facebook post.' She had to be physically removed from campus.
#39
I was hired to "tutor" a home schooled 11 year old who was adopted from peru. He was home schooled because he was too rambunctious apparently.
His mom had the day off once and observed our lesson as she cooked lunch. He dropped his pencil on the floor, went to the bathroom, and came back. He starts reading from the text book and his mother notices the pencil on the floor. She faces me and says "can you help him pick up his pencil, PLEASE!?"
Was the pencil too heavy for an 11 year old to retrieve from the floor? Is he supposed to go the entire lesson thinking the pencil has miraculously disappeared from the universe and not look for it himself?
It was a perfect example of the fact that if you treat kids like theyre dumb, theyll behave that way.
#40
One of the more memorable experiences:
When I was a freshmen, my cousin was a senior and through him, I made a lot of friends that were upperclassmen. So at the end of the year, I got invited to go to prom. My parents made my date (who was just a friend) come over two weeks before prom and basically asked him every question imaginable. They got his phone number, home number, email, the works. He was super chill about it because my cousin had warned him beforehand. When prom actually came around, I wasn't allowed to ride in the limo with everyone else. Instead, my mom drove me in her ugly a*s Astro van that looked like the mystery machine and she had my siblings and cousins packed in there. When we got to the venue, she got off with me and asked an administrator if she could stay. Thank GOD he said no. Oh, and I had a curfew. 8:30 pm.. It was 7 when I got there.
Ugh.
Edit: for everyone saying I would've been r***d, my friend is gay and my parents were well aware. The Astro van was handed down to me after I graduated, and I loved it until the end.
#41
When I went away to college, my parents would call me every day. I went away to a fraternity weekend retreat during my freshman year where us pledges weren't supposed to bring our phones. I told my parents that I'm going away 3 days and not to call me.
On the day we were coming back, the guy driving us got a call. He then hands me his phone and tells me to call my parents.
It turns out, that when my parent couldn't reach me for 3 days, they came to my college, and went around my dorm and half the campus asking everyone if they've seen their lost little boy. I was 18 at the time.
On top of that, since I was on their family cell phone plan, they looked up all the numbers I had recently called and texted. They proceeded to call everyone letting them know I'm "lost" and asking if they knew where I was. This included girls that I had crushes on but barely knew, random classmates, and mild acquaintances.
When I got back to my worried parents waiting for me at my dorm, I found my cell phone with a bunch of messages of people asking if I'm okay and letting me know my parents are looking for me.
For the next day, every 1 in 5 people I walked passed would ask me if I talked to my parents because they were looking for me.
#42
My dad followed me into jury duty when I was 21 because he didn't believe I could do it myself. I insisted that he didn't come, but he did anyways. He was stopped by security guards outside the area and he threw a huge fuss about not being able to accompany me. Most of the courtroom was confused and weirded out. Luckily, they didn't need me throughout the trial so I was dismissed.
There's a lot more weird s**t my dad does, but this one stood out to me when I first read this post.
#43
My cousin had an interesting freshman year experience. She was roomed with another girl with a helicopter mother... the mother slept in this tiny dorm room with the daughter and my cousin for several weeks until she could convince the RA to kick the mother out.
#44
Honestly. my parents. never let me go out, read my journals and would ground me for things i wrote (such as gay marriage should be legal) after i went away to college i got a little wild. dad read texts saying i had s*x and became convinced i was a p********e. stopped helping pay for college, took away phone and car. called my friends and asked them if they knew anything about me involved in s*x trafficking. did all kinds of s**t to me like break my american horror story dvd because it was "satanic". theres so much more i could go on but i dont know anyone with more overprotective parents than me.
Image credits: throwawaygayz
#45
I had a father question everything about my lesson planning and teaching methods during a parent teacher meeting. I was well prepared and I fielded his questions very well. After asking probably 50 questions, he looks around the classroom with a big smirk and says "Sorry to ask so many questions, I am what you call a 'helicopter parent.'" In response, I told him I was more than happy to give him weekly updates about his son, as well as spending my office hours to sit down with him to help even further. His response? "Oh, I am much too busy for that."
Worst helicopter ever...
#46
I went to school with this guy from elementary all the way through high school. One of the coolest, nicest, smartest kids you'd meet, but he was very nerdy and dressed nerdy and such.
His parents were always on his case about everything and literally hovered over his entire life.
I was shocked to see that even though he was a senior in highschool, his parents made him sit in the back seat of the car because he didn't meet the weight requirements for the air bag.
Amazed me....I just can't imagine what home life was like for him.
He now works at google and travels the world and he's doing amazingly. I guess it all worked out well for him.
#47
I'd like to say my dad, but he lives in China (I grew up in America and have since moved to Japan) so his range is limited. He moved to China around 2003, and before then, my mum wasn't allowed to drive when it got dark out. That means around 4-5pm wintertime. After he left (parents aren't divorced), my mum struggled with doing things on her own, but we ended up making it work, got used to the extra freedom, and were pretty happy.
Every time he came back to visit, he would try to take control again. I wasn't allowed to walk to the high school that was 1km away for an event on the weekend because he was convinced I was meeting with my boyfriend (had none???).
My most recent story was this January, I was going to NY for meet with some of my uni friends, and I have to take the NJ Transit. 23 years old. My mum was driving me to the station because she needed the car. If I take the normal route through the front of the station, we get hit with 3 red lights and a ton of traffic, and usually takes around 25 minutes. If we go through the back where I need to cross a semi large road, I can get to the station in 10 minutes. He flipped out, saying how I'm not allowed to cross the street, what if I slip on ice, trip, the car doesn't see me, kills me and how stupid am I for even thinking of crossing a street.
I know this sounds somewhat (?) reasonable, but there's a crosswalk with the walking sign thing that you press when people want to cross. A ton of commuters (including myself) use this method every morning. It has been 60F out and hasn't rained for the past few days. Where is this ice??? I went that way anyway, didn't get hit by a car, and a great time with my friend. I called to say I was planning to come home, and my mum said my dad's been throwing tantrums all day and I came back to see him fuming. People like to think that it's pitiful that I didn't get to grow up with my dad by my side, but honestly it's a blessing. If this continued through my teenage years, either he or I would be dead by now.
#48
My friend is 20; she has a speech impediment; she doesn't have her license; her parents won't let her major in what she wants in college; if she is at home she's forced to go to Mass; her sister has the same issue; she isn't allowed to have guys in her room; she has never kissed anybody before let alone have a boyfriend; her parents don't believe in mental illness and she clearly suffers from depression.
#49
An old roommate of mine. She was incredibly absent-minded, forgetting at least one thing literally every time she left the house (often things like her purse, car keys, phone), forgetting to turn off the oven/stove/gas, forgetting to flush the freaking toilet, leaving leftovers out of the fridge, the list goes on. Very basic stuff. She also had no idea about how many, many things worked, like utility bills, rent, parking, how to take out garbage, how to wash dishes (she was just rinsing her plates under cold water and putting them away crusty until my other roommates and I explained soap to her). She asked me once how to boil water. I could MAYBE understand not knowing these things if she had just graduated from high school, but she was 24 years old and had been in college for 5 years. We were astonished by her every day. And not just life skills, she was constantly misspelling very basic words and asking about basic concepts all the time, which wouldn't maybe be such a big problem if she wasn't intending to become an elementary school teacher.
It came together bit by bit. One day we were all talking about essay writing. She said she has no idea how essays are structured because her dad "is a whiz at that kinda stuff" and writes all her papers for her. We pried a bit and discovered that he checks or does for her ALL of her homework, and drills her over and over before tests, and has been doing this since she was in middle school. We knew she talked to her parents on Skype almost every night but we just thought she was homesick or something.
Then another day a friend and I were in the living room talking about diseases and she joined in and revealed to us that she has a genetically inherited disability (I forgot the name, but it's a type of disease women can have that's close to downs syndrome) and that one of the symptoms is learning disability, but "thank God I don't have that!" Well...of course we can't be sure, but we all kind of came to the conclusion that she is actually learning disabled and her parents have been doing everything for her her whole life and pretending that she's normally functioning. Which I wouldn't care about usually, but she's now a f*****g 2nd grade teacher. How she's able to look after children is beyond me.
#50
My mother once drove to my workplace after school when I was 17 to check and make sure I was actually working. She then freaked out at me when I got home because she claimed I wasn't there, when really she just didn't drive all the way in the parking lot to avoid being seen since she drives such a distinct car.
That was around her phase of thinking I was on hardcore d***s and sleeping with the entire male population of my town. I was an A+ student who worked every day after school plus weekends, don't know when she thought I'd have time for all of that.
#51
My buddy had the worst helicopter mom. We were going to college 3 hours away from his home town and ended up at a random after bar party with people we met just that night. His mom showed up (no idea how she found us), walked in and grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out to her car. She then proceeded to drive him back to our home town. The next day, she made him get a ride back to college with his former high school sweetheart he had recently broken up with. She did all this because mom didn't approve of the breakup.
Edit: It probably was a phone tracking thing. Pretty sure he was still on a family plan at the time. He's now married to a woman who is, in my opinion, also rather controlling. Oedipus is real!!!!
#52
When I was engaged to my now husband, I was given many long lectures by my parents about how I couldn't lean my head on his shoulder or ever ever be alone with him because it would lead him to have uncontrollable urges which would then lead him to r**e me and it would be my fault for working him up. These lectures became daily and increased in absurdity.
Glad my husband was able to stick it out. Things are much better now that I live with him on the other side of the country.
Edit: I'm seeing lots of comments about my dad raping my mom. My parents actually have a happy marriage, so I'm sure that is not the case. However, once I was married I did get lectures about how men have high libidos and I was not supposed to turn my husband down since doing so would give him no choice but to stray. Same exact idea as above with the same blame. While awful, I'm not sure that I'd consider that r**e since there is a consent given by the woman, even if it's a consent that is there from brainwashing. Still, it's awful and unhealthy.
Also, these ideas were coming from both my parents and they were in agreement. It wasn't just from my dad.
#53
One night I decided to visit my boyfriend at his apartment for some TV time and cuddles. I ended up restarting my phone and forgetting the turning it back on part. While cuddling in front of the television, I fall asleep. At around midnight, my mom calls and it goes straight to voice mail. Any logical person would just figure the phone died or just didn't have service (very reasonable where I live). Not my mother. She called the cops and tried to report me missing, which ended with the police asking how long I had been gone. She responded with 'about 8 hours' and they tell her to wait until morning. At this point it is about 1 am and I am still asleep, we both are. Fast forward about 2 hours and my mother has called and woken up all of my friends hunting for me with no luck. She calls my best friend and she tells her that I am at my boyfriends apartment. My mother now knows that I am safe and not missing. This is not enough for her though. She ends up coming to the apartment after pestering best friend enough for the location. My best friend doesn't know the exact apartment so she just told her the complex name and went back to bed. I woke up at almost 4 in the morning to my mother banging on the door yelling 'personablyanxious, open the f*****g door!' I run thinking something is wrong and fling open the door to find her red. Metaphorical steam is pouring from her ears. She yells for me to get in **my** truck and get home now. The next day when I went to visit my boyfriend and apologized profusely for what my mother has done, I discover that my mom had banged on every single door until she found the right one. I was 18 at the time. It didn't take much longer before my relationship ended. This is one of very very **very** many stories.
***FIN***.
#54
I was on leave from Iraq ... Turned 21 during that time period ... and my parents still made me be home by midnight ...
I was a g*****n combat veteran and I needed to be home by midnight lol.
#55
My parents called my trade school when i was f*****g 19 years old to make sure I was attending. They didn't have a reason to suspect I wasn't going and they weren't the ones paying for it. I moved out very soon after. This wasn't the worst but it was one of the last.
#56
Not me personally, but I dated a guy in college who had the craziest helicopter parents.
As a 20 year old dude, he was not allowed to leave his condo (that they owned). They lived about 30 min away and constantly called to make sure he was there. He was literally expected to go directly from class to home every single day. When we went out (for dinner, to the movies, etc.) he had to use cash because his parents checked every single purchase on his bank statement and would question him about them. He wasn't allowed to drive, so he had to commute by bus to school every single day (about 45 mins). One time we went to a summer concert in downtown and his mom called him. He ran out of the concert so he could find a quiet spot to talk to her, and then was so scared he made us leave the concert.
The reason he put up with all this was because his parents were paying for everything-- the nice condo he lived in, his tuition, etc. He had never worked a day in his life. Not sure what he's doing now, but I'm pretty sure they still have that hold on him.
#57
I was in the school musical. It was my first lead role and I was singing a duet with the cutest boy in school. True, I was playing his mom, but THIS WAS MY MOMENT! A showmanxe was sure to follow! Then the fire alarm went off.
The stage manager signaled to us that it was just the fog machine and to keep going. So we did. Cute guy started to get nervous so I grabbed his hand to give him strength. Imagine Tina Belcher grabbing a Zombie Jimmy Pesto Jr's butt and you'll have a pretty good idea as to how big a deal this was for me.
The audience, of course is awkwardly leaving because, you know, the fire alarm is going off. Just then, I see a blurry shape out of the corner of my eye. Someone is running towards me...it's a woman. She's screaming. It's my mother.
She runs up to me on the stage, rips me away from Jimmy Jr's arms and screams into my face microphone, "What are you doing?!! There's a fire! Get these kids out of here! WHO THE F**K IS IN CHARGE HERE?!!" I was shunned for weeks and 12 years later my drama teacher still tells the story to his students.
Then there was the time she called my boss and told him I needed a mid day nap because I was too tired...I was 22.
EDIT: Yes, ignoring fire alarms is bad. As is putting teenagers in charge in adult situations. I'm an adult and an educator now, and when the fire alarm goes off on stage ( and it does), I very calmly gather my students and we go outside. No sprinting, running or shaking is involved. 16 year old me, however, was devastated.
#58
I've posted this before but...have to share again.
I dated a girl with the WORST helicopter mom ever. This woman was like a caricature of a Jewish mother. When I first started dating this girl she was so beaten down psychologically by her mom I actually gently asked if her mother was physically abusing her, because that's how scared and broken she seemed.
To start with this mother couldn't cope with the fact her beautiful, feminine daughter was a raging lesbian. She hated me for being a woman, as well as not being Jewish, rich, or going to/graduating from an Ivy League school. Here are some of the gems that happened when I was dating this girl.
One of the creepiest things ever was her room. Her mother had not let her redecorate her bedroom since it was a nursery. 'Chris' my gf was 19 and 20 the year we dated. If you saw her bedroom you would have assumed a child about 7 lived there. It was decorated in so much pink (she hates pink) and all this girly frilly wall paper and carpet and bedding. The bed is also a day bed, which looks mildly like a crib. I noticed the room was also weirdly small--like a baby's room. This is even weirder since they lived in an enormous house and I know there was another, larger room she could have had. The creepiest part about her 'nursery'? *That's not the house they lived in when she was a baby.* Chris and her family moved there when she was about ten, and at TEN she begged for a more mature room.
She refused to let Chris spend the night at my house. She once said she would call the cops and tell them I had kidnapped her if she stayed. Oh and she also threatened to take away her necessary medication and therapy if she spent the night with me.
She would do everything she could to get Chris not hang out with me. Chris had mental health problems and fears, and her mom would purposely play on those fears making her think bad things like car crashes or robberies would happen if she went to hang out with me. This was one of the many things she would do to sabotage Chris's mental health and spin it like she was helping. She regularly harassed her therapist to glean information and even Chris's therapist said hearing her mom's voice on her voicemail was like a knife in her brain.
She would try to control things she read and watched and was always concerned about her developing a 'healthy idea of sexuality'. She flipped out once when she was reading a novel that involves a woman in an a*****e relationship, even though Chris wasn't stupid and could tell that was a bad a*****e relationship...
Once Chris texted/called me absolutely hysterical because her mom had been with her in a changing room at some store. And she'd seem evidence of some rough s*x, mainly just hickeys, but there might've been a scratch or whip mark somewhere there too. It was pretty disturbing because I know for certain most of the hickeys were pretty much on her breasts, so her mom was in there when she was mostly naked. Her mom went NUTS and was on and on and on about how Chris needed to learn about "Healthy sexuality". She also implied I might somehow be abusing her. Mind you, this was a girl who enjoyed being spanked. I get the feeling her mom must have never had an orgasm because the way she viewed s*x was just dreadful.
She forced me to get an STD test in the first month of my relationship with Chris because she convinced her that I had an STD. (Mind you...lesbian s*x is the safest, I've never had s*x with a man and at this time I'd only ever had one female partner). But Chris's mental illness made her think I really could've had something--and we'd already had s*x at this point so she was really panicked. Oh and when the results came in? She demanded to see them. I refused to show the results to Chris's mom because I figured she would say that the "positive" I had because of a Hep vaccine meant I actually had it--but I showed it to Chris. Then demanded to know the name of my doctor and made Chris google the doctor, which made her suspicious because the doctor was just filling in that day and his name popped up for geriatric stuff. She was doing EVERYTHING she could to keep us from having sexual contact.
Again, she hated the fact Chris was gay and with me. She often bought Chris's clothing and forced her to wear them. She got her a pair of panties from Victoria Secret that were designed to look like a middle/high school girl's notebook with things written all over it. No s**t, one of the things written all over it said "I love my boyfriend!!" Yeah, got a good angry chuckle out of that was I slipped them off of her.
She once went with Chris when she got a Brazilian wax to 'mind where the wax went'.
We had a great Valentine's Day because Chris was at my house the day before and we got snowed in for a few days. Her mom called asking why Chris wasn't upset she couldn't spend V Day with her and her father. ...yeah
Chris was heavily shamed for being mentally ill and her mother forced her to keep it a secret from everyone, even family. She had her convinced everyone would be cruel to her. But after being with me she found out everyone was actually really caring and it was her mom who was worried about people 'talking'. Same goes for her shaming her for being gay.
Chris barely had any life skills because she wasn't allowed to do things for herself. She didn't know how to write a check or even use a dinner knife properly. She was really embarrassed about it and wanted so badly to be independent.
It was really disturbing how much she treated her like a little girl and would literally tell her she wasn't an adult. She also spoke to me as though I was her babysitter which creeped me the f**k out. But anytime Chris did seem happy her mom was being nice it was always...doing things or saying things that are much more appropriate to do with a child. And I don't even mean young teen, I mean a child under ten. Like silly voices and faces and snuggling before bed.
There's probably some more stories but that's probably enough now. I have since broken up with Chris and am ridiculously grateful to be rid of her mom. But I feel sorry for her being stuck with her...
Image credits: Leohond15
#59
My parents couldn't care less what I did but my grandma...she would NEVER let me go out in the backyard by myself even with her 2 very large German Shepard dogs that basically babysat me, very protective but I loved them. She also wouldn't let me walk them around the block even at 17. My favorite was she was so afraid I'd slip in the shower that she'd sit on a stool during my shower while reading a book or asking about my day. I'm 21 now and she almost didn't let me go on a date last night. I have my own place, a possible new relationship and a life but she will ALWAYS be right around the corner. I love her to death though, she treats me differently because I was her 1st grandchild so.
Image credits: Loves_me_tacos125
#60
Oh man. I got a great one.
A have a good friend from high school who is now a sophomore in college. All throughout high school, his mom would be at everything. Band events? She's there. Team overnights? She's there. Meetings? She's there. I think if they would have allowed her to go to school with him, she would have.
After he went to college, she ended up visiting every weekend. I'm surprised she didn't get an apartment near campus so she could see him all the time. He eventually got a girlfriend and she would accompany them on dates. They go do couple things together and she insists on driving or joining them at the restaurant.
She is an absolutely lovely woman and she was a positive motherly presence for the team, and her son absolutely adored her. I have no clue how he's ever going to be able to be a real adult with her holding his hand all the time.
#61
Mom read in my diary that I had lost my virginity to my bf of the time X, she called my school's principal to tell him that X had r***d me.
#62
A friend of mine growing up. Whenever she came next door to hang out, her parents would watch her leave, walk across the lawn, enter my house... and she had to call when she got inside.
Edit: A lot of people are saying this sort of makes sense. I could get it if it was a couple of minutes away or down the block, but we lived in suburban townhouses. It was maybe 100 feet and 15 seconds of travel time.
#63
Monitored my internet activity and brought up the p**n I watched at the dinner table in front of my younger siblings and a friend who was over for dinner, and told me watching p**n would leave me morally depraved and difficult for anyone to love. I was thirteen.
#64
I'm an only child, so when I left for college it was tough on my mom, especially since her and my dad had just gotten divorced about a year and a half before.
I remember one time she called and I had forgotten my phone when my friends and I went on a trip to Target, which took us a few hours because we also stopped by somewhere to eat. I came back and found like over 30 missed calls from her. I called her back and found out that she was on her way up (it was only a 2 hour drive) because she was worried that something had happened to me. I told her that I just forgot my phone and after a while talked some reason into her that what she did was pretty over the top.
#65
Daughter on a leash at the bowling alley.
#66
Depriving me of Internet. In grade 9, I was only allowed to use my laptop in the kitchen to do my homework. My parents blocked Facebook, but I found websites that helped me use Facebook chat. In grade 10, I was allowed to take my laptop to my room, but my dad turned my Internet on and off every other hour from 8 in the morning until midnight, at which point it shut off for the night. It was ridiculous because I could never sit down long enough to get any work done before the Internet was gone and I had to wait for the next hour. My dad found out about the chat sites I used as a workaround for Facebook and blocked those. I resorted to using Bing bar's Facebook chat function which was slow and glitchy.
In grade 11 and 12, my Internet was shut off at 1 in the morning and parental controls were removed. I went crazy and watched Netflix and talked to people all the time, which obviously had a negative toll on my grades.
tl;dr my parents made me use Bing.
#67
My dad used to fling the door open in hopes of catching me doing something I wasn't supposed to...one time he caught me with a girls legs over my shoulders, laying pipe like I was getting paid, no blanket or nothing, Jesus! Eye contact was made, dominance assessed, my dad never pulled that s**t again.
That was the day I brought the chopper down.
#68
I didn't go to any school dance. Or sports event. So yeah, no prom, nothing. I was not allowed to go to the mall by myself when I was 19 years old, my dad would follow me around. Like he'd walk about 5 feet behind me. When I was 20 I said I was going to get a cell phone and got into a big fight with my parents because they didn't want me to have one. I had been working since 15 and was going to pay for it myself, etc. Couldn't lock the door to my bedroom (or the bathroom), even in my early 20's. Moving out was the best thing ever.
I remember when I was 12 or so, my mom, little sister (7 at the time) and I went to Costco to do some shopping. My dad showed up dressed as a clown (he used to dress up for birthday parties), followed me and my little sister around honking his clown horn in our ears, yelling to all the guys that he was our dad.
He still shows up at my work and tells my coworker to tell me that my "daddy" is here to see me. I'm 31. I think the last time I called him "daddy" was when I was...7? 8? NOBODY calls him "daddy".
