No one would deny that parenting is hard, but these mothers and fathers really got it wrong. Instead of letting their kids be kids, they tried to micromanage every little thing about their lives…and made everyone else miserable in the process. Here are the most outrageous instances of “helicopter parents” Reddit has ever seen.
1. They (Don’t) Grow Up So Fast
I knew a mother who kept her five-year-old daughter in diapers. And not for any understandable reason, no. Her motives were ridiculous. It was because when they went out of the house, she didn't want her using public restrooms. Because the girl sitting in her own excrement was much better for her health, apparently.
2. Cheaters Never Prosper
My wife, being a teacher, had to deal with helicopter parents on a regular basis. Usually, she would have that parent do menial tasks so they would not bother the class. But with one parent she had to take drastic measures.
This parent became so overbearing—doing things like demanding to see lesson plans or making my wife take class time to re-explain subjects—that she had to take matters into her own hands.
One day while the parent was in the classroom, she deliberately left an upcoming quiz out for the parent to see. This parent took the quiz and slipped her kid the answers. Knowing the kid was not a good student, my wife got the parent to fess up to taking the test and passing the answers.
This went to the principal, and he banned her from the class. The parent made multiple complaints, even going to a district meeting. The school board held up the ban.
3. My Precious
The kid I know with a helicopter mom is about nine years old, so like 3rd grade. I’ve known him since before he started school. His mom is an acquaintance of mine and the kid himself has had classes with one of my kids who is the same age. She has forced herself into every activity and classroom that he's ever been in. She starts off volunteering in the classroom normally.
Most teachers ask for a few hours one or two days a week, just to help in our school. But little by little she shows up more often whether the teacher asked her to or not. Some teachers have told her to stop, but others just let it happen. She basically spends every day all day with him and never gives him any space. She hovers over everything he does and if it's not perfect she "fixes" it.
I’m pretty sure she's done his homework herself several times. Sometimes the teachers will send home an art project as homework, like a pumpkin to decorate in the fall or whatever, and his always looks like an adult did it alone. She never lets him face any uncomfortable situations or adversity. She got actually mad when one day she said to the 1st-grade teacher, "He woke up in a sad mood today".
The teacher answered, "I'll keep an eye on him, but I think he'll be okay". This was infuriating to her, to the point where she vented to me about it. I had to ask her "But was he okay though?"... Yeah. He was. What was she expecting, you ask? She wanted the teacher to make a big fuss over him and give him special attention. She felt that the teacher didn't care because she didn't fall all over herself to coddle him.
4. Time To Cut The Cord
My sister is a freshman in college, and her roommate's mother is absolutely psychotic. They're both on the cross country team and very good students. My sister said the roommate never drinks or goes out, but her mom tracks her through phone GPS and will text her constantly asking why she's at such and such a place anyway.
My sister said one time they were at Wal-Mart getting groceries, and her mom called her to ask why she was at Wal-Mart at 9 pm. Another time, they drove to my other sister's (she lives in the same town) apartment to pick something up and the girl's mom called and starts yelling and asking why she's been sitting in a parking lot for 20 minutes.
My sister said she'll constantly have to send pictures of them at the library to her to prove they're actually studying. I just don't get that kind of smothering of your kid. I mean, if you want to check up on what they're doing, then fine, especially if you're paying the bills. But dang, the poor girl can't even have a normal college experience and is constantly worried about upsetting her mom.
It just all seems so unhealthy to me. I mean, I had friends' parents who did that in high school, but once they're adults in college, you really have to cut the cord.
5. Not A Good Enough Reason For An Amber Alert
I worked at a small community library. A kid lived in the building across the parking lot from the library. He would leave his building, walk the ~150 feet to the front door of the library, come to the desk and use the courtesy phone to call and report to his mom that he got to the library safely. Yes, really. She couldn’t handle it. One day, though, all hell broke loose.
I remember the day that he didn't do this, she came flying into the library like five minutes later FREAKING OUT that her son had been kidnapped and we needed to find him.
6. Overqualified For The Job
I used to teach middle school. The teacher next to me had given a 6th-grade girl a C on a paper because it didn't meet the proper criteria. The mom was livid and came into the school furious about the grade.
After the teacher and the mom went back and forth about the grade, the mother blurts: "I HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE AND I TOOK WRITING COURSES FOR FOUR YEARS, AND I WROTE THIS PAPER. ARE YOU TELLING ME I CAN'T GET AN 'A' ON A 6TH-GRADE ASSIGNMENT?"
The teacher stuck to her story, but never answered the question.
7. Take It Easy
My mom is a helicopter mom. When my mom and brother came to visit me in the city I lived in at the time of this story, we went to a building that is a tourist attraction. She's already been there so she stayed down in some coffee shop while me and my brother went in to go to the top. There was a really big line and while we were waiting he was telling me about all the times she'd go crazy because I wouldn’t reply to her text for one day or so.
We were joking that considering how long the whole tour of the building was taking, she'd probably already be talking to the authorities. We had no idea what was actually happening.
When we got out, there she was, talking to an officer. Because you know, someone probably kidnapped two adults in a crowded building packed with security and tourists.
8. A Little Slice Of Life
A 13-year-old kid down the street has the most ridiculous family. His mom, dad, and grandma were always with him. ALWAYS. He had NEVER been away from them. Even when they have a nanny to watch him, one of them was there. The kid was never on his own for anything. But then it got extremely creepy.
We had them to a party in the park and when the 13-year-old asked for a hot dog the mom FREAKED out. Not because it was a hot dog, as some parents have dietary restrictions, but because I served them whole! She took the hot dog from his hand and cut it for him into little baby bites, like I would do for my one-year-old at the time.
She then handed it back to him like she saved his life. Let me get this straight: He was a normal teen with no mental impediments. The dad also took him to the bathroom with a gallon of sanitizer and baby wipes and make "sure" the boy washed his hands.
These people hold regular jobs—one is a lawyer, one is an admin at our local hospital, and the grandma used to be an executive with the state attorney. They seem to have taken it to the next level helicoptering weirdness.
9. Just Checking In
I once had a mother call me to find out why her son didn't get the job. He's 40. And an attorney.
10. The Only Thing To Fear Is Fear Itself
I worked with a woman whose four-year-old LOVED airplanes. There was a big air show coming to the area, and I asked her if she was taking her son to the air show, as he would probably love it. She said she was worried they were too dangerous, and a plane could crash into the crowd. So they didn't go. Great parenting. Rob your child of an incredible experience because you have an irrational fear.
11. One And One Only
I knew a kid way back in the day, and his parents overly supervised everything he did. If he wanted to "play outside", well it has to be in the little "park" that's 50 feet from their front door. And when he did go over, the dad would just be staring out the windows. Any bad language? That's a paddlin'. Sarcasm? You better believe that's a paddlin'.
I remember one time someone had bought some Swedish Fish and was sharing them with everyone. Their response stunned me. The mom comes flying out and says, "You can only have ONE fish....." and then watched him eat a single fish to make sure he wouldn't eat any other.
Now the kid is so deep in the closet he's wrapping Christmas Presents and so stressed he could turn coal into diamonds.
12. Slow Your Roll
I am in private elementary education, so helicopter parents are right up my alley. I had a student one year who was the middle child of three and the mother was the textbook definition of a helicopter. But it was more than that, she also had a bad case of "wanting to be your 10-year-old's best friend instead of their parent". Here is a short list of things she did.
She would come attend school events (like plays, etc), and try to sit next to her child on the floor. She would deliver her child lunch every single day. Not send in a packed lunch, mind you. She would deliver something. Like fast food. And she always had enough for herself as well, so she basically tried to come eat lunch with her daughter every day.
One day I confronted the student about this and made up a bogus rule that her mom had to bring me lunch as well. It had unintended consequences. Sure enough the next day I got a sub from Subway. She would also let the girl stay home for any and all reasons that she wanted. The girl was literally absent 25 days the year before I had her.
I tried my best to crush that bad habit and got her down to 14 days absent when I had her). Some of the notes and doctors’ excuses the mom sent in were really ridiculous. When she was at the school for her younger child, for example when she came by for kindergarten parties or whatever, she would sneak out and walk the halls and peek through the classroom windows of her other two kids to "check on them".
I would joke with our principal that this woman might secretly be an employee of our security company trying to find flaws in our security procedures. We had to come up with all sorts of new rules and procedures for all the parents to follow just to stop this one woman. The girl was not a very good student, and I am pretty sure more than half of the homework handed into me was completed by the mother. My final interaction with her was bonkers.
I invited her and her husband in for a conference because I gave the girl a 0 for missing an assignment with an unexcused absence. I basically forced the mother to admit that she took the girl shopping that day instead of bringing her to school. The dad was completely unaware this was happening and went off on her right in front of me.
It didn't solve the problem permanently, as she continued to helicopter the following year before leaving the school, but it toned it down while I had her at least. The sad thing is you encounter parents like this all the time. They don't realize the long-term harm they are causing their children or the bad habits they are helping them to develop.
13. See No Evil, Do No Evil
I was moving in freshmen to the dorms, because if you agreed to move the newbies you got to move in three days early and beat the rush. This man approaches me and asks, "Is this a co-ed dorm"? "Yes..." "I asked for my daughter to be in the all-female dorm". "Oh, I understand sir, that's actually right across the breezeway. Usually, it's in Building X, but X is being renovated so they moved it here. That entire wing is only female".
"But she could walk over here and it would be co-ed" "...Well yes sir, she could walk anywhere she wants to". ".................I'll tell her she's not allowed to walk this way". I never found out who is daughter was, but I'm sure she followed those rules.
14. Great Minds Think For Themselves
One lady we had over at our house was shocked that my (at the time) nine-year-old younger brother could dress himself and brush his teeth. She claimed that he was “so mature” and that her daughter, also age nine, couldn’t do anything like that. My mom immediately realized it was helicopter parenting and had a long talk with her.
I hope that little girl has learned how to dress herself and do lots of other basics now...
15. Ruining It For Everyone Else
My dad coached my hockey team when I was 10-12. He was a great coach and was friends with my friends’ dads and also got them to coach. So here we are in this rinky-dink town and we're running the table on team after team because my coaches actually cared about the kids. We have organized practices. We have skills we try to develop.
Every day we got better. Every game, whether it was a win or a loss we learned something. The last year my dad coached, we had this kid on the team. His name was Chad, and he didn't want to be there. He was very overweight (at 12) and he probably had asthma. He lacked any sense of competitive instincts and he was a complete introvert.
The entire season my dad focused on trying to get him to open up. He tried to get him better and tried to get him to love to play sports. By the end of the season, it was starting to work but...you can't coach asthma away just by being positive about it. And there was another problem. Chad's mom was at all of the games that year and every tournament.
A real winner that woman was. Never cheered for anyone but her son, and her son was the absolute...best. For out-of-town tournaments, we used to have the Zamboni come on between periods.
During that time, we'd be in the dressing room. Chad's mom would come in with a burger for her son....to eat between periods 1 and 2. Between 2 and 3....it'd be fries and gravy. Just like all the sports stars eat. She also kept track of his minutes.
She brought a notepad to every game with a stopwatch and timed how long Chad's shifts were. How often he was passed the puck. How many power play or penalty opportunities he got. You know, the full stats package that you'd expect to get as a professional athlete.
Near the end of the season and throughout playoffs, she would accost my dad, a volunteer coach who had two jobs and three sons to take care of, and ream him out in the hallway. She would do this within earshot of the dressing room. She'd complain about Chad's time on the ice and show the stat sheets she had accumulated. This we all heard.
Chad couldn't have shrunk any lower into his seat. We tried to pump him up but she embarrassed him...every game. EVERY single game she did this. Until at the end of the season, when disaster struck. She finally got her way and got my dad "fired" from his volunteer job. My dad...a former high school and university level coach...fired from his volunteer job...because her son wasn't treated "equally".
I wonder sometimes how that story is spun around Chad's family. I wonder if my dad is cast as the supervillain like some Disney sports movie. I wonder if Chad is always the hero and I wonder whatever happened to him. If all that fighting and pushing by his mom ever ended or did it just continue...for life? I'll never know because he quit hockey and never came back.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team who had the best-coached hockey in their young lives lost three amazing coaches because of one nutcase woman. Participation trophies are NEVER something a kid demands. They have everything to do with the crazy moms and dads who are living vicariously through their poor kids.
Then these jerks have the nerve to say, "Well when we grew up we didn't get participation trophies just for showing up..." Well of course you didn’t, you idiots. You're the morons that invented them.
16. Joined At The Hip
I went to boarding school for high school, and when I was a senior, there was a freshman whose mother would drive three hours every weekend to be with her. On said weekends her mother wouldn't take her out. Instead, she would hang out with her friends with her, to the point where I think the mother thought she was friends with her daughter's friends.
Field trips? She would go. Band tours? She would make sure she was at every place they performed.
The mother would try and assign extra homework for her to do on top of her school work, which went on until a Dean found out and yelled at the mom. I went to alumni this year and I stayed at an old staff member's house. This house happened to be where the class that graduated that year was having a gathering. Lo and behold, the girl was there...and so was her mother.
17. Calling You Out
I was a trustee for my college fraternity. The final week of pledging has the recruits live in the fraternity house. We have them turn over their phones for the week. This turned out to be a huge mistake. On day two of the week, campus officers come knocking on the door looking for one of the recruits. Turns out that his mother would call him every morning to wake him for class.
18. Just Let It Go
My mother is ridiculous. She sets up fake Facebook accounts with other peoples' names (like her financial advisor) in order to see if she can view my own FB page. I'm 38. When I was married a handful of years ago, she would reprimand me if I went places—the grocery store, dinner with MY friends—without my husband. My mom is VERY independent.
This is a family rumor that she denies: She somehow got through on the phone to my college's president and told him "My daughter was a good Christian girl until she went to YOUR school". I went to a Christian college, and I have no doubt that this "rumor" actually happened. She's definitely the type. When I was in high school, I was barely allowed to walk the four-six blocks to school. But there was a catch.
No one was ever allowed to use the telephone in the school office except in an emergency. Except me. Everyone in town knows my mom AND her reputation, and they bow to her whims because they pick their battles. So I was required to call my mom every morning when I arrived at school after those six blocks—I had special permission to use the phone.
One morning I forgot. She called the principal, who called over the intercom in my classroom and asked whether I was in class, because my mom was on the phone wondering if I had made it the six blocks to school. Throughout my 18 years living with my parents, I spent ONE night alone at home. I was never allowed to be alone, just truly never.
Even as a teenager, on the rare occasion that both of my parents were not home overnight, I had to have a babysitter. My mom's former best friend, who made me sleep on her neighbor's pool deck and then took photos of me in the morning as I woke up, bleary-eyed in my sleeping bag. And this woman also had an exaggerated love of clowns. Thanks mom.
Public domain pictures
19. Lies, Lies, And More Lies
I had a friend during college whose mom was overly concerned with her whereabouts constantly. I'd say it was borderline mistreatment points, and she possibly wasn't entirely mentally well. She'd randomly come and pick my friend up while we were out, and would monitor the water/gas/electricity in their house whenever she went away to try and see whether my friend had stayed out or had people over.
Her mom saw how relaxed my mom was about my life, and definitely took an immediate disliking to BOTH of us pretty early on. We once got tickets to a city music festival—you know, the ones where loads of bars and music venues across one city hold performances during the daytime. There was only one act that I reeeeeally wanted to see, and it was at the end of the night.
So I spent most of the day trawling around town, drinking and seeing the acts that my friend wanted to see. I was having a good time, but was also sort of counting down the hours until I got to see the band I'd really bought my ticket for. We were planning on meeting some of our other friends there and managed to organize it all…before my phone really annoyingly died the act before, in another venue across town.
My friend's mom (obviously) knew which acts we were planning on seeing and where they were. Bear in mind that we were adults, and that this was during the day in what was pretty much our home city. About half an hour before we were about to leave to see the band I'd essentially waited ALL DAY for, my friend's mom called her to say that she'd checked online and saw that the final venue was overcrowded.
She said that they were turning people away at the door, so she was coming to pick us up and take us home right away. I didn't question this and was meant to be staying with her family so wasn't about to turn my ride home away. I was kind of disappointed that I'd paid a fair bit of money (to me anyway) to see one of my favorite bands for the first time, and didn't even get the chance, but I'd had a good day regardless, so I wasn't totally bummed out.
Anyway, we got back to her family's house. I grabbed my phone charger and managed to restart my phone and bring it back to life. The text messages I saw infuriated me. There were a few messages from the friends we had intended to meet at the last venue, and they flashed up all at once. Apparently, the venue was hardly full at all and we'd missed out on a really good gig.
It was super weird, but I chose not to bring it up to this woman even though I was angry about not only missing out on a good gig for no reason, but also wasting all that money. It's one thing to be a helicopter parent and control everything your kids do, but doing the same thing to your adult kids' friends is just certified crazy. I do not enjoy that woman.
20. Thanks But No Thanks
My sister was friends with this girl in middle school whose mom would put her tampons in for her because she was worried she wouldn't do it right. Tampons, not pads, not that pads would have been normal either. My sister was at a sleepover and before they went to bed the girl told her mom she needed her tampon changed. The whole thing was just really bizarre all around.
21. Mommy’s Little Girl
Back in the 90s, this popular girl in grade five or so would get dropped off by her mom to school and picked up. Ok, that's normal. But several times a week her mom would drive by really slow at recess and park on a gravel road about 200m away from the playground and just sit there and watch. I'm guessing her mom didn't have a job or something, but it was super creepy.
This girl would also get constant phone calls from her mom at the office because this was before cell phones. It happened several times a week and I have no clue what her deal is.
22. I’m An Adult Now
I was going to move into a dorm with a friend, but her mother contacted the administration and insisted that she live in the same residence as the dorm minder to make sure she was doing her homework and staying away from parties. We were 20, and where we live, the drinking age is 18. So essentially, absolutely none of this woman’s business OR the dorm minder’s.
Her mother would also show up after seminars to walk her home (10 minutes away), and would contact professors to negotiate extensions and protest bad grades. There was something I didn’t know, though. I found out afterward that this girl had a pretty serious history of mental illness, so there were legitimate reasons to be concerned for her safety.
Still, I couldn't help but think a lot of her problems resulted from being told over and over again that she couldn't be trusted to stand on her own two feet.
23. Don’t Worry, Mommy’s Here
My brother was injured in a training accident in the Israeli army. It wasn't life-threatening but it was a pretty messy injury that needed immediate care. For some reason, the base commander tried to hide the injury and refused to send my brother to the hospital. Instead, he sent him to the camp medic, who took one look at my brother and said "Here, have some morphine and I'm going to call for help".
My brother asked him to call my mom. My mom, a colonel at the time, commandeered a helicopter along with a squad of men. She then flew up into Lebanon where my brother was based, landed in the middle of his base, ordered her way into the medical tent while setting the men outside as guards, loaded my brother into the chopper, and evacuated him out.
To be fair, she's a great mom who usually lets us fail on our own, but you asked for helicopter parenting examples, it doesn't get more helicopter parent than actually commandeering a helicopter to go take care of your son!
24. Can I Speak To A Manager?
On more than one occasion I've told some helicopter moms that they're going to need to wait in the lobby while I interview their child for the job. If your kid is 18, they're legally an adult and therefore you have no right whatsoever to be present in that interview.
30% of moms would try to intimidate me as if I were their child or husband, but would back down when they saw I didn't care. 60% threw temper tantrums that cost their child the job. 10% tried to have me fired.
25. All Seeing, All Knowing
My girlfriend's mother is awful. My girlfriend is 22 in a few months, but this woman keeps track of my girlfriend’s bank account and credit card purchases. She also keeps track of her cell phone call logs and asks her why she's having long phone calls with this phone number, which is obviously mine. I guess it doesn't help that my girlfriend and I have been secretly dating for about a year and a half.
26. Somebody’s Always Watching
As a kid, my sister had a friend and went over to her house quite a bit to hang out with her. The friend lived in a very nice, quiet neighborhood. After a day of hanging with her friend at her house, my sister came home and told me that her friend’s parents had placed cameras in her room.
The camera was also equipped with a microphone to not only hear what was going on in her room, but also to speak to the child. My sister told stories after coming home about the mom calling into the room to sometimes tell them to stop doing an activity or to be a little more quiet.
THIS WOMAN WAS WATCHING THEIR EVERY MOVE AND LISTENING TO THEIR EVERY CONVERSATION! I feel bad for the girl, honestly. To me, that’s a huge invasion of privacy, as well as it is extremely creepy in general. If it were me, I’d throw every camera installed in the room straight out the window, or at the mom. Whichever.
27. Family Comes First
I have a friend whose parents make them drive an hour back to their house from her university four times a week to “keep an eye on her”. That’s not even the worst part. This girl is busy. She’s working three jobs—because her parents won’t help her with tuition, not can’t—is the president of a club, and is taking the hardest class of her major this quarter. They don’t care at all.
28. Going The Distance
My mother got me kicked out of the Army after learning I was going into a role where I might see combat. The lengths she went to were jaw-dropping. She contacted two Senators, worked her way through the chain of command until she got to my CO and apparently ticked off my CO to the point where I received "special attention" afterward.
I spent three months in the reception battalion (which is the first stop before boot camp ) in a Line of Sight vest—it was pink with reflective tape and generally reserved for flight risks and suicidal people. After a 15-minute visit with one of the psychologists, I was deemed to have Major Depressive Disorder and received an Entry Level Separation discharge.
On the last day, my CO went through my paperwork and ripped it up so I couldn't re-enter the force. I come from a family who has served continuously for five generations until me. I was 18 at the time.
29. Can’t Let Go And Can’t Relax
Mine. My mother is horrible. I was 20 years old and still not allowed out of the house without my mom, and I had to hold hands crossing the street. I never had a job, never learned to cook, all because I was, in her words, going to live with her forever. I got a boyfriend, even though I'd never been allowed to visit anyone's house. Ever.
She asked to see his social security number and birth certificate to prove he was the age he said he was. I told her I wanted to move out and she freaked. She called the authorities and told them I was mentally unstable, told them I wasn't ready for the outside world, told them any lie that she could. Unfortunately, they believed her and it took me a full year to actually escape.
I even had relatives parked outside at night to make sure I didn't leave. I'm now 23 and slowly adjusting to the world but it's hard. I can cook but driving is hard. I have no social skills. I don't know how to talk to people. And she still asks me to come home every day via text.
30. The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far
My cousin wasn't allowed to watch the show Arthur on PBS. I don't even remember why but let's be real, there's no way there's a logical reason for that. But it didn’t stop there. She couldn't watch most of the Disney Channel because the kids are kind of snotty to their parents at times. Ok, I can agree with that analysis but usually they learn a lesson about it right?
I watched it and wasn’t a jerk to my parents, and neither are most kids on balance. She couldn't listen to any secular music until she was about 15 or 16, and even then they were very restrictive about it. When she was an infant, her mom objected to baby pictures that showed the baby's butt (or chest, if it's a female baby) in case some creep somehow got his hands on it.
She had a celebrity crush on Josh Hutcherson when she was like 11 or 12 but apparently, at some point, he said something that indicated he was bi and that was the end of that. And just for good measure whenever I visited, she would parent ME too. I remember she forced me to take medicine when I was feeling a little under the weather.
She also forced me to do chores I didn't normally do at home, and then told me I needed to be better at dishwashing if I wanted to make a good wife someday. No, really. She followed all that up with telling me I worked too hard to get an education and, again, that wasn’t going to make me a good wife to someone. Good times, am I right?
31. Two Parents, Two Problems
A guy I know is 23. He has two moms and he was adopted. I'm not sure which mom is worse. One of them runs all his social media accounts. We would get messages from him that just sounded weird. When asked, he would have no idea what he said. He has a cell phone that can only call his parents and 9-1-1. He’s not allowed to drive.
Any time he goes somewhere new, his mom tags along for a few hours to "check things out". He's only allowed to eat at certain restaurants, and he has to check in with his moms constantly. He doesn't see any issue with this...I almost think it's a form of mistreatment, honestly. He is not an independent thinker, and he relies on everyone else to make decisions for him. Smart kid, though.
32. Entitlement Breeds Entitlement
This man-child was fired from our work, and his mom called to complain to the operations manager about it being unfair. She even complained to the Vice President of North America's large company about the manager being unfair. The man-child was hired because he lived next door to the VP North America of this fairly large international company.
He did whatever he wanted at work because everyone was afraid of firing him. My boss sacrificed a small contract to get rid of the guy—the man child had mucked it up, and there was no room with some of the other local projects, so he was sent back to the regional offices. The man-child decided to not show up to work for a week so he could play a new release of Call of Duty instead.
The Operations Manager told him he better have an excuse, and the man-child’s response made us all burst out laughing. He provided a note from his mom. Well, the man-child was fired. The mom decided to ream out the Operations Manager, accusing him of unfairly targeting her son, and then of course she started in on her neighbor, the Vice President, at the company Christmas party.
33. Don’t Step A Foot Out Of Line
I'm 18. My parents make me have an app that tracks the location and speed in vehicles and such. I'm also in college about three hours away from home. One night at around 8 pm I decided I was going to go get some pictures at the lake literally across the street from campus. It was less than a two-minute walk. I think it’s no big deal, obviously.
The second my foot hits the other side of the street, I get a text from my mom asking me what I'm doing. Stuff like this happens all the time. Cool! So not weird at all to know that you were watching my location at that exact moment like a hawk! Things like this are the reason I have really bad anxiety. So now I just spoof my location 24/7 because it's really unnecessary to ask me where I'm going or what I'm doing every time I leave my room.
34. Hurting More Than Helping
A few years ago we were hiring for an entry-level help desk position. A nice kid came in with his mom. I very politely offered her something to drink and a place she could sit away from the interview space. She was NOT invited to the interview itself. This lady started to get very aggressive about being in the room, and the poor kid was getting embarrassed.
My final answer was that he was no longer being considered for the position, and she lost it. Our receptionist called the authorities and they were there within a minute. She calmed down a little when the officers arrived, almost as if she had been through this before. They nicely escorted her off the property, and luckily we never heard from her again.
35. Make It Make Sense
I work in a college, and we get helicopter parents constantly. I think my favorite example was a mother who called every day, telling us how to do our jobs and listing off rolodexes of complaints about things, including how we don't treat the students like adults and saying that we coddle them. Ok, lady.
In the same breath, she was asking me to divulge information regarding her son’s health care and information with the college. She also refused to let him speak to me himself because he was only a kid and she would handle it. Hmmmm.
36. Get A Hold Of Yourself
I was a soccer referee as a tween and teenager. At first, I only worked the U-6 and U-8 games. Yes, they used refs for those brackets in my association, though they didn't use lines-people for those games. Anyway, one blustery November day, I was working a U-8 game. The wind was so loud I couldn't hear well, and neither the patter of rain nor the murmur of the crowd helped.
One of the kids behind me tripped and fell. He cried, but in a whimpery sobbing way that didn't travel in that wind. None of the players saw, none of the coaches saw, and I didn't see. I paid a high price for the mistake. This kid's dad was furious and ran out on the field screaming.
I heard him as he got within a couple yards, and turned in time for him to shove me to the ground. He was then standing over me screaming. I was 12. I complained to the league referee coordinator, but nothing ever came of it that I know of. If he had actually been playing, he'd get a 15-yard flag and then wouldn't be allowed back the next week.
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37. Who Will Think Of The Children?
Now, I was a non-traditional, older student when I went to college. I was 24 in freshman year, not super old, but old enough. I wanted to do the whole thing so I got stuck in a dorm, and unfortunately forced into a triple. Okay, that’s okay, I'm trying out college and I guess this is part of it. Besides, I'll move to an apartment the following year.
Nope. A mom of one of the other students called the admissions office to complain about me being in the dorm, saying that I'd buy her kid drinks even though I didn't drink at the time. I ended up getting to move out into an on-campus apartment, all because of her. The best part was, I was going to work when they were moving in and she was all proud of the fact that she had me thrown out of the dorm.
The kid, meanwhile, was embarrassed. I was like "Oh, thanks, I'm sorry but I have to go to work". You know, like a responsible ADULT. She looked a little sheepish at that point.
38. Not Very Thankful Right Now
One time in high school band, we were supposed to travel up north to play in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Naturally, we were going to stay a few nights in a hotel, and there were going to be four people per room. My mom then had the bright idea to come with me and STAY in the same room with me and two other 17-year-old boys.
Thankfully my dad talked her out of it, but she still insisted that I text her every day of the trip.
39. Some Un-Motherly Advice
My ex-boyfriend’s mother was so controlling of her own son that she eventually wanted to control ME. It got so wild, so fast. She actually once told me to quit my part-time job because I am "a woman and it's dangerous out there". She also tried to stop me from pursuing music and go to graduate school with her son.
During dinner one time, she sat me down and told me to choose between work or family and then waited for my answer. I was 23, he was 25, and we dated for seven months. Can’t say she wasn’t a factor in the breakup.
40. My Mom Said I Could Do It
Tales from the classroom: First off, that time a parent argued with me when their child cheated. Their reasoning? It was all fine because I didn't specifically say that copying homework was cheating. Second, but related: That time the parent clearly wrote the entire essay for her child. Parents, let your kids fail and learn. There is no other way.
41. Fail Harder
My own mother is a total helicopter mom, and on top of that, she's a narcissist. Some highlights: We lived in a microscopic, small town of something like 500 people. There was a gas station right across the street from our house. However, I was not allowed to cross the street on my own until I was 14 because I might get hit by one of the three cars that drove past per day.
I wasn't allowed to ride a bike—at all, no exceptions—until I was 12. And then I had training wheels forever and couldn't leave the driveway. Just had to dink about in the driveway with training wheels at 12 years old. I wish that was the worst of it. But no. Anything I wanted to try, I was allowed to do ONCE and then when I inevitably failed it was "I told you that you were going to get _____".
Rollerskating. Once. Of course I fell. She KNEW I wasn't coordinated enough for that. Swim lessons. One. She KNEW I wasn't strong enough for that. Track. One practice. She KNEW I wasn't tall enough for that. And so on and so forth. On the rare occasions that I was allowed to leave the house, she went with me or would turn up where I was.
Somehow when I was 16 she let me get a job at a burger joint....and sat there my. entire. shift. She chaperoned every single school trip. Happy ending: I turned out pretty okay in the end. I'm a reasonably functional adult who's not afraid of everything. The only thing that hung on is sadly, the belief that I'll fail at everything. Can't get rid of it.
42. The Sunday Scaries
My ex's helicopter mother once freaked out and left increasingly tearful messages on the answerphone every few minutes for over two hours. Why you ask? Because he wasn't at home to take her weekly Sunday call and therefore Something Must Be Wrong. He was 36 at the time.
If he had always been in for that call I'd have given her a little bit of leeway, but he was not always at home at that time, and had never promised that he would be.
43. Driving Me Crazy
My parents, especially my mom, are really bad about control issues. I was back home for winter break from university during sophomore year and hanging out at my friend's house, who lived one or two streets away. At 10 pm, my parents called and asked me to come home. Ok, fine, I didn't have a curfew, so I thought I was okay, but whatever.
I guess I'll go, even if I wanted to hang with my friends longer. Still, I knew my parents wouldn't let me go out the rest of the break, so this was my one shot and I might ruin my future chances if I argued. Also, they refused to sleep until I came home, and I wanted them to rest for their own health. But then they freaked out because it was apparently too dark and unsafe outside.
Therefore, I could not be trusted to walk the few feet to my car and drive the one-minute home. Note that my friend and I both live in relatively wealthier, safer neighborhoods, and the streets were well lit. Anyway, my parents called my friends' parents and asked them to FOLLOW me the one minute it took me to drive home. I had a darn parade on a one-minute drive.
Meanwhile, I had to inconvenience everybody in the process. Thankfully I'm attending university in a different state and can just ignore them, but going home always sucks. If the price of living wasn't so high, my parents would have definitely moved to that state where I study by now.
44. All’s Well That Ends Well?
My best friend in college had to deal with a helicopter mom, but it had awful consequences for him. We stayed in an apartment and that was how I got to know him and became friends. Until his undergrad degree, he has never strayed away from his mom's vision. Some of the things that occurred, and the behavior exhibited by him shocked me.
Like, he cannot fold clothes, not even make an attempt. Fun fact: He does not know that he wears his socks inside out at times. He does not know his clothes and shoe size. His mom apparently picks clothes for him, which includes, yes you guessed it, underwear too. I saw him receive boxes from his mom during graduation which had clothes to wear for job interviews.
His mom selected his car, color, and make, and then he went and bought it. The same goes for his phone and/or other electronics he has. He cannot cook even if his life depended on it. We actually banned him from cooking anything on stove after he triggered the fire alarm three times in the apartment after attempting to cook dinner.
We all wondered how he can survive once he starts working and living alone. Yep, his mom figured that out too. She found a girl for him to marry. His wife is a stay-at-home spouse doing cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. The thing is, the guy is genuinely nice and does not have an ego. His wife is also pretty cool too. He is working in a big company earning lots of money and has two kids now.
All in all, he is quite successful and him and his wife are very much happily married. But I’m not sure he knows what he’s missing.
45. It’s In The Air
I just saw a mother walk into a classroom with a handheld Radiation Meter. She revealed herself to be a true nutbar. She proceeds to tell the teacher that little Billy needs to sit in the back corner of the classroom because of the toxic school WIFI radiation. Joke's on her when I tell her that visible light is also technically "toxic radiation".
Maybe she'll go back to whatever cave she crawled out of—this time with her lights turned out.
46. Not Giving Up Gracefully
I work in HR at a large telecommunications company. We usually sit in the conference room and can see and hear the interview candidates while they are waiting in the lobby. This poor guy was probably 19 or 20 and his mother wanted to go into the interview with him. We actually had to ask her to wait outside the lobby, because even after being asked to sit down she said it was her "right" to be in there.
The guy didn't end up getting the job, and she later called and asked where she could send an appeal letter...wish I had saved that letter, it was intense.
47. He Shoots, They Scream
You haven't seen anything until you've seen helicopter hockey parents. They don't only hover over their own kids, they encourage horrible sportsmanship. A few years ago when my goalie brother was playing Squirt AA (so about age 9 to 10), the opposing team equipped themselves with the age-old and shady strategy of “run the goalie”.
The coaches were in on this, the parents cheered bloodthirstily whenever these little jerks rammed into my brother, and they kept this up more than they attempted to score. My brother had had enough. The poor kid snapped and walloped the next boy who skidded into his crease (the net area), which was totally justifiable by that point.
This redneck-looking woman and her husband immediately got up, started screeching about their POOR PRECIOUS JOEY and GET THAT GOALIE OUT OF THERE, REF! Eventually, their whole cheering system was on their feet and yelling out obscene stuff about taking my brother out. To 10-year-olds. They all got escorted out by security. You cannot make this stuff up.
48. The Girl In The Bubble
I was not allowed to walk to school by myself even though it was literally one block away from my house because my mom said I would get attacked. I was in Junior High. I was never allowed to be unattended and was not allowed to go to friends’ houses because my parents did not trust other parents. This extended all the way through high school.
Then I started "acting out" and they sent me to a lock-down mental health treatment facility. My childhood was painfully lonely, to say the least.
49. A Steep Cost
This is a sad story, but it shows the absolute ridiculousness of over-parenting. When I was 12, about a decade ago, a good friend of mine lived across the street from a family with two young boys. They were always extremely overprotective. Like, the mother stood outside while her kids played (they were 10 and nine years old) and as long as I could remember they weren't even allowed to cross the street alone.
Finally, the oldest was allowed to walk across the street to play with a friend. It ended in utter tragedy. The first day he walked out into the street, he was struck by an oncoming car and perished immediately. The parents had always held their hands while they crossed the street and never taught them the rules to cross, like looking both ways.
It's terrible some of these parents don't teach their kids but try to do everything for them.
50. Helicopter Hilda Always Gets Her Way
I drive a school bus. At one stop, last week, one of the kids was late but I could see him exiting his house some 200 meters away. His mom was carefully closing his coat, fastening his backpack, and then I watched his slow saunter to the bus across the playground. I was holding up traffic so I released the stop signal, closed the door, and crept forward three car lengths to resume the flow of traffic.
Then I opened my door and told him to hurry. By the time I completed my stops, some 12 minutes later, I parked at the school. I couldn’t believe my eyes. At the parking lot, I saw his mom waiting. The temperature that morning was freezing, yet the mom's ski coat was wide open. She was just wearing a low-cut t-shirt with more cleavage than coverage showing.
He pupils were dilated like she had perhaps stopped at the ophthalmologists' on the way. She was cursing, screaming, and slamming the side of my bus. How dare I rush her son and threaten to drive off? I wrote up an incident report. The school, my manager, and my Union Steward sided with the mom. I asked them to add three minutes to that stop on my route sheet.
So far they have not. But helicopter Hilda gets her way now.
Sources: Reddit,
