20 Of The Most Extreme Examples Of Helicopter Parenting That Made Us Say, 'WTF?'

From Redditor u/darkerthanmysoul:

I had a mother turn up at my workplace accusing me of racism [because] I didn’t hire her daughter. We’re a very multicultural practice, and myself and two other people are white English, six Indian staff, two Greek, two Nigerian, three Chinese, and three Pakistani.

I took her to our photo wall of staff and asked her why she thinks I was racist, and she said that her daughter “looked more Indian than the other staff”... Her daughter, who was more than qualified, didn’t get the job for a couple of reasons:

1) She refused to put her phone away during the interview in case her mother phoned.

2) Her mother phoned more than 10 times and she answered every call.

3) She asked if she could keep her mum on the phone to listen [in on] the interview in case she needed help to answer my questions.

How could she run a practice if she needed to have her mum help her at the interview?

From Redditor u/flotiste:

Military recruiting. The helicopter parents who would try to have us recruit their kid without their consent were staggering.

Parents would call to make appointments for testing and were furious when we said we had to speak to the kid. If the kid is a minor, the parents have to sign a waiver, and at that point, we can no longer give any information to the parent, so some parents would call and pose as their child in order to get test results, book appointments, and so on.

Some parents even tried to attend the testing with their child and were furious when we said no.

Then, invariably, when little Johnny got turned down, we'd get an earful from Mommy about how their child is the most special human being on the Earth.

The fun times were when I could say, "Have you stopped to consider that Johnny isn't getting a job because he has no initiative or desire to be here based on a parent pushing him into a career he doesn't want, rather than him being allowed to make his own choices?"

Usually didn't go over well, and then I'd hang up.

From Redditor u/Nosynonymforsynonym:

I worked at a science museum that had hands-on for kids. The aim of the game was for the child to solve a problem by themselves. Like "can you get x to do y," they make something, test it, and figure out how to make it better.

One day, a woman comes in practically dragging her 5-year-old son. She sits him down beside me and starts poking me on the shoulder [as] I'm talking to another family.

"Tell my son what to do," she says, standing over him. I tell the family to hold on a sec, as I explain the challenge to the newcomer. The whole point is to work autonomously, so it was alright, and I was used to working with a few rude/pushy parents, so I wasn't surprised. I tell the kid the prompt, tell him he had a wide range of materials...

But no. The woman wants me to tell him every step of the process. "Tell him the answer! Tell him the answer!" she says repeatedly, grabbing his hands to make him fold paper, or reaching for my own.

I start getting mad. "Ma'am, the goal here is to learn the scientific method. Make a hypothesis, test it, make conclusions, and try again."

"But you already KNOW the answer," she says, "Tell my son! Or I'm calling your manager!"

I don't even have a manager. In the meantime, the poor kid is looking so embarrassed. Ever time he tries to start something for himself, his mom reaches for his hands and tells him to wait for me to tell him what to do. The woman was so afraid of him failing when the whole point was to learn from one's mistakes. I'm so worried about how he'll deal with mistakes growing up with her around.

From Redditor u/TrulyGoofy:

While working at new student orientation in college, I was told a story from a previous year. The parents who attended orientation were housed separately from the students. One mom wanted to stay with her daughter and took the bed of another student. The mom told the student she can find somewhere else to sleep.

The student, not knowing what to do, ended up sleeping in a chair in the common area of the dorm.

From Redditor u/longhorn_2017:

My sister is a freshman in college, and her roommate has an absolute psycho helicopter mom.

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 place.

My sister said one time they were at Walmart getting groceries, and her mom called her to ask why she was at Walmart 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.

From Redditor u/hansn:

I teach high school and occasionally college. [In] one teacher-parent meeting for a high school student, the mother mentioned her other kid was enrolled at a local university, and that she (the mother) was also enrolling in the same classes to ensure her daughter did her work.