Unfortunately, having a helicopter parent is not as fun as it sounds. No, these moms and dads don't take their kids on extravagant chopper rides across the country. Instead, they take an overprotective if not abusive role in their children's lives.
From monitoring diets to picking career options and even partners, these helicopter parents are a lot like well... their namesake; always hovering above their target and ready to swoop in at a moment's notice. The folks in these stories share their most annoying and worrisome stories of their overly excessive parents.
*Casually Throws Away My DVDs*
“I gave my friend like ten cheap movies I got for about $2 each for his birthday. Some of it was really horrible like Bulletproof Monk, but we just took it as comedy and watched a bunch. They were all action/adventure. Suddenly, his mom comes in and says that she made us snacks, and she would prefer we eat it in the kitchen so that we don’t leave crumbs. After we ate it, we went back into the room to find all the DVDs gone. She had taken them all because they were not ‘appropriate.’ Didn’t even have the decency to ask us not to watch. She had to trick us to get rid of ’em. What’s worse, I found out later she had just tossed them away. My friend asked if he could just give it back to me, since overall it cost me just over $20, but she said she was doing me a favor too.
This was three years ago, when we were 18 years old.”
The Neighbors Used To Call The Police
“When I was in high school, there was a website that allowed my parents to see, at any time, an up-to-date record of the grade I got on every assignment for every class, as well as the total grade for the class. My mother was a controlling psychopath, and the most memorable thing was her use of this website: if any grade, class total or single assignment, was under 95%, her wrath was inconsolable. I’m talking 12+ hours of screaming, ending only when she finally lost her voice.
She would also grab any of my possessions she could reach at any time and attempt to destroy it (I lost four Game Boys, three televisions, and a laptop to her, all purchased myself). If I was lucky, she would remember to take a break from her screaming to make dinner. If not, I would have to find something I could sneak for my little sister and I. There were several times when the neighbors would call the police because they thought there was a serious altercation going on in the house. Eventually, they learned to ignore it.”
She Sat In A Car Seat Until She Was A Freshman!
“I had a Chinese friend in middle/high school who was adopted by an old white couple who were SUPER weird and overprotective.
Some of the things I remember about her parents:
When she got her license, her 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.
They wouldn’t let her ride the school bus, join any clubs, or hang out with anyone after 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 drove a mini-van and made her sit in a car seat in the very back row until like freshman year of high school.
Mom volunteered at whatever school we were at, and would sit with us at lunch to make sure her daughter was eating.”
Don’t Worry About Failing The Interview That’s What Parents Are For!
“Background: I am of Korean descent. I’m familiar with Korean enough to get by.
Near the time I was set to graduate from college, my parents saw a job posting for a new office in my area for a major Korean electronics company. Let’s call them ‘Life’s Great’, or ‘LG’ for short. I’m sure you’ll never guess which company I’m referring to…
Anyways, my parents sent me the job posting. In looking over the details, I was a pretty good fit. So I called up the recruiter. Lucky me, turned out the recruiter was just recently sent over from Korea to the US, and barely spoke any English. The phone call was on a Monday, and it was all done in Korean.
Me: ‘Hi, I’m calling about Job Ad (####), in (City).’
Guy: ‘Yeah, tell me about your experience. And how’s your English?’
Me: (switching to English) ‘My English is pretty good, I think, since I did grow up here.’ (Switch back to Korean) ‘I can email you my resume, but here’s a rundown of my coursework.’
Guy: ‘Wait, wait, you’re fluent in both languages AND you know about manufacturing quality control?? Yeah, send me your resume, but can you also come in for an interview tomorrow?’
Me: ‘I’m actually still at school, and I have midterms this week. I can come Friday.’
Guy: ‘Oh, Friday will be difficult for me. How about next Friday?’
Me: ‘Sounds good.’
Excited, I called my parents up and told them the good news. I also told them that I’d be back in town for an interview on the following Friday, since the guy was apparently busy this coming Friday.
Monday rolled around, and I didn’t hear from him. Tuesday. Then Wednesday. A bit concerned, as he hadn’t responded to my email inquiry about the interview time and location, I gave him a call.
Guy: ‘Oh hi, yeah, sorry, we’ve decided to go a different route. Best of luck to you.’
I was baffled and a bit disappointed. I called my parents to vent, and this is when my mother said:
Mom: ‘That’s very odd! After you told us about the phone call last week, we immediately called him up and demanded that he give you an interview last Friday!’
So. Yeah. There we go.”
This Mother Was Beyond A Creep
“My mother is the worst helicopter parent to ever exist. She creeped me out, she was so bad.
She never let me go ANYWHERE. Once I got my first real boyfriend (my now husband), it legitimately almost killed her. We (her and I) fought all of the time about everything my boyfriend and I did. I had to ask if he could buy me tampons (with his own money and I didn’t have any with me). I had to ask if he could buy me a shirt I liked (nothing crazy, some anime shirt).
I was only allowed to see him once a week (only on the weekend and almost never on Sunday), never EVER twice a week. I had to text and give updates the entire time I was out. His house (our house now) had the worst signal ever so texts hardly ever came through or went out so she was constantly driving from my house to his to check up on us.
Outside of her issues with my boyfriend, she would make random visits to my high school to watch me eating lunch. She called my teachers every single day to write down what I did in class, what the homework was, and what my grades looked like. She bothered them so much that several of them pulled me aside and told me they were concerned for my well-being. For a while, unprovoked, she made me get every teacher to sign my planner at the end of every class every day so she knew I was going. (I never skipped class in high school. I only skipped one period once in 7th grade and learned really quickly to never do that again.)
Instead of telling me how to shave my hair, she made me lay in the bathroom floor, at 14 and shaved me herself. She kept track of my period (which has always been on an abnormal schedule) and, whenever it was close, she would accuse me of being pregnant, threaten me, and tell me she was going to force me to take a Plane B and abort my baby if I was. This happened long before I was ever thinking of intimacy.
She randomly popped in on me in the shower OFTEN, she tried to teach me how to put a rubber on with my mouth, tried to teach me how to blow a guy, did daily bedroom searches, checked my text messages (she would see how many were in my inbox and then go check our bill online to see how many it said I had sent and received and if they didn’t match, she would beat me and take my phone and make me break up with my boyfriend).
No, we don’t talk anymore. We got in a physical altercation when I was 17 and she kicked me out so I moved in with my boyfriend, married him, and had some babies.”
She Wanted Out Of The House ASAP
“I wasn’t allowed to chew gum until I turned 18 because I got gum stuck in my hair when I was six.
My mother, angry that I lied to her about cleaning my room, drove me over to a bunch of my friends’ houses and said because I was a liar she needed to talk to all of them, to know exactly what we would be doing.
I stopped wanting to attend church around them time I turned 12. When I tried to leave a scripture reading, my mother sat on me and my father read the scriptures in my face. The next night I locked myself in the bathroom with headphones. They took the door off its hinges. Once, I tried escaping out the window. I hid on the roof for two hours while they looked for me (they have a very large house).
When I ditched Honor Band to go home and write stupid short stories they grounded me for three months. They took my door off its hinges so they could always watch me. They opened my journal and read it in front of me, then quoted lines back to me and punished me for stuff I’d written.
They didn’t teach me about birds and the bees. When I was 11 years old, my Sunday school teacher was talking about circumcision. I asked her what male genitals were. She assumed I was being a smart aleck and took me to see my parents. They grounded me.
My mom once accused me of stealing her bras in front of the rest of the family. I was not. I’m a D-cup, she’s a B.
When I told my mother the girls at church were spreading rumors about me and saying terrible things, she told me I deserved it. This was while I was at church camp. I had to stay there the rest of the week. She saw me crying and just didn’t care. Didn’t want to drive me back down the mountain (she’d volunteered to help out, probably to watch me).
Just two days ago my father screamed at me for not saying I didn’t like my mother’s soup. There are no typos in that sentence.
I’m finally moving out. Tomorrow I’m going to sign some papers and smoke a bowl with my new roomies. I’m so grateful and happy, I keep having nightmares it’s fallen through. When I told my parents my mom asked me if it was to punish her. She won’t stop asking me if I’m mad. She also cried for about an hour. My dad asked if I was doing it for attention.
I’m 24-years-old.”
From Facebook Games To House Arrest
“My mom has always been really into Facebook games. She’s pretty much addicted. She was really into this game for a while and found out that she could use multiple browsers to increase the speed of her gameplay. She then discovered that she could progress in the game even faster by using another computer.
She then decided to take my computer saying I could use it when she wasn’t playing her game, which was CONSTANTLY. It started to effect my school work since most of it was on the computer and I had no other way to access the internet.
I brought it up with my older brother, who originally gave me my computer, and he confronted her. They ended up getting into a huge fight and he ended up leaving and returning to his own home.
Now, my brother had given my mom tons of money and always has been an exceptional son to her, especially for someone who has the tendency to be mentally abusive to the people she lives with. Seeing how she treated him and me really ticked me off so I decided to confront her for one last final time and take my computer back.
She ends up yelling and degrading me while saying I can ‘take my freaking computer back.’ I start to take the computer and she grabs my shoulders in a really hard grip. I try to get her off but she ends up slamming my head into the ground. A huge bump was left there and I end up taking the house phone and a prepaid cell phone into the bathroom. She ends up disconnecting the house phone so I couldn’t call for help. I end up using the cell phone and the police come.
Of course, my step-father and her side together and tell the police that I attacked my mother. Her direct words were ‘She laid her hands on me’ which the police took as I hit her but she claims that she was referring to when I was trying to get her off of me. The police also assumed I was grounded and not allowed to use the computer and that’s why I ‘attacked my mother’ even though I wasn’t grounded at all.
They end up arresting me, putting me on house arrest for 60 days (originally supposed to be 30 days but my parole officer was a moron and lied about what the judge signed), put in after school ‘troubled teenager’ programs, counseling, and have to deal with constant court dates over the next year. CPS also got involved and implemented family counseling which turned into marriage counseling that didn’t help since they ended getting a divorce sometime afterwards.
In the end, the judge didn’t even understand why I was standing in front of her considering how much solid proof I had that I never hit my mother. All the charges were dropped.”
Mom Was There For Him But Dad Wasn’t
“Every Saturday morning I would have a soccer game. It was a tradition for my mother to take me to Bruger’s Bagels after my game. Every time I would get an everything bagel with cream cheese and a fruit spritzer, and my mom would get whatever she was feeling at the time. We would sit in at the tables and talk about the game, and anything else we wanted.
One day, my dad had to take me to the game, my mom had worked the night before. I scored my first, and only goal, that game. I was so proud of myself, and surely my dad would be too- right? Wrong. He didn’t see it because he was asleep in the car, exactly where I left him 45 minutes earlier when he told me ‘I’ll be right there, just let me finish my ‘soda.” When I woke him up (with the help of my teammate’s parents pounding on the window) to take me home, I asked if we could stop for breakfast. He said no, he didn’t have the money for something like that. I could have breakfast at home. Besides, he needed to buy milk for my mom.
On the way home he stopped at the grocery store and bought a 30-pack of Bud Light at noon, but forgot the milk. After nearly crashing into a stop sign on the way home, we got home, and he went downstairs with his 30 pack to use the computer for the rest of the day.
I haven’t told my mom about that, and even 15 years later she still teases me for never making a goal.”
Let’s Hope Being An Adult Goes Better
“The only time I ever socialized with my peers during high school was once per week at an academic group, and breaks were two 15-minute sessions. I managed to develop a friendship with another (male) member of the group anyway, and we started spending time together. Soon, the ‘gay’ accusations started rolling in. I was called a freak, homo, stalker, etc. Needless to say, the thought of being allowed to interact with teenagers in teenage dances or informal youth groups was out of the question for them, and I realized later on it was because they thought I would meet a boy and turn gay.
I was home schooled. When I wasn’t doing schoolwork, I was practicing my instrument. I didn’t play sports at all. My mother would wait outside whatever building I was practicing in and if I left even five minutes earlier than two hours she would call me an ‘idiot’ and threaten to have me committed to a mental hospital.
I had my door taken away for over two years because I spent too much time on the internet. When I wanted some privacy, I would lock myself in the bathroom and read on the toilet. Then my parents took all the bathroom doorknobs away to make sure I was doing my homework. Using the bathroom or undressing for a shower was risky. If I was caught on the internet while I was supposed to be doing homework, I got a good punch to the back.
But plot twist, I actually came out as gay! I had to suffer this while feeling all the resentment and horror at awakening to the fact that you will always be different from 90% of the population. So after this set of incidents, I became a withdrawn social invalid, was hospitalized twice, and have only just mustered up the courage to talk to humans again years later. It also didn’t help that during my whole freshman year of college, my parents would come into my dormitory without warning and force me to go home on the weekends, making sure everyone avoided me.
Here’s hoping my early twenties will be a little better.”
“I Look Like A Cancer Patient With Sunken Eyes And Cheekbones”
“My parents were rarely if ever home before dinner, so they made very specific rules they expected us to follow down to the T while they weren’t there. My parents essentially made a schedule of what, when, and where we could eat.
Specifically for weekends during the summer we had until 8 am to have breakfast or else. Lunch was always between 11 am and 1 pm but could only contain one main course and one side for some reason. If you wanted a snack it had to be before 3 pm on the weekend and 3:25 pm on school days. Dinner was 7 pm sharp and all four of siblings had to be in bed by 10 pm.
Each day I walked 45 minutes to and from school. By the time school was out at 3:10 pm I was always starving. One day I tried to sneak a slice of pizza from the fridge. My stepdad came running into the kitchen like there was a fire, tore the plate out of my hands, and threw it all in the sink. He threw me into the kitchen table and started screaming at me, ‘WHAT TIME IS IT?’ I looked at the clock behind him, it was 3:58 pm.
‘WHAT TIME ARE YOU ALLOWED TO EAT A SNACK?’ he shouted.
‘3:25… I was just hungry,’ I said.
‘PIZZA ISN’T A SNACK PIZZA IS A MAIN COURSE.’
It was a tiny piece, so I didn’t think it would matter… then I got grounded for two weeks.
About a year later in the summer, my three siblings walked to a gas station to buy candy bars with the money they got for helping a neighbor do yard work. My parents had left around 3:15, so I texted them saying it was safe to come inside with their candy bars. They threw the wrappers in the trash, but my stepdad found them, which resulted in a creation of more rules. The rules were actually typed out and hanging in the kitchen as a reference sheet or something, in 10 pt font because that’s the only way all the rules would fit.
I’m 19 now, 5’8 and 130 pounds. Whenever I think about food I get angry and nauseous. I’m out of their house now but I still get anxiety about eating. I used to be hungry all the time, and now it’s like I’m not hungry at all anymore. I look like a cancer patient with sunken eyes and cheekbones and I completely lack any motivation towards eating.”
Way To Go Daddy-O!
“My best childhood friend wasn’t allowed to pick out her own clothes. Even though she practically had no choice in the matter when it came to shopping, her crazy controlling father STILL insisted on laying out her outfit for the next day – OR – at the very least approving her clothing choice. This went on until she was about 17. She got herself a job, shopped in secret and started sneaking around so she could dress like racier. Her dad once found her sack of ‘dirty clothes’ as he called them, and attempted to ground her. She ran away, shacked up with an abusive loser and that’s when we stopped hanging out. I hear she’s an exotic dancer now. Way to go daddy-o!”
His Mom Was An Enabler
“I was a charge nurse working in a rehab clinic and this 19-year-old kid was admitted for 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 two to four 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 10 mg of anxiety meds’ All while this kid laid 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.”
“My Mother Was A Dragon”
“My mother was a serious dragon, one day I came home from school to see that my room was empty of everything except my bed. I asked her what happened and she said she wanted to remind me that everything I owned was actually hers. She then went on to explain that I was being punished for my ‘horrible attitude towards school’ (I was a straight A student and have since graduated from the University of Pennsylvania). I spent two weeks not being allowed to go to school or even go outside of the house, no tv, no reading, and ate tinned sardines and boiled yam every meal. I have severe ADD so this was the most psychologically torturous thing I ever experienced. My parents also constantly shamed me for being fat and had me doing sports that I hated my whole life. Thanks for my huge deficit of self-worth and severe depression mum and dad, feels great.”