What's the WORST CASE of "Helicopter Parenting" you've ever seen? - Reddit Podcast

what's the worst case of helicopter parents that you've ever seen I had a friend in middle or high school who was a Chinese girl adopted by an old white couple who were super weird and overprotective some of the things I remember about her parents mom volunteered at whatever School you were at and would sit with us at lunch to make sure her daughter was eating they drove a minivan and made her sit in a car seat in the very back row until like freshman year of high school anytime 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 driver's license the dad brought light sticks like air traffic controller sticks anytime 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 this one broke my heart my little brother is adopted and I've lost my crap at people who' tried to say he's not my brother I can't imagine ever feeling or thinking that way myself that poor girl people like that have no place adopting the light stick's bit is hilarious though 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 whole time didn't play just stayed by him really what was she protecting him from he turned out surprisingly normal and now lives a thousand plus miles away from her I'm not sure how she deals with that she probably thanks her lucky stars every night that he grew up a fine well adjusted young man living on his own all because she boldly protected him from those deadly deadly lasers my friend wasn't allowed to use scissors until he was in high school his parents were insane you should have seen their reaction when he joined the army the Army are you freaking insane do you want to live in constant fear do you want to have some psycho drill sergeant hovering over you and controlling your every freaking move no Mom that's why I'm leaving home and joining the Army I can imagine that there aren't many harsher forms of rebellion for a child of helicopter parents than leaving to an organization where you're both placed In Harm's Way and often completely cut off from kxs hopefully that kid established some boundaries afterwards had a roommate freshman year whose mother called every day and stayed the first whole week of school all right she would also 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 Premed 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 I work at a university we had a parent get worried because he had not contacted her in a while 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 I was a resident assistant in college and received a call at 3:00 in the morning to do a wellness check on a resident we lived in the tow houses and it was winter so I had to bundle up and started trudging through the snow I'm 3ar of the way there when I get another call canceling the wellness check the kid's mom was worried that he wasn't answering her calls turns out he was asleep at 3:00 in the morning I was a charge nurse in a substance and alcohol rehab and this 19-year-old kid was admitted for smack 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 to 4 hours and were asked to series of questions to determine if they would need medication for withdrawal his mother answered all his questions for him and at the end of the assessment was like he'll take 10 migs of Valium for his anxiety all while this kid lay 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 guest 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 his 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 AED because she thought that because she was the mother that she fit into some kind 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 in conclusion enaer mother actually wanted to stay in her adult son's room while he was in rehab Jesus that poor kid if that was my mom I'd use substances too H this makes me feel sad she probably just wanted her son to get better I mean she was going about it in an insane way but I don't even know what I would do if my son was in that situation 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 she thought he should be eating she did this for all three meals poor guy was so embarrassed freshman move in day one I hung out ate roamed around went to a soccer game and went home 3 days later my daughter calls me oh my God Mom there are still parents here she was horrified I was too 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 she told me she'd picked up the application for me so that she's done far more embarrassing and helicopter things but I don't want anyone recognizing me so that's all for now I actually forgot about a worse case than this while writing 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 of all 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 huh I find it amusing that the term in English is helicopter parents I guess it's about how they hover over you in Sweden we call it curling parents as in the sport curling it's a reference to the players with the brooms who sweep the way for the curling Rock in this analogy the child is the curling Rock and the parents are sweeping the path for them through life we refer to the ones who remove all obstacles for their kids as snowplow parents usually snowplow and helicopters are one and the same but not always friends with a girl in elementary school who had parents who wouldn't let her watch PG 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 of years ago getting caught in a rip tide suffered permanent brain damage from a lack of oxygen her parents now have the forever child that they always wanted I worked with the mother who didn't want her adult son with autism to ride the bus because she was afraid that child Predators might get him like lady there are valid reasons to be concerned about your 21-year-old son riding the bus but those guys aren't one of them 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'm 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 further his response oh I'm much too busy for that worst helicopter parent ever I had a father who worked as an administrator at another school who would constantly send me emails questioning my teaching methods his son was in my class he was friends with my evaluating principal so I was concerned that my job might be at risk and started responding with I'm not comfortable discussing this via email but I would be happy to meet with you of course he was always too busy to meet with me in person shortly after this he accompanied me on a field trip but said nothing about his concerns and didn't speak to me at all he was on his cell phone the whole trip the next year he was arrested for inappropriate behavior with young teenage boys and my evaluating principal had resigned yuck I don't think this is in the same category as the other parent copters but I should have figured that there would be at least one whose absurdity transgressed the line into straight up creepiness probably an acquaintance of mine this guy quote 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 him 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 parent 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'm perfectly fine if they don't want to sign up for the next one I just don't understand why someone would continue to sign their kid up for something they clearly don't want to do it's a situation that I can't see ending well honestly living vicariously through your children especially to this degree is one of the most harmful things you can do to them I hope this kid manages to break free I really do you can submit your own stories to be featured here on the channel the story submission link is in the description below and if you want to listen to some viby music in the background check out easy mode also linked below and subscribe when I was a troop commander in the Army I had a kid who came up hot for white snow in the PE in a cup test and then a week later was arrested by the local police department task force for being an enforcer in a local civilian military substance ring they charged him and remanded him back to the 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 with you and get this sorted out out I was dumbfounded the guy was 23 years old in the Army and his mom thinks she can come in and work it out with me I was polite for the first call but by the second or third phone call I'd had enough I told her again not to bother coming up 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 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 the city of Harker Heights and the state of Texas might have more time than I did so 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 teacher here A friend of mine had a mom who came to lunch every day with her kid from kindergarten to last I checked 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 a mother at a university parents 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 had turned his lights out since that might wake him she wanted to know if there was someone at the University that could check up on him every night I love this a lot of the others are over the top blazent crazy while this one is so wholesome and innocent but also just so freaking unreasonable it was me I was 22 and had moved back from home 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 didn't use cell phones 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 silence after a few few hours I got a bad feeling and checked my phone my mom had checked the find my friends app and it said I was in a drainage ditch funly 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 that I wouldn't had a really rich friend of a friend whose dad once picked him up in a helicopter I run a huge book rental department for a good-sized university 15,000 students it's a beautiful program 95% of our students books are covered by one $85 fee anyway I've seen some crazy stuff with parents honestly there isn't enough space on Reddit for me to relay all the stories my number one however is it's movein day the worst day of the year hundreds upon hundreds of students coming to get their books all at once most freshmen accompanied by their parents this one lady marches up to the desk pushing all other customers aside and dragging her mortified looking son Along by the hand she then demands that I tell her how she get 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'll need to do this every semester moving forward the aisles are alphabetical and the courses arranged numerically once you find 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 lose 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 ma'am but you're the one who suggested to me that your son is incapable of using the alphabet and numbers to perform a simple matching task I was just going off the information you provided she stared at me in other words I'm pretty sure that you're the one who just called your son stupid when you told me that he's 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 tells 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 into my office and continue to observe the chaos of moving day kid found his books in 5 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 I worked at it at my college and the number of moms I got to tea off made my day I would literally get hundreds of calls on big registration days or the first weeks of classes asking how they log into our system to check their sons and daughters grades I would have to explain you can't and when they demanded me to give them their sons or daughters passwords so they could get in or reset the password I would explain FPA laws to them seriously they just need to let their children learn on their own if they make a mistake they can learn from it was it a once the best is have you tried talking to your kids in the least snarky tone of voice you can muster your child is a legal adult now and has their own privacy we can't violate it by giving away personal information have you tried asking your son or daughter about the grades or assignments I mean personally I can't think that they would change their methods if they got as far as their children going to college without coming in on some sort of effective communication strategy but you never know good on you ta was in court waiting to see the judge another case is going on about this High School senior hitting a kid with his car on campus his mom goes up with him and the judge started asking questions and the mom answered them the judge politely told her he hadd 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 eventual friend in high school his mother was there every day all day was a private school day student she walked with 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 with we gave him his first soda gum Etc father was an ex- priest who screwed the organist mother was an ex-nun both were bat crap crazy we were also so proud when he went to college 800 miles away then it went very bad originally the story was that he took his own life 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 killed him but nobody believed her in the slightest fast forward a few years and a few unrelated criminal investigations and yeah it was the Russian mob apparently his girlfriend's father took a strong dislike to him when he said something unforgivable again he redefined awkward and had him killed well that got dark fast I think that's the first legitimate time I've heard someone actually get killed by the mob I know right been years and the absurdity hasn't waned 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 five 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'd be there every day then she starts with the rules I would have to follow such as he can't stay more than 5 minutes after 6 because she has to make dinner and since she'd be driving him to and from every day he mustn't be late then she starts asking if I could direct deposit his checks into 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 for about a year or so I took my daughter to an anxiety Clinic to help her deal with a phobia she had developed a certain amount of the therapy involved parents or whoever had bought 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 had 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 I'd arranged to play golf with a few mates when we were all around 18 one guy gets driven to the course by his mom 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 first hole and then she decides that she had better stay and walk with us for the entire four plus 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 oh I bet that went over real well with her the real MVP when you subscribe make sure to hit the Bell to turn on notifications put the playlist on 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Channel: Am I the Genius?

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Id: -MmGgKlGd0I

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2023