The Most Extreme Examples Of Helicopter Parenting That Made Us Say, ‘WTF?’
She Helped Her Daughter Lose Out On A Job
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?
She Registered For Her Son’s College Classes
Working summer orientation for my old community college, and we have new students register for classes towards the end of the session. Counselors are there to help with class selection.
This one mom was literally hovering over her son telling him which classes to choose and completely ignoring the counselor’s advice, when she had [her son] stand up. She proceeded to sit down, and she herself started registering her son for his classes.
I tried to intervene, letting her know that we ask that the student [to] register themselves, and that he’ll be doing online registration for the rest of his college career. I was told to f**k off.
Later, I pulled him aside and told him to change his password and swap into a class more appropriate for his placement exams.
It was this incident that triggered us to design a parent orientation to keep them away from their kids.
She Was Banned From The School
My wife, being a teacher, had to deal with this on a regular basis. Usually, she would have that parent do menial tasks so they would not bother the class.
One parent became so overbearing (demanding to see lesson plans, making my wife take class time to re-explain subjects), my wife deliberately left a quiz out. 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 [upheld] the ban.