Parenting is no walk in the park. You're responsible for keeping another human being alive, and helping them grow into the best possible version of themselves.One of the ultimate goals is to ensure your little one becomes an independent, kind, emotionally stable, and responsible adult who can stand on their own two feet and contribute positively to society. But that's not necessarily going to happen if you hover around them 24/7 and interfere in every aspect of their daily life, decisions and battles. There's a name for that behavior: Helicopter parenting. And from what we can gather, it's more common than many might think.Someone asked, "What is the worst case of 'helicopter parenting' you’ve ever seen?" and some shocking responses followed. From grown adults having to call home to ask what allergies they have, to teenagers still being dressed by their mommy every morning, Bored Panda has put together a list of the wildest examples of people taking helicopter parenting to extreme heights.#1Our neighborhood newsletter had a section for kids who wanted odd jobs and babysitting jobs.A mom called looking for my teen to babysit her baby. As I was getting ready to pass the phone, the mom said, “I don’t leave my baby alone with a child. An adult will have to come too.”I doubt she would have wanted to pay the hourly rate of adult professionals.© Photo: Acceptable_Week_3149#2My step-mom still orders my brother’s food at restaurants for him. He’s 25 with a 2 year old. He will also only eat chicken tenders or chicken fajitas.© Photo: stutteringwhales#3My aunt picked out my cousin's clothes well into his teen years. He would wake up late for school and sit on his bed until she physically dressed him.When my kid was in preschool, a lady and her son came to check out the school one day. She was really cool, and her son played well with all the kids. He started full time the next week. On his very first day, he went down the slide too fast and landed on his knees on the mulch. He wasn't hurt at all, just got right back up to play. The next day, his mom came in to RAISE HELL. She said someone should have held his hand as he went down the slide, and couldn't *believe* there wasn't an "incident report" filled out. They never came back.© Photo: yampuffs#4The mom who literally stayed within arms reach of their 7 year old at the 7 year old bday party where every other kid was running around having fun. you could see it making the kid anxious until the kid started crying and only wanted to sit on mommy's lap. then she sat there acting so put-upon to all the other moms like "you see how it is with him?" The whole thing felt like the mental health version of munchausen. .© Photo: floppydo#5My sister in law drives her 14 year old daughter to piano lessons. It's 300m direct line of sight on their own very expensive street.© Photo: PerceptionRoutine513#6I work in healthcare. I had adult aged college students come in for care and have no idea if they have allergies or what they are allergic too and call their mom. My children have allergies and have been educated on this since before kindergarten.© Photo: Urbanspy87#7I have had a mom come supervise her 16 year old daughter at our pool party. The girl can swim. There were 5 girls and obviously no alcohol or anything.© Photo: majiktodo#8My niece, she was literally helicopter parented and still is. She’ll be 17 and isn’t allowed to stay the night at friends houses without her mom present..© Photo: Mysterious_Age1143#9My MIL. My husband and were moving two states away and she had a temper tantrum that it was “unsafe” for her “baby” to be that far from her.Second story. We were traveling to the UK shortly after lockdown. She said “If he catches it, I’m flying over to take care of him!” Pretty sure the NHS isn’t going to let some random woman from another country barge into a quarantined person’s room.© Photo: adchick#10In high school, my friend would call her mom to bring her hot cocoa. Her mom would deliver it to her in the classroom. Her mom would also do her homework for her because she was "too gifted" to spend time on homework.© Photo: NextSuccess358#11I used to have a friend who fluctuated wildly between wanting to micromanage her child and not caring at all what he did. When our boys were about 9 we took them to a fall festival where they could paint pumpkins and she was dictating what colors and decorations he could use to paint his pumpkin. A year or so later when it was time decide what language they would take in middle school, she said her son wanted to take Mandarin but she wouldn’t let him because she “didn’t want him to have to work hard.” But when he was poorly behaved, acting wild or inappropriate in public places, all of the sudden she was a free range parent letting him do what he wanted.© Photo: sneakyvegan#12I was watching a mom and her daughter my (f32) age at our coffee station. The mom was telling her which sugar to use (daughter was confused about what white sugar is) and directing her to put honey in her tea.© Photo: HeadDeerInCharge#13My SIL won't let her kids run because they could fall and get hurt. Like straight up they were playing with my kids in the backyard, she got up and went outside to tell them no running so they didn't get hurt.© Photo: Optimal_Crow7982#14Kid wanted a second juice pack (the small boxes that are like 2 sips)- mom wouldn’t let him until he went to pee first. He was 10 years old.© Photo: Mediocre-Seaweed-201#15When I was little, the mother of a kid in my 4th grade class volunteered at the school. She would literally sit in class with him all day, and assist him with his assignments. He wasn't special needs, just a normal kid like the rest of us. Anytime someone tried to befriend him, his mother always 'chaperoned' the introduction; Since this was back in the 90's, anything involving parents was seriously off putting. I remember inviting him to kick ball, but his mother didn't wan't him getting hurt...We felt bad for him.© Photo: squeeeeenis#16My mom once asked out a girl for me, totally out of the blue, the girl and I were both weirded out by it.© Photo: anon#17This is 2nd Grade. I’m in the middle of teaching when one of my students says, “Amy’s mom is watching us.” I look at the very large window into the hall and see Amy’s mom standing in the window, and she is indeed watching us. I only saw her for a brief second though because as soon as I made eye contact, she ducked. I opened the door, walked out of my room, and Amy’s mom was right there squatting on the floor. Can I help you?NoAre you here to volunteer?No Unfortunately, parents are only allowed on campus if they are volunteering, even then, they are required to sign in and get a name badge. Have a nice day! She remained squatting for the entirety of the conversation.© Photo: homerbartbob#18A kindergartener couldn't wipe himself and was yelling from the bathroom that he "boobooed" and expected staff to come in and do it for him because his mother does it at home.© Photo: SailorVenus23#19Parent came in every day to feed her 8 year old son his lunch just so he 'wouldn't choke'I had to get the exec involved within a week because it was ridiculous. Apparently it was a new thing that year...© Photo: grungyclaw#20Mother coming in at recess to literally spoon-feed her 7-year-old son, and wouldn't stop until he was finished his lunch, even if class had started. She'd just sit there at the back of the classroom periodically holding a spoonful of food in front of his mouth while he tried to do his worksheets or whatever. Admin told me I couldn't ask her to stop. I no longer work at that school.© Photo: NeonHairbrush#21I met a 17 year old girl whose mother would coach and criticize her every move, down to exactly what she put on her plate at family gatherings.I ran into her one day smoking stuff in her car at our local park. Her mom would have lost it but her secret was safe with me lol.© Photo: GlitterBirb#22Parents of PhD Candidates calling the university their child was applying to, trying to bulldoze their application.😳PhD candidates. The terminal degree level of education.© Photo: RdtRanger6969#23I’m an attorney. One time I got a call from a woman who was upset that her son’s car insurance had been canceled without any notification. It turned out the policy was canceled due to non-payment, and that they had sent plenty of notifications. The problem was that the notifications had gone to her 21-year-old son, the covered driver and only named person on the policy, instead of to his mother. She found out he’d let the policy lapse when he crashed the Tesla she’d given him. She told me with a straight face that the insurance company couldn’t expect a 21-year-old to read their emails or open letters, and that they should have tracked her down.© Photo: GermanDeath-Reggae#24My wife. She still thinks if she is not directly involved in helping her thirty year old daughters find things on Amazon, buy their cars, find insurance, communicate with *each other* (she will take a call from one of them to call the other and then relay what she gets from that one back to the first instead of having her just talk to each other) that the world will stop spinning.© Photo: Plus-King5266#25I went to university with a friend (acquaintance) that may as well have been attached to his mom still. We were on the other side of the globe and his mom made him “check in” three times a day. One time we were out for a walk when his Mommy FaceTimed and needed him to go back home because she’d heard a storm was going to roll through (it was barely cloudy). The stupidest part is he did all of it despite being a whole grown man. That was eight years ago and he is currently living in his Mom’s basement, not working because it’s too much for her knowing he’s gone 8+ hours a day. Weird bunch.© Photo: littlestickywicket#26I had a full grown college graduate interning with us as a management trainee. He got written up for some minor disciplinary action and his parent called to discuss it with me. They did not appreciate my curt response that I don't discuss any employees records, even to their "mommy or daddy.".© Photo: YoureSoStupidRose#27My sons friends mom would check her son out if school early every day because she didn’t like him being away from her for too long. And she also made him sleep in her bed as a 12 year old boy. If he refused, she’d go sleep in his bed. And also, when there’s a storm and they’re playing video games online, she makes him stop playing and they go stay in a hotel.© Photo: sidewaysstories_#28I didn't see the actual parenting, but a manager of mine babied her daughter to a crazy degree. The teenage girl called her mom at work once to ask how to make a cup of tea. She was a very polite, sweet kid, but my manager was just so overprotective.© Photo: I_DRINK_ANARCHY#29My 43 yr old brother still lives with my mom. He recently had to have surgery and she was complaining to me about all the appts she had to make for him. No, mom, he is a grown man who is capable of making his own appts. Goodness I could go on and on!© Photo: Simplysmile1981#30A girl in my old secondary school (aged 15) had a bracelet that would beep loudly whenever she wasn’t in a location she was expected to be in, once - due to a glitch - in a maths lesson, the bracelet went insane beeping and flashing.Long story short, she left the room, she rung her parents, and they called off the cavalry.© Photo: _buellerbueller#31Parent brought a lawyer to a meeting about cheating. "Can you prove that the student submitted someone else's work as their own on purpose, or is it not also possible that each time it happened the student accidentally wrote his name on someone else's paper and submitted it by mistake?" Course, I've seen that one more than once...#32I was at college orientation and one parent came up to my friend and said, 'That girl over there is my daughter. You go up to her and introduce yourself to her and be her friend,'#33I was 19 years old and flying home from college over christmas break. A boy I graduated high school with was coming home on the same day and his mother went to great lengths to ensure that he and I were on the same flight and seated right next to each other (without my knowledge) because she didn't want her son flying alone...#34Okay, so during a group chat last Halloween, Me and some friends were talking about what horror movie to watch. Me and another friend of mine were debating over Ouija 2 and Alien when another buddy of mine chimed in out of the blue. (Keep in mind this was at around midnight) So we ask for his opinion yet he didn't know what we were talking about. He had absolutely no frame of reference for anything we mentioned and was constantly trying to change the topic. As it turns out my friends mother had taken his phone and pretended to be him to try to squeeze out any info on us. Which is just really creepy and we somewhat ended up avoiding him a bit later. This mother also has a tracker in his phone and is generally a religious nut.#35I was an RA in college, I sat the 10:30-12 desk shift and like clockwork every night this dudes mom would call and DEMAND that we send an RA to her son's room and make him call her.#36In a C++ class a girl had to turn in a project that was due in the beginning of the class. One day she didn’t bring her project at the beginning of the class but waited until our 30 minute break. Her assignment wouldn’t print so her father came in class (during the 30 minute break) and helped her print it out to turn it in. We had a class printer. Her dad would sit outside of every class in the waiting area for 5 hours. He would help her during the break between classes.#37Work in retail. Mother and son (who was roughly in his early 20s) come in to get her son his first suit. Coworker gets him fitted in a modern but lifetime classic suit. Mother begins to argue that it fits all wrong and implies it should fit something similar to a suit worn back in the 80s-90s aka boxy & baggy beyond belief. Coworker works to find a median between what she wants and what we suggest. While he does this, she goes around the room and tells ALL the other customers shopping/trying on suits how their suits are wrong and what a “proper fit” should be. Could not have gotten her out fast enough.#38My cousin is in college in the Upper peninsula. My aunt tracks her every move through her cell phone, monitors her debit card, and calls her if anything "weird" shows up. I'm pretty disgusted by it.#39Friend of mine turns 19 in a month. He can't hangout past about 7 o'clock, his parents won't let him get a phone (even though they aren't in any financial troubles that we know of), and worst of all, won't let him get a job until he's 21. The kid is afraid to talk to people from how much they shelter him. Its actually pretty sad.Edit: Forgot to mention his parents won't let him get his license either. He has his temps, but they refuse to take him driving anywhere. He took the test once and failed because he got 30+ points off because they won't teach him how to drive.#40My aunt gives my 8 year old cousin a walkie-talkie when he goes a couple houses over to his friend's house to play. She then sits on her front porch and checks in every..minute or two. It's hilarious.#41In NYC, students have to apply to high school the way most kids apply to college. I was asked to fill out a recommendation letter for a student, but it required a writing sample (essay only) from the kid and I didn't have one yet because it was early in the year. The deadline was a month away, so I would get a writing sample during that time. The mom didn't accept this answer no matter how many times I told her. For 2 well she harassed me daily through email, phone calls and text. She ended up calling the principal who put me and the kid in his office so he could write an arbitrary essay, and I could write the letter. I missed teaching 2 classes! (They were covered by a sub) Principal philosophically sided with me, but he just wanted her to go away lol.#42Posted this ages ago, copied here:3 year old kid. Mum is totally convinced that if he is allowed to carry his backpack up the stairs to his classroom his spine will be deformed. The backpack weighs about a pound because she won't let him carry his own books. I tried explaining to her that the way muscles get strong is though use and that not letting him use his muscles is much more likely to cause damage. No go. Didn't even bother getting into proprioceptive feedback and the way children use their bodies to regulate their emotions.Newsflash folks: treating your able-bodied child like they're made of glass will damage them physically, psychologically and socially. Let your kid carry his own dang bag.#43I had a mother call me because her son made a 96 on a project and she wanted to know why he didn’t earn a 100. I told her he did a great job and that’s why he made a good grade. She wasn’t satisfied and then called out a different student and told me how that kids mom had done the project and made a better grade. So I asked her what grade she wants me to give her son. After she heard that she said “I don’t want you to GIVE him a grade”. So I respond with “then why did you call?”. She absolutely did not expect that retort and said the 96 would be just fine and hung up.#44I used to work in a youth office where we had to deal with ugly stuff most of the time. Negligence, all kinds of family conflicts... One day, a woman knocks on my door, requesting to talk to me about an urgent issue. Turned out her son got an hour of detention because he misbehaved in school. She was furious, not willing to accept the schools decision, and wanted the youth office to intervene. That was the only time I ever got the (inner) giggles while listening to a client.#45My mums a teacher aid said one of the worst cases was that a mother wouldn’t allow the kid to go on any excursions of camping trips. Kid doesn’t have allergies or special attention or family is poor so no excuse why the kid shouldn’t go. Grade 6 comes around and finally able to convince the mother to let the kid go for just one night on a 3 night camp trip (guess it was progress). The kids went rock climbing, fishing, camp fire marshmallows and night trip in the forest. To this day the kid says it was the best day of their life.#46I am not an educator but I work in a kitchen at a daycare. We deal with a alot of food intolerences and dietrary requirements. This yea we got a new kid who is gluten/dairy intolerant. His mum also only wants him to have vege sticks for afternoon tea (which we comply) She has also asked for all the ingredient lists from our menu and she sees a dietician so is suggesting recipes for us to use. Everything we have cooked so far (following the national diet guidelines) has not been good enough for her cherub.#47I had a fifteen message exchange with a parent last regarding how I will not continuously remind their child to drink water throughout the day. I told them that I have no issue with letting their daughter have water whenever she asked, and the whole class got a water break after recess, and had ample opportunity to drink at snack. But apparently that wasn’t good enough and I needed links sent to me about the dangers of dehydration. Suffice it to say, their daughter did not pass away of dehydration in my class without me pausing my lessons every half hour to ensure she was drinking.#48I'm not an educator, but I have a fair answer. In my school, there's this girl in most of my classes who says she's not allowed to watch horror movies, she never swears and she even complains when other people swear, she is not very well informed on recent events, (she didn't know who Kim-Jong Un was) she is very scared of the bell ringing, she gets stressed out at the slightest inconvenience, she does not have a social life, and she lets people egg her on when she's agitated. These are all signs of a parent sheltering someone/helicopter parenting. Keep in mind, This is all in High school.#49My brother held his daughter back because the elementary school had a flight of stairs and he couldn't get them to promise that an adult would hold her hand every time she had to use them.He also kept her home from school on a day there was going to be an eclipse because he wasn't confident in the school's ability to stop her from looking at it.#50My friend in the park with her child! I let mine whose the same age run around but I follow close by. She and her husband let their daughter go on this tiny slide and one went to the top and one to the bottom. The child was bigger than the slide, I couldn’t stop laughing. The poor child can’t do anything alone.#51My brother and sister-in-law are well past the helicopter stage.When their first kid turned 1 or 2, they organized a birthday at the local country club (it has a little water park for kiddos). Everyone arrived on time, but we were told we had to wait for the birthday boy and his parents for an hour or so.They were there, but in their car because the kid was taking a nap. We weren't allowed to go home and return later, or even wait inside the country club. The entire family, multiple cars, waited outside for the kid to wake up.As soon as he did, they stayed ten minutes before saying bye...Fast-forward to now: I have yet to even hold/touch the kid because they're paranoid about non-blood relatives being around their children or even holding them (he's three now and they have a third on the way).#52My brother told a girl he couldn't date her because "My mommy said so"He was 18 years old.So many horror stories.#53She moved her daughter up a grade, which caused the poor little girl to be ostracized by the class of older kids for behaving immaturely. When she found out a bunch of 8 year olds aren't likely to respond well to a 7 year old with a superiority complex, mama made it worse by deciding she would force the kids to like her daughter. She threatened to sue the school for not addressing her daughter being "bullied". The school didn't take the threat seriously because no you can't sue somebody because nobody will play with your kid. As far as I know the mom never sued but she still whines, even two years later.#54They came to her job interview.#55Little League baseball, I want to say 1st and 2nd graders. Kid gets up to bat and the mother is standing about six feet away. The kid gets a hit and the mom begins to "race" with him from home to first, encouraging him to run the whole way.I had to ask someone in the crowd if the kid was developmentally challenged or something. Nope, just a mom being *way* too over-eager to see her kid "succeed".#56My dad was such a helicopter parent that he became a meme at my high school. He was a good guy, but always checking my "Powerschool" (an online grading resource thing) and printing it out/highlighting things he didn't like, then passive-aggressively leaving the paper with his notes on my bed. Always reminded me of stuff I had coming up for the week even when I mentioned it beforehand. It got to the point that whenever someone got a bad grade/did something stupid, people would look at him/her and say *MellowDefenestration* in a drawn out Boston accent.#57I've had the parents of graduate students call me on the phone to argue with me, on their child's behalf, how I had graded their work.#58I have another one.I was part of this youth group who wanted me to join the 4H club. Mind you the majority of the 4H was homeschoolers and kids from Youth group.I signed up and paid the fee with my own money. My mom found out and told me I couldn't join because she "didn't want me around other kids".#59A parent at the high school i work at... She brings her JUNIOR son a hot lunch every day to school from one of the local trendy restaurants. One day her son's lunch went missing. Maybe it was stolen, nobody knows. Regardless, the kid could have gotten lunch from the cafeteria (which offers decent food believe it or not). Of course, in her mind someone, some random kid in the 4000+ student body, is secretly "bullying" her kid. She calls meeting with the principle but he's busy. She can't handle that. So she calls the vice-superintendent of schools in the district, also busy. Just let it go? Nope. She gets a meeting with the SUPERINTENDENT of schools. Her meeting was fruitless and pointless.#60Just a couple days ago actually...Me and my band mates just returned from a competition around 11:30 or 12:00. Now on the itinerary it says the time that's up on the paper is not exact. So this one freshman is putting up his uniform and his clarinet when some fat lady walks through the door. She then starts screaming about how he is late and if he doesn't come right now she'll make him drop out of band. The kid looks scared and embarrassed and walks out of room. It's nothing but silence. That woman makes me want to slap her or worse, follow her around with my sousaphone making the "fat person walking in cartoons" song. Poor kid. Edit: This is my highest rated comment. This is my legacy. A story of a freshman and his fat nasty mother. Sweet.#61Hmmm so many to choose from....admin would probably say this was the worst, but I still think it’s the best! Had a 7th Grade student (Catholic School) who was being bullied constantly by a kid named Henry. Victim’s mom wasn’t satisfied with the way the principal was handling it, so one day she sneaks over to my classroom, opens the door and yells, “Henry! You touch my kid one more time and I’ll cut your dang balls off!” Mom was in big trouble but the bullying stopped. Had a 4th Grade student one time who was very mediocre—B student, blah personality....her mom’s best friend was the mother of a classmate who was a star student in every way, and Mediocre Mom was constantly comparing the two. I’d send home graded work, and it would come back saying that I had made mistakes in my grading and the girl deserved a higher grade. I finally started photocopying the papers before I sent them home...I knew it was mom changing the answers, not the kid. End-of-the-year Award time arrives which is invitation-only. I did NOT send Miss Mediocre and her family an invitation, and was shocked when they showed up at the event. After the award ceremony, Mediocre Mom approaches the Principal and says that they had received an invitation, and why didn’t her child receive an award? Principal calls me over and asks what happened...I insisted that I did not send them an invitation, but the Principal didn’t want the child to feel badly now, so asked me to think of an award which would work for the child, and she quickly went and made a certificate for the child. Mom then bad-mouthed me for forgetting that I’d sent the kid an invitation and not having the award ready. What a jerk!#62I teach fourth grade, it is around that time that you start to see the worst start coming out. The kids are starting to get into more competitive sports, higher academics, you see who's going to go which way. I had this one parent and he was just the worst. His son was a very talented artist but confided to me that his parents constantly distracted him from his art at home to focus on what he thought his son should be focusing on, a career as a pilot.I called his parent's in for a meeting to show how what options could become available to him if he was able to pursue his passion a bit more. Maybe get the Father to let up a little.So the meeting starts and the son and the mother come in, and behind them comes the father spinning with his arms stretched out as far as they go, making helicopter noises with his mouth. He does this the entire meeting. Strangest thing ever.