28 Helicopter Parent Horror Stories That Prove Teachers Deserve Higher Salaries And Lots Of Paid Vacation Leave
We had teachers from the BuzzFeed Community tell us about their most frustrating run-ins with helicopter parents. Here are their wild, maddening, and unsettling stories:
1."I work at a large university, and we have a scholarship in our office that students can apply for. We had a mom call our office once asking some questions about the application, and then she said, 'I completed his essay and submitted it, but it's not checked off yet.' Of course, we had to disqualify him. I like to call these parents lawnmower parents."
2."I coach high school swimming at an all-boys school. This one particular boy had a peculiar relationship with his overbearing mom. One day, he told me he couldn't make it to practice. I simply asked why, and he said, 'I already took my shower for the day, and my mom doesn't want me getting dirty again.'"
3."I've got a hedge around my class's outdoor space, and I've had parents peek through the hedge to watch their kids. This outdoor space is off of a private road owned by the school and has a locked gate on the end, but parents will jump the gate just to come spy on us."
4."A parent emailed me about a fly in the room that day. I guess her daughter came home and told her this. The mom actually sent a picture of a fly swatter in case I didn't know how to handle a fly in the classroom. Needless to say, I did not purchase a fly swatter. We all survived."
5."We had a student whose mom made him wear pull-ups until second grade. His mom would come up to the school and change his pull-up every day at lunch. The poor kid was visibly embarrassed every time. He was the youngest of four kids, and mom couldn’t handle that he wasn’t a baby anymore."
6."A parent threatened to call the police because her son lent out his fidget spinner to a classmate. At the end of the day, he decided that he wanted to retract the loan and asked for it back. The other student said he'd borrow it for the night and return it the next day. The parent yelled in my face and said she was calling the police over the 'stolen' toy, then proceeded to hunt down the child in question before he boarded the bus. The kids were in kindergarten."
7."One of the most difficult parents I've dealt with was the father of this 15-year-old girl. She was a lovely student and really smart, but under a ridiculous amount of pressure to be perfect. She got over 90% on every test or assignment that year, but he always came to my class demanding that I explain my grading and show him why she didn't get 100%. He'd even ask to see other students' work to compare, which I obviously never let him do."
8."Would you believe this still happens in med school? I'd have parents call to check on their adult, soon-to-be doctor students and cuss me out because I wouldn't share their personal records. If FERPA existed in undergrad, don't you think it's enforced AT MED SCHOOL? Then, the parents would legitimately try to report us or try to pull rank if they were MDs themselves. I miss my students, but their overbearing parents can choke."
9."I had a 10-year-old student who chose to wear T-shirts to school in the winter. He would put on his heavy winter coat when he was cold but then complain he was too hot. His mother insisted that my classroom was both too cold and too hot. The head of maintenance came into my room every hour to check the temperature and then called a heating service to review the entire system. This wasn't enough. I suggested that if he wanted to wear a T-shirt when it was 30 degrees out, he could bring a sweatshirt to put on when he was cold."
10."I had a 10th-grade student whose mother texted them constantly, all throughout class, even though the students weren't supposed to have their phones out. Once, the student randomly told me they had to leave in the middle of class. I asked why, and they said their mother texted them that someone was there to pick them up. I hadn't heard anything about it, had no note saying the student was leaving class, and no call from the office that someone was there to pick them up. So, I told them they couldn't leave. The next thing I knew, the mother called the principal and complained that I wouldn't let her kid leave class based on a text message she sent them in the middle of a lesson. Guess who got in trouble? Apparently, I should just let any kid leave class anytime for any reason."
11."I've been teaching preschool for 13 years and once had a mom who would 'study' the following week's lesson plans with her 2-year-old daughter over the weekend, then make her recite it all to us on Monday morning."
12."I worked at a school with a student whose parents would pick him up every day for lunch, then bring him back for recess and watch him play. This kid was in first grade, but they insisted on coddling him. Once, he got into a minor disagreement with another child (over kid stuff) and started crying. His mom immediately marched up to him and insisted on taking him home, even though he was fine two minutes later. The principal had no issue with this because the mom was also the president of the PTA."
13."I’m a university professor, so my students are almost universally 18+. I've had parents complain to the dean because they dislike how I run my class. I’ve had parents send me 10+ emails in a day because I wouldn’t let their child take a makeup exam. It’s wild to see how far some parents will go, especially when I've heard nothing from the actual student."
14."I had a parent email me a four-paragraph email telling me all about how I think my students aren't smart and will fail. She told me I am extremely negative and condescending towards my students. She was upset that her daughter didn't get an A in the class because she was really an 'A student.' It made me absolutely sob. I am very careful to be positive and supportive of my students (something my students have noticed and commented on). Her daughter was not an A student. Not necessarily due to her intelligence but because she was usually on her phone and not paying attention in class. At the time, I was struggling with pretty severe depression (definitely the lowest I have ever been) and was already regularly using my prep periods to cry in my classroom."
"As a teacher, I wish more parents realized we are human beings with feelings. I typically have about 220 students a semester, and most of the parents are lovely. But, the ones who aren't can be absolutely vicious."
15."When a family friend's son went to university (at Oxford!), his mum slept in her car on the university grounds for the first week he was there in case 'he needed her.'"
16."I once had a parent decide she didn't want her daughter going out for recess. Since all the teachers and aides take their lunch at the same time as the students (except for the one or two on lunch duty), there was no one to supervise her daughter if she wanted her to be inside. I told the mom she was more than welcome to pick her child up and bring her home for lunch. She said, 'Oh, I can't do that. I work.' I said, 'Okay, so you know how you get a lunch break when you go to work? This is my work, and your daughter's lunchtime is my lunchtime.' After I told her that she 'got it.' Parents need to understand that teachers aren't here to do their bidding. We are professionals, and if we are expected to do more, we should be compensated. You wouldn't expect an office worker to work through their lunch without extra pay just because you asked them to."
17."When I was in college, I went to a family member's birthday party. I somehow got into a conversation with some random woman whose daughter had also just started college. She was grilling me about my classes and professors, and then she mentioned how worried she was about her daughter. She said that she had her daughter send her every single assignment that she had so the mom could review it before she handed it in. Then, she had to share the grades she got and any of the comments the professors made. If she disagreed with the professor, she would email them asking for justification for giving said comments and grades. I stood there with my jaw open the whole time. When she started saying she was planning to talk to the dean because some professors wouldn’t email her back, I said that I had to go to the bathroom and spent the rest of the night avoiding her."
18."I know a lady who took a job as a lunch lady at her kids' school so she could keep an eye on them. She also took breaks when it was her kids' lunchtime and would drive to McDonald's so they had a 'good' lunch instead of the 'pig slop' she had to serve. She also insisted that they had to eat lunch with her because, according to her, 'What kid doesn't want to hang out with their mother in school?' She finally got fired for disciplining kids whom she felt weren't trying hard enough to be her kids' friends. Ugh!"
"She also makes them dress alike and wear their hair identically every day. They're 24 and 20, and she still makes them do this."
19."On the first day of kindergarten, we had the parents give hugs and then leave so we could start story time with the kids. One mom was found peeking in the windows, and the assistant principal had to ask her to leave. She claimed her son was upset and still needed her, but he was doing great and making new friends. We thought she had left, but we saw the bushes start moving at recess. She literally hid in the bushes to check on her son."
20."I used to coach at a community skating rink and was a counselor at the figure skating summer camp for kids ages 6 to 10. Most parents had signed their kids up so they would have a place to drop them off during the day so they could work/run errands/have child-free time, but I had one mom who insisted on staying the entire four-hour session every day and just hovering around. She was always worried her kid was going to fall and hurt themselves (we provided helmets for parents who were concerned), which in turn made the kid worried they were going to hurt themselves, so she became terrified of doing any maneuver and instead clung to my leg the whole time we were on the ice. One day, she was clinging to me, tripped on my skate, and didn't let go of my pants while she fell. She proceeded to pull my pants down in front of a group of 20 elementary school kids. On an ice rink."
21."I used to teach at a Catholic school. I am a big Harry Potter fan, so I had a few posters up in my middle school classroom. I had a parent tell me that Harry Potter is demonic and that she believed reading aloud the spells from the books would summon demons. I refused to remove the books or posters from my room, so she reported me to the priest. As a compromise, I got to keep the books but had to take down the posters. I think this parent genuinely thought I was a witch teaching sorcery."
22."I teach preschool, and we usually take the kids outside about half an hour after they are dropped off. Before heading out, we encourage the children to practice learning practical life skills, like getting their coats and boots on (with adult support, of course). One mother was convinced that her child could not put on his own coat or dress himself. Most days, he was absolutely fine and usually one of the first kids to get dressed. Some days, his mom would hide in the cubby area until we headed out and yell at me and the TA about how her son couldn't dress himself and how we needed to do it for him. It usually ended with her son in tears, her undressing and redressing him, and us trying to explain that her behavior was inappropriate and she needed to leave, all while the rest of the kids stood and watched in shock."
23."One time, a mother somehow got my personal number and proceeded to harass me all summer through phone calls and texts. She was mad because I gave her child an A- instead of an A+. She was blocked, and her child was never put in my art class again."
24."A few years ago, I was taking my class on a field trip. We were allowed to bring six chaperones, and I made it abundantly clear that I would choose the first six parents who turned in the slips completely filled out and paid for. By the next day, there were more than six parents interested in chaperoning. One of my parents turned the slip in the following week and indicated that she wanted to be a chaperone, but it was too late, so she wasn’t chosen. I let the class know who the chaperones were going to be and sent a letter home to the parents. The next day, I had a four-page email from this parent letting me know how disappointed she was not to be chosen and that her daughter was extremely upset. She even included a picture of her daughter sobbing at the kitchen table."
"She wanted me to tell another parent that they couldn’t go so she could instead. She even emailed the principal to complain. Nothing changed, but these types of emails continued for the rest of the year."
25."When my daughter was in junior high, the mother of a classmate of hers was the quintessential nightmare helicopter parent. She would 'volunteer' as a classroom helper...in a room of preteens. The teachers and administrators decided it was easier to allow her to do that than to ban her. She was pushy, nosy, and a general pain in the ass. Then comes parent-teacher conference day. I'm with my daughter, talking to her instructor about various things, when this woman starts loudly crowing about how MY daughter NEEDS to be looking out for HER daughter because...and she loudly stated...her daughter was a failure. Her daughter stood there looking horrified, embarrassed, and demeaned. The teacher looked the same. Not me. I stood up and asked, 'What in the hell is wrong with you?'"
"Never got an answer. But the teacher finally put her foot down and wouldn't allow her back. That woman would park outside the school and not leave."
26."We had a mom who was constantly asking questions on behalf of her 17-year-old. We told her and her kid that the daughter was old enough to ask her own questions. Suddenly, we started getting emailed questions from the student that were fairly articulated and did not sound like the student at all. I asked the student in person to clarify their question in their email, and her response was, 'What email?' The parent was literally trying to pose as their own kid."
27."I work in a preschool. We had one student who was 5 when he started in the middle of the year. His mom kept him in pull-ups and still breastfed him. She told us he probably wouldn’t ever drink anything while at school since she wasn’t there to breastfeed him. He was perfectly fine drinking the carton of milk at snack time every day. And he could’ve very easily been potty trained."
28.And: "High school teacher here. Long story short, this mom had her entire son's high school wired. She claimed he suffered from debilitating migraines, couldn't attend school, refused a home tutor, and claimed his disability exempted him from attending school. I had him during his senior year. I saw him three times all year. Work submitted was always in his mother's handwriting. When I failed him on a paper, she ran right to the superintendent. Here's how I know she was full of malarky. His migraines only occurred during school hours, and he was often hanging out at the local bowling alley and competing in a bowling league. How that environment didn't exacerbate his migraines is beyond me. Mom had a lazy son and didn't want to hurt his chances of getting into a good college. I'd love to know how he's doing now and if he got into Cornell."
—jmcv
Have you ever dealt with a serious helicopter parent? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share your story anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
