Parenting is really hard work. It’s also one of the most judged professions. Everyone has something to say about how people should raise their kids.
Normally, I’m all for parenting how you want to parent, but these parents went… overboard. Take a look at these 31 AskReddit stories of parents killing their kids’ futures, and social lives.
1. Drawing a line
A girl came to a sleepover I was invited to when I was around 14 or 15. This girl had to call and ask her parents before we could watch ‘Mulan.’
They said no because it “glorified the occult”.
2. Honor your mother and father
I went to a private Catholic school. The first day of freshman year, one of my classmate’s parents followed him around the entire day with a video camera to document it. The mom followed him around like he was a lab rat. Everyone was either awkward or laughing at him. When the school day was over, the mom made him pose in front of our statue of Christ [so she could take] pictures. The kid was pissed off the entire day but did what he was told.
3. Interviews to follow
One of my coworkers wrote up an application to take her daughter to prom and was going to give it to her date [to sign]. It was 5 pages [long].
4. Not my kids problem
Growing up my next door neighbors told my parents that they needed to have my brother and I go to bed at 7 o’clock because their kids could see our bedroom lights on after they had to go to bed and it made them jealous.
5. Holding a grudge
I’m in my mid-twenties and my mom asked an attractive girl, who I barely knew from high school, if she was mad at me because she didn’t say “Hi” to me at work.
6. Her parents must have been friends with mine
My sister-in-law wasn’t allowed to watch ‘Harry Potter’ until she was 18 because her parents said it was witchcraft.
7. Sounds like a rough life
I had a friend who didn’t learn how to use a toaster or microwave until she was 14. Her parents literally did everything for her and, to this day, (she’s 17 now) she still doesn’t know how to do her own laundry.
8. Crossing a line
My Mom did something similar once but not as bad. I was working full time, and my parents decided “they don’t see me enough” so they called my boss and asked her to cut my hours.
It almost cost me my job. My boss was pissed and I was even more pissed and went home and screamed at my parents for probably 20 minutes or more.
They never did it since.
9. Just tell the world
We have one television in the dining room of the restaurant I work in. We don’t have any premium channels. Nothing like Showtime or HBO. Well, there was a group of college boys watching a horror movie because they were the first ones to come in and get the remote. A woman comes in with a group of five teenage boys. She demanded that the channel be changed because her boys weren’t allowed to watch anything of that nature.
10. Distance for a reason
My parents called Common App, broke into my account, and locked me out because I started to send my college applications out without telling them. I had my college advisor’s and principle’s approval and went to boarding school across the country from my parents.
11. Underground
My mom used to “screen” all of my girlfriends. Didn’t stop me from fooling around in the basement though.
12. And she is how old?
20 y/o female friend, has a driver license but is forbidden to drive because it’s too “dangerous” on the roads. Also has a 9pm curfew and is not allowed to wear anything above knees.
13. The List
Oh mine here we go
-When I was 14 my mom installed a monitoring software on my computer so she could see my screen on her laptop to make sure I was doing homework. I didn’t know about this until I watched really kinky intense porn and I got screamed at from downstairs.
-When I was 18 I got my nose pierced, told her that I did it, and she freaked out and said she did not got me “permission” to do that and “wait until dad hears about this.” Dad hears about it and doesn’t give a shit because I AM AN ADULT.
-I am 19 and decide to go to the movies at 10pm, CHAOS.
-At 19/20 she knew my itunes password for some reason and OBSESSIVELY used find my iphone to track my location. My older brother witnessed her just constantly tracking my location for no apparent reason. One time I was in my boyfriend’s basement and I get 10 missed calls from her because it said I was in the middle of a field. When I figured out how to turn it off she would not shut up about it for months and would try to guilt me into turning it back on. Said it was “because she cared” “sorry for caring” “dad lets me track his phone.”
-When I first getting to know my boyfriend when I was 20 I got really drunk one night and fell asleep until 2pm, I wake up to 20 missed calls and ignore them because I was going home anyway. I start driving home, and pass my mom’s car on the way back to my house. Turns out she called the fucking police and was driving to his house to find me. I never gave her his address. Got it from tracking my phone. Another reason I disabled find my iphone.
-I wasn’t allowed to have my car at college for my entire junior year because they didn’t trust me with it???? I’ve driven since 2014 and have never had any incidents for them to not trust me. I wasn’t able to get a job, go grocery shopping, or really have a life because of it.
-When I had my first boyfriend when I was 15 we were hanging out in my basement to play video games, and my mom was sitting in a corner the entire time watching us.
-Said I was driving to Atlantic City (An hour and a half away) for an anime convention when I was 20, tried INSISTING on driving me and my friends and listed crime statistics to me and basically said I would get mugged.
-She didn’t let my brother learn how to ride a bike until he was 13 because she was afraid of him injuring himself.
Boiiii that’s just what I can think of from the top of my head. Luckily I won’t get cut off for ignoring her crazy and doing what I want.
14. Adults are harder to kidnap anyways
My best friend’s parents don’t let her ride public transportation, like buses or trains, because they think she’ll be kidnapped. She’s almost 19.
15. Mom’s got this one
Had a mother book their “child” in for a hearing test (I work at a hearing clinic), so we quoted the child test price. Turned out the child is 22. When they came in, the daughter never said a word. She was silent the whole time. The only time she spoke was to say she was comfortable in the booth. The mother would not stop talking. Boss would direct questions to the daughter, the mother would answer.
I’d never seen someone look so defeated. I wondered if she ever spoke at home…
16. Happy ending
My parents were like this when I was a kid. When I graduated high school, a group of us decided we weren’t going to prom, but instead would rent a limo and go to a comedy club, dancing, etc. I got home at around 5 AM. Walked in the house to see my mom standing on the porch crying because she was so happy I made it home alive.
17. Lets have a discussion
I had a diary when I was around 11. Had a crush on a boy and wrote about it. Mom went through [my] diary and proceeded to sit me down and discuss each entry while I cried from embarrassment.
18. Definition of overbearing
know a kid whose mom never thought whatever school he was in was good enough. He could never make friends because he’d change schools two times a year and was never allowed to follow anything that he enjoyed, everything he did had to be something that would put him on track for an ivy league school.
Gets into an ivy league school and finally gets some freedom away from her, joins a band a discovers singing and apparently was really fuckin good at it. When he graduated he wanted to stay with the band and perform on weekends but the mom kept berating him for it and called him childish. He now works am upscale job in corporate America that his mom chose for him(through connections) that he hates.
After graduation his dad snapped and left his mom, literally just woke up one morning, got into his car, and drove off.
19. Caller ID
My mom would go through the cell phone bill with a highlighter when I was in high school. Highlight any calls that were longer than 15 minutes. Then, I’d have to explain who I was on the phone with for that long and why.
20. The sun is dangerous…I think
My aunt. I would visit with my family over the holidays and my older brother and I would keep the kids (our cousins) busy. She never let us take them on bike rides, out to the park, or even [into] the backyard.
21. None of my business
A friend of mine’s mother always waits up until he gets home, even though the guy is 19-years-old. Some nights, [on] the weekend, I get texts from his mother at 6 AM asking [me] where he is.
22. Knowing whose in the house
I heard from a few kids at school about one of the honors kids having to have a sign-out sheet for when he left home. He had to have his friends sign it as well.
23. Short Skirt
I teach sewing lessons. [I] had a parent end a lesson on “How to make skirts” for fear the student might make a short skirt with this [new] knowledge.
24. But that’s my baby
When I was 19, I had just gotten out of my first serious relationship, and she had broken up with me. We were together for nearly two years, and I was really [shaken up on the] inside. It turns out, my mother then found my now Ex on Facebook and messaged her about what a [terrible person] she [was] for breaking up with me. That was the final straw for cutting [my mom] off. [I] might talk to her once a year now, and she lives in a different continent.
25. Fake ID
Some kid’s parents requested that teachers not let [their] kid’s last name be public to the class because it [was] “unsafe” so he used a fake last name when he needed to.
26. Stay out
The parents of a friend of mine won’t let him have a key to the house. He is 24-years-old.
27. Can they watch Rated R now too?
I know someone who was not allowed to watch PG-13 movies until they were 18.
28. Driveway only
Not [as] terrible, but back when kids used to play outside more, there was this little kid who was not allowed to leave his driveway. One day, he went off into the cul-de-sac three houses away to play with a group of kids throwing a football. The father ended up literally dragging the kid back home.
29. But grades matter
Report cards at my school went out today. A parent of one of our the students freaked out cause her daughter will “never become a doctor with marks like these.” Her daughter will be starting kindergarten NEXT year…
30. Ok, will do
[I once met a] parent who recruited friends for their kid. I 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”
31. Seems legit
I had a friend who wasn’t allowed to have a PlayStation 2 because he needed to “focus on his schoolwork”.
We were 7 years old.
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