My encounter with a Helicopter Parent

At the end of the school year, I hired a Grad Student to watch both of my children for the summer. Now, my children are both in middle school, but my younger one is a high functioning autistic that needs a little more watching then the typical 11 year old. My older child is almost 14, and is very independent. So, this is not a difficult job, and for two weeks this summer one child was a camp, so they only had one child to deal with but the pay remained the same. Now, I was paying this student $75.00 per day, plus $60.00 per week for expenses, (basically I was paying for gas), so my out of pocket was $435.00 per week. Steep, but I get a summer stipend from their late mother’s estate for each summer month and also SS Survivor benefits for both of them.

This student is 28 years old, and at first seemed to be a good fit. However, I started to get phone calls, 3 or 4 per day, asking the stupidest questions you can imagine. One question was, “Is it OK with you for my older child to put mayonnaise on their baloney sandwiches”. I was like, who the **** cares? I figured I would stick it out for the summer, as they were doing an OK job, not stellar, but OK. Two weeks ago, we took a vacation, which was timed to accommodate the students need for a week off to visit a friend. Before we left, I made it clear that they needed to be on-time Monday morning, as after a week away, my job would be a mad house, and I needed to be in on time. Monday Morning at 5:30, they called to say that they needed to come in at 10:00, because they were out late Sunday Night. I told them that if they could not come in on time, not to bother coming in at all on Monday, as I would need to make other arrangements, (what a fire drill that was).

Yesterday morning, they call again, saying they had a headache, and couldn’t come in at all. I told them they were fired, as I needed someone everyday. About 10 minutes later, their Mother calls, telling me that the headache was a medical condition, and that I am an awful person. She then went on to tell me she was calling the IRS, SSA, and the state labor board to report me. That is when she got a big surprise, because I had her child do a W-2, and had already made a payment to the SSA in her precious child’s name for their estimated total income for the summer. You see, the terms of the payments from my late wife’s estate make it a necessity that I hire someone legally. Seems that the “Child” had failed to mention that to mom and dad, who naturally assumed I was breaking the law and paying said child under the table. Took all of the bluster out of mom, who didn’t know what to say, so she hung up the phone. The “Child” is after all 28, you would think that they would be beyond asking Mommy for help.

Well, I managed to find a school teacher friend that will do the job for the next 10 days, school here starts next Thursday, so summer is almost over for us anyway.

I've heard about these parents who sit in on college interviews, call employers after job interviews to see why their precious darling didn't get the job, and (the latest) heard about hiring college brokers rather than letting little Johnny research schools himself, but your story takes the cake.

I had two similar jobs when I was 17 and 18 (one was for a friend's grandmother with Alzheimer's, the other was for a friend of my parents who'd gone on vacation for a week). The jobs were easy enough and I just did them.

How does this person survive in grad school?

I had a woman forge her son's signature on a document, then she notarized it and sent it to me. I called and said I am reporting you to the state of IL. I hope they took her stamp.

Transcripts has parents pretend to be students all the time. After we ask them questions they say...'Just a minute he/she is standing right here" I have heard the transcript area say I am sorry we will need this request in writing because you misrepresented yourself. Then they get really pissed and they are the ones who lied!

makes me sick!

We had a guy, probably around 40, bring his mom in with him for a job interview a while back. At first I thought they had just gone out to lunch together or something and she was just along for the ride. But, while my boss was interviewing him, she wanted the "grand tour" of the operation.

When he came out of the interview, he asked her, "do you think this is an ok place for me to work, mom?" I shit you not.


I was sooooo tempted to ask him what his freerepublic username was. :evilgrin:

:rofl: