10 Parents Who Are Ready to Cross All Lines for Their Children

Parents will go to great lengths to ensure their children have the best opportunities in life. However, in their efforts to protect and care for their kids, some may overstep boundaries. In this article, we’ve compiled an astonishing collection of stories about mothers and fathers who took extreme measures, believing they had their children’s best interests in mind.

• My dad couldn’t stand my husband, yet a few years ago, he surprisingly offered him a higher position at his firm if he left his job. My husband accepted without hesitation.
  Last month, we got divorced. My dad came to me and admitted a disturbing truth: he had been secretly recording my husband using a hidden camera he installed in his office. It turned out my husband was having an affair with his secretary. I had suspected his unfaithfulness due to his changed behavior and growing distance, which strained our relationship and ultimately led to our separation.
  My dad claimed he knew my husband was the cheating type the moment he met him, which is why he decided to keep an eye on him. Now, with the affair caught on tape, I finally had the evidence I needed for court. This could help me retain my money without splitting it, as stipulated in our prenup. Thanks, Dad.

• I’m a teacher, and I had a parent go through the phone book and start calling all the people with my last name because she was upset that her child might need to be retained in first grade. The only reason I knew about this was that she reached my parents, who refused to give her my phone number. They then called me in a panic about this crazy parent trying to find me. © _queen_frostine / Reddit

• When I was 15, I fell in love with a girl my parents deemed “not good enough.” They went to extremes to break us up, including calling her parents. One night, I overheard them plotting to have her followed to see if she was “up to no good.”
  Instead of protecting me, they suffocated me with their control, convinced it was for my own good. In their minds, they were being parents, but I just felt isolated.

• I once had a bright junior student whom I recommended for AP English. He was proficient and well-spoken—he would have done great, but he declined because he wanted to focus on trades and sports. I understood and told him the offer still stood if he wanted to reconsider.
  A few days later, I found a signed consent form in my mailbox for him to join AP English. Great, I thought. I went to talk to him about it, and he looked nothing but confused.
  I showed him the page, and he just said, “Oh, yeah, no. Ignore it. My mom keeps trying to sign me up for stuff. She has a stamp of my signature.” © Send_Poems / Reddit

• A mother threatened to yank her daughter out of the school if she didn’t get chosen as the vocal soloist to sing “O, Holy Night” during the holiday concert.
  Her daughter’s voice was not suited to the part. Moreover, she had told both faculty and her peers that she didn’t want to do it—that her mother was forcing the issue.
  The mother made a big, embarrassing scene in front of students and faculty, eventually transferring her daughter to another school “where she could get the recognition she so richly deserved.” © Unknown author / Reddit

• One winter morning, I arrived at school to find out a parent had shown up at the district office demanding to see my teaching evaluations. Apparently, they were furious that their child might not pass first grade, and they wanted to make sure I was “qualified” to make that call. The audacity floored me. They even tried filing a public records request to dig into my file.
  The district shut it down, but the lengths this parent went to because their kid struggled with reading? It was wild. I couldn’t believe someone would take things that far over a retention decision.

• I worked at the switchboard for my university in 1993. A dad called in and wanted to be connected to the Attendance Office. I told him we didn’t have an office by that name and asked what he was looking for. He wanted to know which office could tell him how often his daughter was attending classes.
  I explained that there was no such office and that he would have to ask his daughter. He said she would probably lie, and since it was his money, he wanted to know if she was going to class. I told him he would just have to trust her. He didn’t. He was quite shocked that we didn’t track attendance. © Sandonthebi*** / Reddit

• The day of my high school graduation, I was nervous about my speech, but my parents had other plans. I caught my dad sneaking into the school the night before to swap my speech notes with a polished version he’d written.
  When I stood up to speak, I noticed the crowd’s puzzled faces—they were applauding for something I hadn’t said. My mom was in the front row, beaming, while I felt my heart sink.
  In their eyes, they were helping me shine, but all I felt was a wave of betrayal. I wanted my voice, not theirs.

• When I was in 5th grade, we had a statewide test before middle school. One parent came in and tried to bribe the science teacher into giving her the test booklet beforehand. My teacher was not very happy. The next day, she told all of us that the booklets were delivered to the school on the day of the exam and that she was not helping anyone cheat. © im_an_introvert / Reddit

• When I was in middle school, my parents made it clear they would do anything to ensure I made the basketball team. They showed up to every practice and even hired a trainer behind my back to help me improve.
  One day, I caught my dad sneaking into the coach’s office, trying to convince him to give me a starting position. I felt a mix of embarrassment and pressure; their actions felt like a betrayal of my own effort.
  They thought they were helping, but instead, I felt suffocated, like my success was never truly mine to claim.

At any moment, life can hit us with a plot twist we never saw coming, changing everything in an instant. In this article, we’ve gathered stories filled with shocking and unexpected turns that are almost too unbelievable to be true.