18 people share the worst case of 'sheltered kid syndrome' they ever witnessed.

Helicopter parents who love to micromanage every move their children make are usually in for a rude awakening when their adult child doesn't want to come to any family holidays...

Checking in on your college-aged kid to make sure they're not pounding Jell-O shots on a friday night won't give them the independence that surviving in this world requires. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What's the worst case of a kid being 'sheltered' you've ever encountered?' people were ready to share their stories.

1.

I have a 35 year old friend--yes, 35--who lives at home and still has a bedtime. Not like 'please stop making noise after x hour so I can sleep,' but honest to god lights-out, mother-will-take-her-computer-power-cord-away bedtime.

I didn't realize how bad it was until she bragged one night that she had bought a secret second cord for when her mother took her's. Thirty. Five. Years. Old. I love her to death but Christ. - wighttail

2.

A girl who was worried that she was pregnant because she kissed her fiancé - tjdraws

3.

I have a friend who is 28 years old, he lives with his family and he still gets grounded and spanked. I feel really bad for him. - andruis

4.

I work at a veterinary hospital. We had a client who refused to accept that her dog had fleas. It wasn't on a flea preventative, so we weren't all that surprised. However, the owner's reasoning behind her not believing or accepting the fleas was because, and I quote, 'That's not possible, we live in a gated community.' I don't think it's the absolute worst I've encountered, but it's definitely up there... - Makokatana

5.

I had a friend I met once whose mum cut their computer cable because she thought minecraft was a game about terrorists. - mishag24

6.

The kid I babysit for has seven cousins. Each time one of them has a birthday, all seven of them get presents because they don't want the other kids to feel 'left out.' - [deleted]

7.

I work with kids. One day I was working at a summer camp, a boy, about 8 and homeschooled, came to ask me why he couldn't go to the bathroom with his best friend there, a girl. I told him 'because that's the way it is,' and told him to go use the toilet so we could go on with the day. He seemed to shrug it off and go.

Later that day, while I was on break, he apparently ran up to his best friend and screamed 'LET ME SEE YOUR PENIS!' and pulled her pants clean down to the floor. Of course, she didn't have one. She pulled her pants back up and cried and he was in shock. I got called off break (which was about to be over soon anyway) to handle the situation.

Apparently his parents had never bothered to teach him the difference between boys and girls. Like at all. And when I told them about the situation later in the day, they were angry that I had told him. So angry, in fact, that they pulled him from the program straight away. What the hell. - TheFork101

8.

Was playing cards against humanity with my aunt who's always been kinda weird, always incredibly helpful going above and beyond, but just kinda off you know? Long story short that night we found out she didn't know what a clitoris was. - AGreatLeap

9.

I went to a private school and so was around a lot of rich people with problems that are pretty much unique to rich people, but this one girl took the cake. Among other things, I overheard her complaining about how it's so annoying having to get measured by the family tailor whenever you need new underwear, not realizing that:

(a) everyone else just buys premade underwear in stores and (b) underwear isn't a suitable topic for discussion in a Catholic school foyer. She also thought that kidnapping insurance is something everyone has. - KeybladeSpirit

10.

I was homeschooled along with another family who had 8 girls and 2 boys. All the women had to wear skirts and dresses and play in a family bluegrass band. They were quite good actually.

Up until the last few years they didn't do much except hike, school work, and play instruments. Once they got out into the real world most took a 180 and you would never have guessed they were quite sheltered. - WorldsWorstCanadian

11.

One that sticks out is a friend of mine who was a Christian school girl. She had a happy family but they were so, so out of touch. Not allowed to watch any real movies, listen to real music, go anywhere without her parents, etc.

What really stood out was how sheltered her parents were. Her mom would not allow her husband to go basically anywhere. Especially the mall. Because she didn't want him to walk by Victoria's Secret or any of the other clothing stores with 'immodest' or 'sexual' posters/ads. Yep. He wasn't allowed to shop anywhere he might see hot models in clothing ads. - Itchycoo

12.

My girlfriends mum used to follow her school bus on school excursions to a lake that was three hours away. She wanted to be able to help if there were an accident. Given that she doesn't know first aid and there were no cell phones back then I'm not quite sure what she thought she would do. - hazzdawg

13.

My college roommate was a previously homeschooled 21 year old who thought sex was just two people lying next to each other. I absolutely blew her mind when I gave her the sex talk. Her parents did such a disservice to this poor girl - one_hip_chick

14.

I knew a kid that wasn't allowed to watch Arthur...Because it was too sarcastic. - bawamasta

15.

I worked with a girl whose mother would call every two hours and ask to talk to her daughter. This would become a real pain because the girl was a good worker but her mother would call in the middle of our dinner rush and demand that her daughter be given 10-15 minutes to talk on the phone.

One day one of the other managers flipped out on her over the phone saying that she needed to back off and give her daughter space so she could do her work without the constant distraction. Shortly after she was forced to quit. . - thezerbler

16.

I did not see this personally but a good friend has told me about kids who lived on his road. Their dad was hyper paranoid about them getting sick or hurt. They had to wear long sleeves and keep coats with them year round.

They were allowed to go to public school but when they came home afterward, they had to play inside a larger dog cage in the yard. No pets. It was put up for them. They were not allowed to walk around the yard or hike freely.

Both of them work at the same place now, and they are in their 20s. Their dad drives them to work and sits in the parking lot until they are done. - TheChocolateWarOf74

17.

I had a friend in college, she was getting married later that week, well she confessed that she had no idea how sex worked or anything about the male anatomy. She grew up with all sisters, and her mom just told her she would figure it out on her wedding night. We had a very long talk that night. She still thanks me for helping her out. - MooSaysTh3Cow

18.

When I was 18 I worked at Backyard Burgers (fast food place) and we hired this new guy who was probably 16-18. Seemed fairly normal, albeit a bit goofy, but after a few weeks of working he stopped coming in.

I asked my manager if he quit or was fired, but apparently he was forced to quit by his parents because his shifts would often go past his bedtime...which was 8 pm. Someone who is almost in college having to be in bed at 8 pm...god knows what else his parents did. - QuasarsRcool