For some parents, keeping careful eyes and ears on their college children seems to be a top priority.

For ISU students Tommy Hoffman, freshman in pre-business, and Phil Uhde, freshman in pre-business, this situation is all too real.

Uhde admits his mother has the best intentions when she calls, but it does get a little excessive.

“She’ll call a lot. It’s nice to know that they care, but it does get kind of annoying,” Uhde said.

Most of the time, his mother wants to know his whereabouts.

“She wants to know everything about where I’m going, and sometimes it gets to a point where it’s like, ‘I’m going out with my friends. What more do you need to know?'” Uhde said.

His mother keeps up this inquisitive behavior when he goes home for breaks.

“Whenever I’m at home and I come home from somewhere, they always grill me on where I’ve been and ask who I was with,” Uhde said.

While Uhde’s mother can be too watchful sometimes, his father is exactly the opposite.

“My dad has his own business, so he has his own office at home, so he lets my mom handle most of that sort of stuff,” Uhde said.

His parents’ differing methods come in handy in different ways. He will go to his mom whenever he has a problem, but will talk to his dad about normal life situations because, Uhde said, “we have the male bond thing, but I also think he’s more of a loose cap.”

At the end of the day, Uhde knows his parents are just looking out for him.

“She tries to keep me in check pretty good,” Uhde said. “But I know she has my best interest at heart.”

For Hoffman, it’s his dad who does the checking up.

“I live right here in town, so at first my dad didn’t want me to move to the dorms. He said it was because it was an unnecessary expense, but I think his real reason was he wanted to keep an eye on my academic process and stuff,” Hoffman said.

His father was similarly watchful throughout high school, as well.

“My senior year, I had a curfew and everything – that got kind of annoying,” Hoffman said.

During a weeklong trip to Orlando, Fla., with his classmates, his dad called him at least once a day, and sometimes it got to be two or three times a day.

Hoffman said this has also had an effect on his dating habits.

“There were a number of girls I would’ve considered going out with, but I worried about what my dad would think. He mostly gives me advice on girls using quotes from TV and movies,” Hoffman said.

When it comes down to it, Hoffman said his dad is just trying to keep him on the right path.

“My dad had a different lifestyle in college than I did,” Hoffman said. “I’m sure he’s just trying to keep me from making the same mistakes he made.”