Research has shown that students' beliefs related to mathematics are connected to their affect and motivation as well as their mathematical thinking and activity. Moreover, high parental expectations have been shown to play a role in students' positive beliefs and self-efficacy. This paper reports on two studies investigating parental expectations related to students' beliefs and their perceived achievement. These studies highlighted an unusual, but confirmed finding that students who do not perceive that their parents have specific mathematics achievement expectations show more positive mathematics-related beliefs and higher perceived mathematics achievement than students who believe their parents do have specific expectations. This paper explores possible reasons for this finding related to parents' methods of conveying their expectations.