Just don't pronounce the P as a separate letter.
Nevertheless, the parent is right, in my accent hover and lover don't rhyme either. All three have different vowels.
I suspect it's not the standard pronunciation in my region, since Wiktionary lists it as an alternative American pronunciation and I'm Australian, but for whatever reason that's how I pronounce it.
I pronounced it as rhyming with "clover" too before learning that it's actually incorrect.