Seasoned Teachers Share The Most Intense Parents They've Had To Deal With
As a teacher, you deal with a lot of kids on a daily basis, which means you also have to answer to all of their parents. Parents of students can be pushy and overbearing when dealing with their child's education, but at the same time provide some of the best stories for teachers to tell.
madness2135 asks:
Teachers of Reddit- who's the craziest parent you've ever encountered?
How crazy do these parents get?
It's never too early to start preparing
I was a kindergarten teacher when during a parent teacher conference a father asked me what I was doing to prepare his 5 year old son for the SATs.
I tried to come up with a serious answer and told him that we've been coloring a lot in art class, and that this should help develop his dexterity for filling in the bubbles on a scantron.
Ouch, and gross
School nurse here. Had a girl with nasty case of head lice that went on for months. Called the parent a dozen times. Parent didn't see what the problem was and refused to treat her. The girl got tired of being teased about it and had a fellow classmate shave her head in the locker room. Parent called to yell at me for "ruining" her daughter and accused me of shaving the kid.
Those are some serious words
Woman straight up tried to get me fired. Screamed at my boss in front of my students, scaring them. Said I was taking away his autonomy and stifling his creativity.
Yikes!
Art teacher here. I had a student's mom accuse me of being racist because I asked the kids not to use black or brown colors on their assignment. It was a 2nd grade color blending assignment.
Now this is a special one...
I teach fifth grade. Evidently a parent came to my principal recently because when we group the fourth graders into class, she wants her daughter in any class but mine. Under no circumstances is her kid to be placed with me. The reasoning behind it being that I have large breasts which will hurt her 10 year old daughter's self esteem.
Sometimes parents don't accept the whole truth
Had a parent accuse the school of discriminating against his son because his son spoke mostly Russian and that's why his son was having issues at school.
I speak fluent Russian and helped translate for their son. His son was having issues because he kept pushing kids and hitting them.
This is extreme
A parent who blamed me for her son's inattention in class because I wore a red jumper. He was very sensitive to red and it messed with his aura or some such.
When things get way to personal and very uncomfortable
Racist dad didn't like the fact that I am mixed race, so he threatened me at the school gates with his Rottweiler.
There is also a serious lack of interest in children's schooling from parents
Halfway into a parent's meeting, the mother realized that we were speaking about her youngest daughter, not the son.
This actually doesn't sound that unreasonable...
Someone seeking Mandarin Chinese lessons for their 6 month old. Not kidding. I wish I was.
When the parents make you run and hide
I had this kid who was relatively bright, but absolutely clueless and hated at turning assignments in; as a result, he was often failing. Well, beginning of the school year, the parent flip out and decide that I must be the worst teacher in the world. Stalked my social media and LinkedIn, somehow got ahold of a bunch of other parent emails and started s***-talking about how I was brand new and incompetent (it was my 2nd year) and making really specific references to my previous job history. Principal sat down in a meeting with the parent, and the parent tried to act like none of it had ever happened. Eventually they just pulled their kid from the school; nothing was ever resolved. It was after that incident that I decided to shut down all of my social media. Just not worth the trouble.
These kids are not messing around
My mother, who is a teacher, once told me of a coworker of hers who punished a student for misbehaving or something. The student went home and told his older brother. Older brother came to school the next day and poured battery acid over the teachers car, presumably as a warning.
Who K.O.s a teacher!?
My boy Tyler (4th grader) had a dad that was taking roids and was also into cage fighting. He came after school once cause he wanted beef with me because I graded Tyler with a C on his essay. Suffise to say I stood by the grade I gave the boy and his dad escalated things until we got in an altercation. He knocked me out but he was taken away after that.
Control freak?
My lead teacher was handing out M&M's to reward the children for writing their letters correctly. She gave Luke, this lady's son, two brown M&M's.
The next day this lady storms in and gets her husband to come at my lead about how irresponsible and unhealthy this practice was. They send our supervisor a five paragraph text pushing her to get fired, ranting about how she put Luke in danger, and then condescendingly offering to provide "healthy snacks" since my lead was incapable of doing so and was trying to get Luke to have a reaction. Apparently. A similar response happened when the class was given pudding as a treat.
Oh dear!
Not a teacher, but my sister had a set of parents who still believed in the whole "left hand = devil's hand" thing. When conferencing with them, they kept saying "We're still working on his motor delay"
despite months earlier at the same conference she kept trying to explain to the parents that he is simply left handed. "we keep trying to get him to use his right hand"
That's just unnecessary
I had my rain stick threatened to be taken away because it is offends the Native American culture.
Rain sticks are from South America.
How friendly!
I once had a parent teacher conference where the parent came in and never spoke a word to me. She never said hi or anything, just came in, sat across from me and stared right into my eyes the entire time.
Oh snap!
Met this guy at the bar. Went home, told me I was the perfect combination of sexy and cute, then never called me again wtf.
Few days later was the PTA meeting, turns out this guy was the parent of one of my students and HAD A WIFE.
Military mom style
It was the first day of camp and another counselor's mom was helping him move in his stuff like a lot of parents do. Now for context these cabins get used about 3 maybe 4 weeks out of the year and are then locked up. These cabins are not bad for being cabins used by a camp this small. She saw the cabin and flipped out! She complained it was filthy and had every single person she could find help clean it up until it was spotless. it would of made a drill Sargent proud.
forget tying to communicate, just get them fired!
Not me, but a Chem teacher I'm currently a TA for.
She's had multiple parents call her racist, sexist, etc. She's equally "miserable" to everybody (not really miserable but strict and would rarely budge on her policies). Her best story was how a parent brought one of these absurd accusations straight to the school board, not the principal, not the superintendent.
Of course, most of the time, it was “just a phase". And looking back, those phases are regrettable, to say the least. Here are some prime examples of that.
SirGergoyFriendman asked:
What was your biggest/most regrettable "It's not a phase, mom. It's my life." that, in fact, turned out to be just a phase and not your life?
The enthusiasm of a young person can lead to some unexpected changes that parents are just not ready for.
Hi, Wheeljack!
I was VERY into The Transformers when I was a wee lad in the 1980s. One day, I decided to change my name to the name of my favorite Autobot. My name was lame, and I wanted an awesome Transformer name. And I was VERY insistent that my parents only call me by my new name. Calling me by my 'old' name would cause a big fat tantrum on my part.
So for the better part of a week, my poor parents had to call me Wheeljack.
Very 2008.
Ariana Grande Shrug GIFGiphyMy cat-ear phase. I wore cat ears every single day. Everywhere. I had like 20 pairs of them. Now everyone thinks I'm a furry.
I find that very cute and wouldn't have thought you'd be furry. Even if you'd had cat mittens. I think my suspicions would have started if you moved a bit like a cat, displayed catlike grooming habits or got a cat mask.
Not gonna lie, that car sounds cool.
I went to a car show once as a teen, and the only newer car there was some chick's PT cruiser. It was hot glittery pink, and at the time I was obsessed. I insisted that one day I would have a hot pink car, with pink seats, pink dash, pink carpets, etc. I was pretty heavily goth at the time, so my parents just rolled their eyes.
These phases can often lead to some very strange fashion choices.
That’s commitment.
When I was a teenager (early 00s), I was waiting for my mother to pick me up and was wearing one of those sh!tty sports wristwatches. It was itching me so I took it off for a second, but then she arrived and because I was struggling to get it back on my wrist, I looped it around the equally sh!tty chain I had around my neck in a rush to get out the door.
My mom asked me about it in the car, and I told her this was my new style and I planned to wear it like that every day. She rolled her eyes.
I wore that watch on a chain around my neck every single day for 3 years or so. There are even professional family photos where I'm wearing it because I refused to take it off.
One day, the chain broke and I lost the watch. I was in high school at that point anyway and it was a major lady repellent, so... phase over.
Not everyone can be Eminem.
slim shady eminem GIFGiphyBaggy pants, being a rapper someday and being a professional skater.
When I was about 14 and Eminem was starting to blow up I bought myself a keyboard with a synthesizer. It cost like $200 which was all the money I had saved up. It finally came (this was way before amazon prime and such) and I tried rapping.
My sister told me "you're effing horrible" and I gave up right then and there.
This should be a sin.
I used to button the top buttons of polo shirts.
I must say, this is probably the worst one I've read.
Looking back at our regrettable choices, all we can do is cringe.
An optimistic look at bad tattoos.
check me out season 3 GIF by PortlandiaGiphyBeing a tattooer. Regrettable because of those poor people who have my awful doodles on their bodies.
Take heart! My favorite tattoo is the one I drunkenly got my buddy to do in his living room one year during March Madness! It's dumb and frankly mediocre? But such a good story and has such good associations I smile every time I see it.
RIP Fredro’s.
My friend and I decided we were going to open a bar in Jamaica with exotic snakes in glass cages in the walls at each booth. We convinced ourselves it would be amazing for at least two years in college. It was going to be called Fredro's.
My entire family made fun of me for it. Once we got out of college, we realized it was not feasible and joined the office grind. We're also two white guys with no ties to Jamaica.
Talk about cringey.
I wore a top hat with an anime pin on it for around a year. Met one of my current best friends while wearing it, idk how he could bear to speak to me after that.
My weirdest phase was probably when I insisted on wearing knee-high rainbow socks to school every day. But honestly, I don't regret it. I rocked those socks, and I wish I still have a pair.
To all the people out there cringing over their past selves, remember that you were just a kid, and to be easy on yourselves. After all, we've all been there
Yet, too often, manufacturers who oversell their products fail to deliver what is promised and are inevitably left with angry customers who want their money back.
Whether the merchandise was defective or ridiculously overpriced, strangers online shared some of their worst purchases when Redditor BooksMcGee asked:
"What is the worst product you ever paid money for?"
Short Life Span
"This NERF gun that's supposed to shoot tennis balls for your dog. I bought it cause I thought you could load 3 at a time and shoot them far, but it's just one and it's super loud and the gun broke after like 4 shots (reading reviews later, this was a common issue)."
Lame Pets
"There were these toys called squiggles when I was a kid and the commercials made it seem like the toy was alive. It looked like you would get this crazy little fuzzy worms as pets that would follow you around an so sick tricks and listen to your every command. It was really just a piece of fluffy string tied to another piece of string with googly eyes on it. People may say that it was supposed to be a magic trick but they should also explain that to a 5 year old who really wanted a pet."
Card Value
"Not their fault, but I paid $70 for a Yugioh card hours before it was limited to one copy. Probably dropped to $20 by the end of the day."
These purchases were bad for your bum.
"A bicycle that literally fell apart before I made it out of the parking lot."
Not Worth Sitting On
"Joybird brand couch. Was so terrible, we returned it. Still hard to believe, we returned a freaking couch."
Going Nowhere Fast
"A 2000 VW Beetle (used)."
"Biggest piece of sh*t that literally had to have just about everything replaced before 100k miles and would still break down every time you left the driveway to the point where the tow-truck driver knew us on a first-name basis."
Expensive Lemon
"An Oldsmobile Achieva from one of those buy here pay here places. I should have known better, but I was young and thought I was getting a good deal. I had the thing for about 5 months, I drove it for maybe 3 weeks. The rest of the time it was either in the shop, or in my driveway waiting until pay day so I could afford to fix whatever broke on it this week. Eventually told the dealer just take it, I'm not paying for it any more. He said nope, and I will make sure your credit is ruined. I said well you sold me a lemon, do you really want to go this route? He came and took it. Never reported anything to credit. I heard he got sued by several other people who sold sh**ty cars too and eventually went out of business."
"Always amazes me when I see them driving around still, I can only assume there's enthusiasts who just love repairing horribly designed cars."
– zerbey
These Redditors were not convinced what they ingested was edible.
Bad Cereal
"A box of plain Cheerios. Thought they were honey nut, poured a bowl, was very disappointed."
"If I wanted to taste cardboard, I'd just eat the box."
– gor8884
Space Pizza
"A burnt frozen pizza at the air and space museum cafe in DC. I Don't wish that experience on anyone. There are some amazing restaurants in DC, don't settle."
– Alseids
The following electronics just gave off a bad charge.
"Asus Transformer Pad TF700"
"This was one of those early 'high end' Android tablets that was grossly underpowered, and it showed. Thing was slow as sh!t in no time flat. Rookie mistake investing into shiny new tech while they were still working all the bugs out. Think I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $350-400 for it..."
– Luke5119
Bad Apple
"macbook pro 2018 13" touchbar. 2 years old and dead (battery). they're asking $300-$400 to change the battery. malfunctioning keyboard with double presses and missing presses. that's a lot of money for bad design."
Chilly Reception
"Past winter my old room heater broke down and I had to buy a new one. Went to a store nearby and somehow got convinced to buy a very costly heating device.. It's also my fault, since there were some sligthly cheaper options around, but nope. I wanted the expensive one thinking it will make my small room a volcano with little to no effort/cost (that's also what the seller told me). Long story short the device wasn't doing ANYTHING. No significant temperature changes, too much space, a weird noise, and was doubling my previous device in utility cost. I still gloom over those 80 euros.."
Some of my disappointing purchases was clothing, but only because I purchased them online. Unless they are a brand I'm familiar with, I'm usually fine with buying new jeans off of their websites.
But when it comes to graphic tees only available on specialty shops, an M-size shirt is not necessarily the same size as those found in other reputable stores.
I bought a medium sized T-shirt from a boutique store online because I loved the look of the design. But when it arrived, the supposed medium fit me like an XL.
At least I gained a fierce cleaning rag from this impulsive purchase.