Any teacher will tell you that it’s a pain to have to deal with parents who are even more immature than their grade-school-aged kids. From helping their kids cheat on tests to flipping tables at parent-teacher night, these crazy parent stories from teachers on Reddit will make you want to give teachers a raise.
1. Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You
I substituted in a high school for five months to finish off the year for a teacher who was on maternity leave. So I had a student (high school senior) who never did any homework (which accounted for 35% of the total grade), I would constantly send emails to the parents (who always responded that they'd deal with it), spoke with the parents at conferences, and kept the admin in the loop. It still wasn’t enough.
A week before finals, I sent the notice home that she needed to get a 97% on the final to pass the class and get the credits she needed for graduation (and I even gave her one more chance to turn in past homework for 50% credit). Fast forward to the final, she barely gets a passing grade and therefore can't get the credits, can't graduate, can't enlist in the Air Force like she had intended.
The parents come into the office of the school SCREAMING at everyone that they had no clue it would come to this. When we all sat down in an office with the guidance counselor, principal, department head, and myself, I reviewed the several notices with them, and explained that she had MULTIPLE opportunities to gain credit, etc. but refused to do anything. That’s when we found out the twisted truth.
Turns out the wife was hiding the emails and information from her husband and wanted her daughter to fail so she wouldn't join the Air Force and move away from home. Last I heard from the situation, they're not together, the daughter is working at Lowes (never finished high school) and has 2 kids and multiple arrests for selling illicit substances.
There's a reason I didn't want to pursue teaching as a career after that.
2. Momma Bear
I lived in St. Louis for work for a while. One of the craziest things I saw in the papers was about a mom and her friends that drove from the city to the suburbs to fight some girls in her daughter's class. The mom and friends put locks and coins in socks and hit the other girl with them.
The absolute worst part? The mom knew so little about her own daughter she went to the wrong school and beat up some random girl that didn't even know her daughter.
3. Hablas Ingles?
I taught English in Colombia for a summer and had some pretty interesting interactions. One particular set of parents insisted that their son was a brilliant genius who didn't need to study. He rarely came to class and therefore could barely speak any English (while the rest of his classmates could speak full, basic sentences).
I emailed his parents my concerns for his apparent lack of motivation and they told me that he could speak perfect English and didn't need to come to class so they let him skip. I knew exactly what to do.
Finally, parent/instructor conference time came and I asked them to bring their son. I asked him in English "How is English class coming along"? He stared blankly and just started crying. Told you so.
4. Supportive Mom
Just before Christmas break, I had the students hand in a paper. One of the students was missing a page, so I pulled out the contact sheet that I had the students fill out at the beginning of the year and gave a call. The student's father picked up the line, and said "Thanks for calling, we will definitely get that extra page to you".
The next day, the student's mother comes storming into the classroom. She happens to be an Education Assistant at the school. She demands to know where I got that number. I said that her son had put it on the contact sheet. Apparently, the parents are separated. She proceeded to tell me that I had no right to call that number, and that when there is a problem with their son, only SHE has the right to know.
I told her, thanks, that's good to know. That's when she dropped this gem: "If he hands something in that is incomplete, you FAIL him, you got that? Fail"! Then she walked out of the classroom. This comes from a person who is supposed to help children succeed.
5. State Of Denial
Parents who are in denial about who their child actually is break my heart. For instance, we had a student who had an abundance of markers for autism and was in 6th grade. All the teachers on the students' team agreed they ought to tell the parents their concerns and suggest the student be tested so we could offer more resources for the student. The teacher who spoke with them was very polite, very kind in suggesting they try and figure out how best to help the student. The mother’s reaction was brutal.
She literally screamed at her that nothing was wrong with her child and that she would never get the student tested. Her husband even tried to tell her that it wasn't a bad thing and that they should try and see if it would help since his teachers who knew him thought it might. The mom started cussing out the teacher and stormed out.
6. This Is College, Not Kindergarten
I teach in a college, so the students are almost always 18 or over. A couple of years ago, one student's mother called the Chair of my department to complain on behalf of her daughter about the difficulty of some work listed on my syllabus. My Chair was baffled, and asked the mother if her daughter was over 18. The mother replied that her daughter was 20 years old. My Chair explained that it was then her daughter's responsibility to either speak with me directly, or withdraw from the course. That's it, that's all. It's college! People only go if they want to...no one's mother can do anything about the workload.
7. Flawless Logic
I had a student who I caught plagiarizing in an essay. The zero was going to cause the student to not graduate on time. The parent called a meeting, but I had proof of the action thanks to turnitin.com. What happened next blew my mind.
When I explained the assignment, I showed the parent my proof. That is when she said, "But I wrote that part of the essay, not my daughter, so she didn't cheat, I did".
8. I Get The Message
One time, I took a four-day weekend.
I came back on Monday to 50 emails (Generally we have 10-15 in my group)
My voicemail had 10 messages. I had not gotten a voicemail once in my entire time at my school.
It was a parent flipping out that their student is failing, how stupid I was for not allowing their student to do the work. How ridiculous I was that I could not give her student another chance.
The last email and voicemail was the husband apologizing because I am not the teacher of this student. They got confused with my last name I guess.
9. Helicopter Mom
I taught college, so my story is nice.
I had a student failing horribly (his grades were under 10%) but he wouldn’t drop the class. Whatever, not my dime, not my problem. Anyway, grades come in and (I guess?) his mother has his password to his account, or perhaps he just told her his grade (F, obviously), and I get an angry email insisting that there's no way he could have failed Pre-calculus, because my god, his father is an engineer and the student wants to be an engineer and he just has to be good at math.
The best part is, when you turn 18 and go to college you're treated as an adult (even if you don't act like one), and there's a little box you can check that says "Allow my parents to see my records". Most kids don't check it, and by law I am not allowed to release any records to anyone, even parents. So I politely informed her that her son is considered an adult and I was not allowed to release any records and that she would have to contact him. I knew she’d freak out—but I didn’t know how bad it would be.
It prompted a long "I'm going to get you fired"! email that I forwarded to my dean who came to my office for a long laugh. I actually feel pretty bad for the kid. Having a helicopter mom like that at that age will do him no favors.
10. Let Me Spell It Out
My neighbor went to a Catholic school where students in primary grades received grades of O (outstanding) S (satisfactory) and U (unsatisfactory). She got a bunch of Us on her assignments and her mother was very angry with her. And my neighbor told her mom, "but mom, U means 'u did good”!
11. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
I had a 5th grader go off on me, shouting and screaming in the hallway. This was sort of the final straw for him (he had a long history of yelling at staff in the school) and he was suspended for 6 days. State law allows the parents to have an informal meeting with the teacher and the principal of the school.
His mom and dad come into this meeting with myself, the principal, and the guidance counselor. The principal introduces everyone, mom interrupts saying she has a "major concern that needs to be addressed immediately". I had no idea what I was in for.
She accused the principal of being an imposter and demanded that everyone in the room take out their driver's licenses to prove that "we are who we say we are". We all refused and she battled about this for ten or so minutes.
Over the course of the next 45 minutes she ranted about how the principal was an imposter, and that this imposter principal, myself and the superintendent were involved in a conspiracy to remove her son from the school.
12. Sleeping Beauty
In my first year of teaching, I had a student who was constantly sleeping in class. I called home about it and the mother said that he was always on his computer or watching TV at night and she couldn't get him to stop.
I was only 23 at the time and didn't feel confident enough to tell a parent how to be a parent, but if that happened now, I'd calmly tell the parent to go into the room and remove the offending technology.
13. Talk It Out
I had a kid that was very angry. He got in fights with kids and teachers and so on. I worked and worked with this kid and we were making a lot of progress. His mom believes in not sharing your feelings and keeping things bottled up, so she told him not to talk to me about his feelings anymore. For a year, anytime I’d try to talk to him he'd say "My mom says I don't have to talk about my feelings so I'm not going to" and I’d patiently tell him "Okay". He got progressively worse and had such a hard year that year.
After he came back from summer he came up to me and gave me a hug and told me thank you for helping him. The next year he did amazing! I'm really happy for him but his mom really stunted his growth with her own fears of being open and vulnerable. She never liked me and my "hippie ways".
14. Seize The Moment
I work as an assistant at an art studio and we have a seven-year-old with seizure syndrome—but there’s something off about the situation.
I'm pretty sure she’s perfectly healthy. I'm pretty sure she had one seizure once and her mom freaked out and had her diagnosed. Now this little girl loved to terrorize her mother. She's told me that. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and gigantic, toothy smile, and told me that she likes messing with her mom and making her angry because her mom is too protective and one of those helicopter parents.
So this little girl just jerks her mom every which way and it's hilarious because her mom is just like that. Overbearing, extremely protective, and really really bossy. She'll tell the main teacher and I how to teach her daughter how to draw and how many colors to use, etc etc etc...
But, we don't have to retaliate or even say anything because her daughter does it for us. That little girl is fantastic.
15. Crime Pays
I coordinate an internship program. I caught one of the students stealing. It wasn't a lot, a few packs of Stride gum, but something like that makes us look bad to the employer could have jeopardized the entire program. I explain everything to the school administration, and the student gets suspended for 3 days. When he returns he apologizes to me. I do a whole spiel that what he did was serious, and on a real job if you are caught stealing there are no second chances and I had to promise the manager I'd watch him like a hawk for the rest of the year.
To lighten the mood up a bit I asked him what he did over the three days of being suspended. His mom had taken him to the mall, bought him new headphones, a few shirts from Hollister and Abercrombie, and a new PS3 game, which he played all the time he was suspended for stealing.
16. Next Caller, Please
My teacher friend busted one of her kids for cheating, and then went and informed the parents. Their response was deranged.
The mom actually called a local radio station to complain about the teacher; luckily the radio station and the callers thought the mom was crazy as well.
17. Sign Of The Times
Oh lordy, where to start (I teach 11th grade):
I sat in an IEP (special ed) meeting. The parents wanted all of these accommodations for the student even though we kept bringing up his daily weed habit. The accommodations still got on the plan with a promise from him to cut back.
Parents asking us how to parent their child. "He gets upset when I take his Xbox".
A kid kept forgetting his backpack. I asked him if he had his cell phone or shoes. Obviously, he did. So I told him to put those items in his backpack when he gets home. His mom thought I was a genius.
One parent was exasperated that their child with ADHD wasn't doing college-level work.
Two minutes into a phone conference with a mom, she compared her son with her other kids and lamented that her son wasn't as good at school as they were.
This is the saddest. I have a deaf student. On parent-teacher night the student's parents come to my class with her. I quickly deduced that the mom and the dad DO NOT know sign language. We talked about her progress and her wanting to go into medicine. I had to convince the dad she was capable; he kept talking her down and demanding she speak.
This is a majority of my parent interactions. I would say 1/3 are normal but yield no change.
18. Homeschool Horror Stories
My mother is a K-12 teacher for a charter school that does homeschooling with the teacher checking in and reviewing things about once a week. It's meant for students who have difficulty in the public school system—which can range from dropouts to super smart kids to non-English speakers—and parents who don't have the time to do full homeschooling. I used to help with grading the math and science stuff, so I have TONS of stories.
There was one parent that really annoyed my mother. There were two kids, brothers, both seniors almost done with high school. All that was left was some sort of state testing done in a classroom. One brother shows up, the other isn't there. My mom (proctor for the exam) asks where his brother is. He replies, "He didn't feel like coming". She tells him that this is all he needs to graduate, so text him and get him to come here. He doesn't show.
Halfway through the test, the kid's mother storms in the door, yelling at my own mother, telling her off for making her son feel "ashamed and humiliated". She flips a table over (no joke), grabs her son that's there (who looked like he wanted to die. Keep in mind, he's a senior. Like, 17 years old or so), and storms out the door.
Both brothers failed to get their high school degrees, as neither had completed the state test. The crazy mom then writes a scathing email to my mother's supervisor, talking about how she had been lying to her, disregarding her problems and her children's education, and attempting to sabotage their chances at graduation.
19. None Of Your Business
A 16-year-old freshman girl is constantly skipping class and starts failing at the beginning of the year. I called her mother to inform her about missing class and missing grades. The mother put me on speakerphone without telling me that the kid is listening in on the conversation. I tell her that I am concerned about the kid's attendance, and seemingly poor academic habits. The mother blows up at me saying that I shouldn't worry about her attendance because it's not my business. She then says she's self-employed and frequently far from the school, and can't take time to deal with her daughter's school issues. She later transfers out of my class to another teacher—she failed the class anyway.
20. Special Snowflake
We get a new student the last week of May with only four weeks of school left. In this school year, this student has only attended two and a half weeks of school due to "school anxiety". He has a whole team of professionals, his mother, and a one-on-one aide that work with him. This is also his 3rd school after he was kicked out of his two previous ones, and he is in 2nd grade.
He had a generally good first day, fist bumped his teacher, did a little bit of stuff, then went home and told his mother that it was THE WORST DAY IN HIS LIFE. Mom comes to school all up in arms about how we're ruining her precious little snowflake. But then it gets even worse.
The next day, his classroom teacher tried to get him to do some writing with her. The kid looks straight in her eyes and says, "My mother said I don't have to do anything. Are you calling my mother a liar”?! Cue mother the next day, all up in arms, because "THE TEACHER CALLED MY PRECIOUS SNOWFLAKE A LIAR".
So, due to his "school anxiety", he doesn't have to do any work, interact with teachers, make any movement whatsoever except sit like a lump in his seat. The teacher, when giving an assignment to the class, has to specify to him "but you don't have to do anything if you don't want to".
It's by far the stupidest situation I've ever witnessed.
21. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
I had a student who came to my student-teaching classroom two grades below reading level, and similarly behind in other subjects. She really wanted to learn, but she had some cognitive issues that didn't qualify her for special ed but meant that she required a LOT of time and personal attention to learn well.
For that entire school year, I worked individually with her before and after school (while she was waiting for the bus or after she'd been dropped off) and often during her recess and art/gym/library, which she asked me to do because she wanted to learn and wanted the one-on-one attention. She improved markedly in reading and in writing, which is what we were concentrating on. She wasn't caught up at the end of the year, but she was a heck of a lot closer. She failed the year, but because she had a speech issue, her parents could decide to send her to the next grade anyway.
I tried and tried to convince her parents that she should be held back a year, because with another year of intensive help (which I was going to find a way to secure for her) I thought that she could be close to or on grade level, and could possibly keep up with the other students after that. They refused because they didn't want the other students to make fun of her. I have no idea what happened after that because I moved to another state, but I bet it wasn't good.
22. Fairy Godmother
A Pre-K student's mother got in my face (she towered over me) and yelled at me for telling her daughter she was not a real princess. This was in front of her daughter, other children, and other parents. The director of the school wanted me to apologize to the woman. I refused.
23. Felicity Huffman?
Long story short: a mother asked me, " What exactly do I–um, I mean, "Timmy", need to do so he won't plagiarize and get a zero on the project"? Yeah, right. I knew she had been doing his work all year, but I couldn't prove it—but that’s not the craziest part.
This was made even worse because she was my co-worker, a high school English teacher, and she didn't know how to avoid plagiarism.
24. Amen To That
Whenever parents ask: “Why do my children have to study Religious Education? They're not religious,” I always provide the same response: “They don't live in the past but they have to study history”.
It's amazing how many parents don't understand that it's important to know what other people believe and how it affects the way they live their lives, even if those beliefs are not shared by the students learning about them.
25. Parent-Teacher Fight
I remember being 10-12 and having a student-led conference, it was going really well, awesome grades, lots of friends but I noticed a woman was being really, really mean to one if the teachers and when my parents were talking to my teacher in private (part of the conference) she screamed: "My son is smarter than every kid in this school, this work is just not what he was made for, he deserves better"!
I went to a 30K a year private school and her son was very, very obviously disturbed in some way.
26. Piano Prodigy
My mom teaches early childhood education. Basically 5-6 year olds. One of them had MAJOR signs of autism. My mom said it seemed like it and after reading several books on the subject. I thought so too.
Primarily, he had the basic signs such as a lack of imagination, social skills, and he never ate anything other than a PB and J sandwich (he would scream if offered otherwise). He also always had to be on a schedule. Since I walked to that school from my school, I always played with him. We would go to the unused library, and play piano. I taught him to play songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He loved it. He would tell me he loved piano.
We decided to let his parents know. They denied it all. But my mom couldn’t let it rest. She decided to bring the school in and had him observed. Sure enough, the psychologist agreed with us. He is in first grade now, It's my most heart-warming memory I have.
I saw him at WalMart, he took me to the toy section, found one of those demo pianos, and played Mary Had A Little Lamb. His parents bought him a toy piano and showed him how to read the music. He is getting treatment now. I'm crying while writing this. I miss ya little bro.
27. To B Or Not To B
I taught a middle school class as a student teacher and had a mother email me to tell her that her son has never gotten a B in his life and yet he had an F in my classroom. Wanted to know why. I wrote back and told her he never did any work in my classroom and never turned in homework.
She emailed the "real" teacher stating that I had no right or control over her son's grade because I was not a "real teacher". She wrote back saying I was the real teacher in his classroom and that she had observed him many times not turning in his work and never caring that he didn't either. I ended up trying everything in my power to help this kid raise his grade. He tried a little bit, but in the end, it wasn't enough—I gave the kid his first B. I'm not going to lie either, I didn't feel bad giving it to him either.
28. Just Fess Up
I volunteer at the YMCA. A girl got in a fight with another kid and the mother would just not accept that her daughter was capable of such a thing. The girl was saying over and over, "It's my fault, it's my fault, I'm sorry it won't happen again just give me my punishment etc etc". And the mom was just denying it over and over again. So frustrating.
29. Careful What You Ask For
It was my mom’s first year teaching 5th grade, and she gave her kids a spelling test. She caught a student cheating on that test, by changing his answers after grading and insisting it was there before (despite eraser marks),and decided to talk to the student and the parents. My Mom is really laid back, and often would give her students second chances that the other teachers, who are all stricter than her, would not give. So anyways my Mom calls the parents and says "Hi Mr. Smith, I'm calling to inform you I caught your son cheating on a test. Since this is his first time, I will allow him to retake it tomorrow during recess in my class".
The Dad was furious, he started yelling that his son would never do such a thing and how my Mom was a horrible teacher and started cussing her out. So my Mother asked another teacher who had been teaching for a while for help. The other teacher decided to get the principal involved and show the Dad how his tantrums will not get him what he wants in this school and how his childish actions make it worse for his son. The principal called the Dad and said "Hello Mr Smith, due to your disapproval of K's teachings and punishments, we feel it would be best for your son to go to Mrs A's class instead".
The Dad, thinking he got his way, agreed. But there was something that he didn’t know. His son's new teacher was the strictest in the school, and was infamous among the kids. So the boy switched classes, but he was in tears, because my Mom was the kind of teacher who gave out prizes and never yelled, and now he was leaving that class (the son actually was ok with taking the retake, but the Dad was the one who refused, my Mom felt pretty bad for the kid).
After the end of the day, the teacher comes up to my mom and tells her what she told the father. The teacher called and informed the father that the son will get a 0 on the test he took in my Mom's class, will not be getting a retake, and that the son will have no recess for 2 weeks. And the next day guess who called asking to have their kid put back in my Mom's class? The Dad probably learned his lesson, and the son probably did too.
30. Creep In The Making
I worked as a teacher’s assistant/tutor at an after-school program. While watching a group of third graders I had one male student tell another female student that he was going to suffocate her by sitting on her face.
He made the young girl cry, so I informed the teacher and she told me to address it with the boy's mother when she came to pick him up. I told the mother and she laughed and thought it was funny and he had done nothing wrong. She is easily the dumbest parent I have ever met.
31. Angel Of Death, Maybe?
Oh holy cow, I subbed in Middle School a while back, and one student was a complete animal. It all came to a head when she threw a chair at another kid. I kicked her out. I went out to lunch and the principal and her parents were waiting for me. They proceeded to tell me how their daughter was such a great student and an angel that would never do anything. I was completely flabbergasted, but I could tell the principal knew I was right because nothing more came of it.
I proceeded to see this student throughout her high school years, and every teacher that encountered her said her parents did the same thing. They said she got written up every day. Ridiculous. I don't know what their problem is.
32. Watch Your Drink
When I was in middle school, a kid put a larger dose of his parents' sleeping pills in our teacher's Diet Coke. After lunch, we all tried to get back into the still-locked classroom (always locked at lunch) with no luck. The principal unlocked the door to find the teacher on the floor. He had passed out and hit his head on a desk. The kid immediately started crying and confessed. He was expelled immediately—but it turns out that our nightmare was just beginning.
The next day, during class the kid's parents came in SCREAMING at the teacher calling him names and accusing him of setting their son up, and telling him how stupid he was for leaving his Coke unattended. During the middle of their fit of rage, the principal came in with the kid that drugged the teacher, who was expelled the day before, and she politely waited for the parents to finish demoralizing our teacher, and let us know that he would be rejoining our class. Our poor teacher was doing everything to appear strong and hold back tears.
Years later I found out that the parents threatened to accuse the teacher of touching their son if they didn't allow him back into school.
Freepik,stockking
33. The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far
Last weekend, I hung out with some professors celebrating the end of the school year at a bar. One of them, a paleontologist friend of mine, told us about how a parent called in, screaming about how a professor flunked his son in geology.
Nobody had heard of the student.
The father said he was going to make sure they were going to feel his full wrath and anger. Still, no one knew who he was talking about. Did he even show up for class?
Later they found out the father did not know the difference between geography and geology. His son had flunked geography.
I joked that I had the same problem when I flunked astrology because I didn't know who Brahe or Kepler were.
34. I’ll take “Delusional Parents” for $2,000
My mom was a special education teacher for quite some time. She had a student who had low-functioning autism and could barely even talk. This kid was so sweet, I used to work with him but his parents were complete wackos! He couldn't talk, communicate, walk, or feed himself but his parents wanted him in an AP PSYCHOLOGY class. The reason why was twisted. The parents believed he understood more than everyone thought. Why did they think that? Because, exact quote, "he laughs during Jeopardy." I loved this kid and he was super nice and smiley...but Jeopardy isn't even funny.s
35. Waist Not, Want Not
I received a handwritten note from a parent stating: "My son is saying he’s board in class. Let’s not waist a good mind." Meanwhile, "Einstein's" name is all over the Missing Assignment lists.
36. Tiger Mom
I had a student who was right on the border between passing and failing. I had called home several times as required and was now having a conference with his mother. The kid was kind of goofy and a little immature for a 10th-grade student, but not the worst I've seen. During the conference, mom didn't like his response to a question and gave him a hard slap on the side of his face. Definitely got a little awkward after that.
We finished off the conference and mom requested I continue to keep her in the loop. I knew I would never call her again. The student appreciated that I could understand where he was coming from, and did enough work to make sure he passed.
37. Dentally Challenged
My mom works at a primary school and today she got an email from a parent. What it said was seriously hilarious. It was a parent asking if my mom could ask her son to brush his teeth because apparently he won't listen to his parents and refuses to brush them but they think he'll listen to my mom.
38. Perpetual Implosion
My physics teacher had a parent come in during parent-teacher conferences and explain to him how she invested in a company that was inventing a perpetual motion device. He had to teach her basic physics so she could realize she lost all her life savings.
39. No Suck-Ups In This Family
I've had a parent complain to me about her child. Her daughter was doing really well, 90+ grades and consistent effort in classwork and homework.
Me: [Student] puts a lot of thought and effort into her work.
Mom: She sucks up to you?
Me: No, she wants to do well and be successful. That being said, we'd like to improve her grammar a bit.
Mom: I knew it, she's stupid. Doesn't do anything. She will fail.
Me: Uh, no...she just needs a little more rigor in this department.
Mom: She's such a disappointment.
And every once in a while, I'll just get a complaint from her...her complaining TO me about her child. Her kid's a joy and I've been so much nicer to her since I met this lady.
40. That’s Not Kosher
I was organizing a grad dinner. One of the student’s mothers comes in and demands that her daughter perform music at the dinner. I inform her the grad class has picked someone else other than her daughter.
She gets even madder, she corrects me that she is not talking about her daughter that is graduating. She is talking about her daughter that graduated years ago trying to launch her music career.
I laugh and professionally inform her it will never happen.
A couple of days later she called the conference center and tried to make all the meals kosher and a bunch of other stuff. Wild lady.
41. This Isn’t UberEats
I had a parent who forgot to pack their kid a lunch, they called the school to tell me I needed to leave the class to go across the street and buy the kid Subway.
42. America First
I had a parent complain because I played a CD of classical Persian flute music one day in class. The class was World Languages and Cultures and I played a different CD from around the world every day as they came into class. The reason why was so stupid.
They thought I was sympathizing with terrorists and should "only teach American stuff".
43. Team America: World Parents
My town has a Facebook group to discuss local stuff and about a year ago one of the women posted saying she was DISGUSTED that her child had been asked to do a creative writing piece imagining she was a refugee child. The mother thought it was politically correct propaganda. I'm only a couple of years younger than her and I just remember it as being "exactly the sort of thing we were doing at school 20 years ago"...
All the comments agreed with her and one woman added that her daughter was also "forced" to learn a Polish Christmas song, which was outrageous and a breach of her right to her English culture.
I'm so glad I don't live in that inbred hole anymore.
44. Duly Noted
This happened in one of the 101-level college classes. A student comes in and sits in the chair, leaning back taking that standard don't care posture while another woman comes in, older, mid-50s and sits next to him. Honestly, no one takes any notice because it's college, everyone goes at different times. I actually know the professor, as he has done a large number of classes for upper divisional history. Normally he never does attendance, but on the first day, 101 class, making sure he has everyone that's supposed to be there, and that the waitlisted people there are able to sign up. That’s when he noticed something bizarre. This lady has a notebook out, but isn't on his list or one who raised their hands about being waitlisted.
Prof. "Hello, did you miss the waitlisted announcement"? Lady: "No, Don't mind me". Prof frowns, "Why not? What are you doing here"? Lady "Taking notes for my son, Like I said, don't mind me". Prof, standing there stunned, getting most of our attention since he is rather laid back, states, "Lady, He is in college." Lady nods, "Yes, but notes are hard for him". Prof, "Does he have an IEP? if so, we have a program for that". Lady "No, Like I said, don't mind me". Prof: "I do mind, you have to pay to be in this class". Lady, "I'm not learning anything. just taking notes". My prof is dumbfounded at this. "No, you're gonna leave the classroom, because your son is not 12 anymore and darn well can take his own notes. You didn't pay for classes, so you’re not at all allowed to be here. Goodbye"! He says and points her to the exit.
Lady, "Well! I will complain to the head of your department"! Prof: "I am the head, now leave".
45. If Gay Means Happy…
When I was an assistant school counselor, we had a furious parent call us several times and accuse us of turning her son gay. Her son who was cutting a swath through the school's female population. The calls stopped after he got a classmate pregnant.
46. Hot For Teacher?
When I came out to my parents they decided it was my English teacher’s fault for always wearing colored bras under a white blouse. So they put in a formal complaint.
47. Get Your Priorities Straight
I've had a parent send their sick child to school and, instead of coming to get him when we called (he had a high fever and was puking everywhere), she went and got a manicure first. Her reason? "Well, I just knew I was going to be stressed out because he's puking again on my time". I had to leave the room and let the nurse handle the rest because all I wanted to do was take her out.
Freepik, gpointstudio
48. Hi Hungary, I’m Dad
I am an assistant professor in some subjects (mainly chemistry, history, and geography), and I had a father angrily complaining about the time we spend teaching third-world "garbage" in his own words, so I asked him if he knew what the capital of Hungary was. He said, "Hungry isn't a country"! So, I simply shook my head and answered that was the reason we kept teaching so much third-world garbage.
49. Oh, Boy
I used to teach phonics (basic reading skills) to kindergarten-aged kids. One parent came in after class, irate, and demanded to know why I had taught the er/ir/ur diphthong before the oi/oy diphthong. He didn't want his kid to be able to read the word "girl" before being able to read "boy". He kept going on about how "boy" was just more important and common, as a word, and teaching kids less frequent words before more frequent ones would slow down reading progress and was bad pedagogically, and so on.
In hindsight, I'm impressed that he managed to squeeze so many justifications into something so pointlessly stupid.
50. Ma’am, This Isn’t A Wendy’s
I worked for a local computer shop, and we were located less than a half-mile drive from the school in the center of the city I live in. Every once in a while, we'd get a call from the tech support guy there with a semi-advanced question, or simply something he doesn't know. The school got acquainted with us well enough that either me or my boss, the only two people who work there, would sometimes be called in as sort of subs for their tech guy. The board knew us, the administration knew us, and I became really close friends with the SINGLE janitor for this entire 1k+ kid high school. I told the dude I have a huge respect for his work, and we each split some leftover cheeseburgers from the cafe. I digress, this is just a little background.
I was substituting for their tech and got a call from an irate mother. About her child. I was really curious at first, but then the principal comes in and signals me to hang up NOW. I keep listening though. Apparently, her kid got a 79 on a test, and she wanted him to retake it. As lenient as this school is, it was a state test and I knew that. I went to this school. My explanation didn't appease her in the slightest. She begins screaming as high-pitched as she can. You know when you walk into a daycare center, a little bratty girl walks up to you, and screams for no reason at all? That kind of screaming, but I could tell she was trying to enunciate words.
I sat there, shocked. I had my phone volume at one, and the principal was able to hear it from a good eight feet away clearly as a speaker. He leans up against the wall, and at this point, we're waiting for her to stop screaming constant slurs. It suddenly ends, and I can hear her out of breath on the other end, panting like a dog. But wheezing like a pig getting slaughtered. I give a good ten-second pause, and ask "Would you like fries with that"? A slur comes out of the phone, and she screeches. No annunciation, no attempts, no vague dictation. A loud, piercing screech that permanently damaged the phone's speaker. Then a click.
We never laughed harder in our lives. In his words, "Thank god you don't work here, or I'd have to fire you".
All because the kid got a 79…
Sources: Reddit,
