Teachers Share The Most Ridiculous Things Parents Have Ever Said to Them

Teachers share threats, insane requests, and absurd accusations from parents

As summer winds down teachers are preparing their classrooms while parents are practicing their happy dance. A Reddit user challenged teachers to share the most ridiculous thing they’ve heard a parent say and more than 4,000 comments came in.

Between crafting engaging lesson plans, endless grading, and breaking up fights teachers have a special kind of endurance. Too bad these parents failed to realize that and instead shared these absurd criticisms and requests.

On Tests

“This girl didn’t study and skipped most of the questions on a test. Mom came in to argue about her daughter’s failing grade and said she should only be graded on the questions she did answer, so therefore should have scored a 100 since the few she chose to answer were correct.”

“I had a parent tell me his kid was acting dumb for my benefit and that he is really smart at home.”

“My [teacher] mom frequently is forced to let kids retake tests because they didn’t do well on them. Not because the kids have any sort of problem, but because the parents complain that their genius somehow got a failing grade on a test.”

On Homework

“It’s not your job to teach my son lessons.”

“Intellectual property is a real gray area,” one parent said in regard to blatant plagiarism.

“‘Caitlyn doesn’t feel like writing. She’ll just say the answers to the work out-loud from now on.'”

“My child has anxiety and as such, will not be completing your final project. You will give her an A for the course regardless of her ability to complete the research project, or I will report you to the administration and sue the school.”

On Violence

“When talking to a parent regarding behavioral issues, the parent said ‘From 8-2, he’s your problem, not mine.'”

“Little boy punched a girl in the face and broke her nose. The dad comes to a meeting with the teacher and principal and high fives his son for doing it.”

“Yes, my child is misbehaving, throwing chairs, hitting other kids etc. but you took his paper airplane in 2nd grade and scrunched it up, so this is really your own doing.”

“‘Oh yeah, her behavior and aggression vary with the phases of the moon.’ The student had publicly threatened to kill me over unplugging her phone charger.”

On Medical Concerns

“My wife is an elementary school teacher and suspected that one of her students may be autistic. My wife had a conference with the mother and explained that she would like him to be evaluated, but the mother refused and said that if her son did have autism, my wife was the one who caused it.”

A Kindergarten teacher listed a parent’s demands, “Why isn’t my child writing their name yet? I don’t want my child wearing sunscreen. My child is free-range. I will not vaccinate.”

“During a conference, the paperwork from his pediatrician mentioned a possible autism diagnosis. The mom said ‘I don’t know what it is and I don’t ever want to know. I don’t Google anything medical ever.’ In the same conference, she mentioned that one of the men who could be his father has ‘something called Asperger’s.'”

Unreasonable Requests

“For the taxes we pay, we expect our teachers to get our kids into any college we want.”

“Parent asked me to exempt her kid from speaking anything in Spanish class. Said it made her daughter uncomfortable to say anything in Spanish.”

“I’m not a teacher, but I coach my kids’ youth sports teams. I once had a dad approach me and bribe me ($50) to prevent a certain kid from playing in our upcoming flag football game. These were 6-year-old kids. The kid did make a costly mistake in the previous game, but the fact that this random dad was willing to pay me to bench the kid was mind-blowing.”

Just Plain Ridiculous

“I was told last year that the ‘obvious reason’ I work in special education is because I ‘can’t get a job teaching normal children.'”

“Don’t worry about my daughter, she’s thick. She only needs to cook and clean. How is my son doing?”

“Third grader’s parents come in, with a notarized list of demands. 1. Children in my class must be prohibited from bringing in gluten, ever. They said they didn’t want her to feel left out because other kids were eating gluten. No, she didn’t have celiac, it was just the family’s personal choice. 2. I must let their daughter choose who she sits next to each day (the class had a carefully coordinated seating plan.) 3. She be exempt from history class because she was too advanced for our history class but not advanced enough for the accelerated class.”

As we prepare for the new school let’s try to leave the temper tantrums and bullying out of the parent-teacher meetings and conferences.

Some of the stories have been edited from Reddit for length and clarity.