Being a teacher is not easy. You have to wrangle a full classroom of students all day long, handle pressure from parents and the admins, and actually teach those young minds something in the process. Sadly, many teachers face terrible working conditions. In fact, according to one Australian survey, 80% of teachers experience bullying and harassment from students and parents.
Not every parent is a bully, but some say and do such out-of-pocket things that they need to be kept for posterity. Last year, teacher and creator @AmyThingGoes asked fellow teachers to share the most outrageous things parents have messaged them. And the teachers delivered: from ridiculous demands, entitled behavior, and straight-up disrespect, these parents did more than just make the teachers raise their eyebrows.
#1
“I want to homeschool my child. When will the teacher be at our house and which teacher will it be?”
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8points
#2
“Can you make sure to call my house at 6:30 to wake my son up for school. I work.”
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7points
#3
"Miss can you please send homework. it's 1 week into holidays and he's driving me insane"
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7points
#4
Went to a splash pad with students over the summer “please make sure my student has a life jacket as he cannot swim, make sure he doesn’t get too hot or cold, remind him to drink water and take breaks and don’t let him get water in his face.”
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7points
#5
“With technology today I don’t really care if my child can read.”
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7points
#6
"Please stop marking my son's work in red ink. It's very aggressive and we're trying to encourage him to try hard." Went right into my trash bin
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7points
#7
Imma flip it and reverse it, I’m a parent and I told my son’s teacher “please, if he’s acting a fool YELL AT HIM! By all means I give you permission to reprimand my kid, I will not be upset! And if he doesn’t listen, you can use calling me as a threat bc he KNOWS if I have to leave work bc he’s acting up
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7points
#8
“Why is Obama’s picture hanging in your room?” — my response was “I’m a history teacher and he’s is (2010) the President”.
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6points
#9
“I really think you need to incorporate Spanish more into your class. It’s a disadvantage to those trying to learn” ma’am, I teach English. And we live in Puerto Rico.
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6points
#10
not a teacher but as a parent I may have sent numerous emails to my child's teacher somewhat demanding her to make an Amazon wish list 😅 I was like "help me help you. yall dont get paid enough"
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6points
#13
I had a parent message BEYOND upset with me that I labeled their child as a BOY on their trimester assessment scores. BOY = Beginning Of Year
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5points
#14
"It is so unprofessional that you took 3 days off and didn't tell the parents you would be out and why. This impacts my daughter's learning. You need to tell us where you were" and cc'd my principal...so I gave my principal permission to go into detail about my miscarriage.
5points
#15
"Please remove all sick children from your room for the next 2 weeks. We are going on a cruise and I don't want my child to be sick and ruin our vacation." When I told her no, I would not be targeting children based on their wellness, she went to the board.😅
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5points
#16
“Can you buy pizza for the class for my daughter’s birthday and then I’ll reimburse you afterwards?” Yeahhh no
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5points
#17
Parent messaged me “why are you picking on my child, I only ever hear about things she is doing”…ma’am why would I tell you about the other children??
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5points
#18
Kid did a back flip in the cafeteria after being told not to so he owed 5 minutes of recess. Mom emailed saying we need to give him his 5 minutes back because he has ADHD and we wouldn’t ask a kid in a wheelchair to stand up, so we can’t expect him to not do backflips.
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5points
#19
“Hi, this isn’t school related, but I was wondering if (students name) dad is single?”
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5points
#20
“Why did my child not hand in this assignment?” I don’t know why your 15 yr old didn’t hand it in. ASK THEM.
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5points