Teachers, What's The Pettiest Thing A Parent Has Complained About? (r/AskReddit)

teachers what's the pettiest thing a parent has complained about for silly fun at the end of the term I showed an episode of mr. bean he was washing his clothes and pulled a dress out accidentally and put it on that is what they were mad at that I was encouraging cross-dressing they were seniors in high school they were seniors in high school now they are an all the cross-dressing traveling cabaret and that's your doing you wonderfully corrupt show business pixie my brother is a high school teacher he had one kid that was early accepted into the College of his choice and decided that his entire senior year could then be the fu Lea my brother had multiple conversations with the parents throughout the year about the fact that student was failing as did other teachers parents seemed very unconcerned by this the day before classes ended my brother runs into the Father out in public and the father says to him I am very concerned about the students really I think his school performance this year doesn't bode well for how he will do in college my brother your son is not going to college he has to repeat at least five classes this year in order to get his diploma father no he's fine he is already accepted my brother it's all conditional without his high school diploma which we have been telling you all year he is not going to get he can't get in the father who has a college degree himself was apparently shocked by this news and they promptly went right to the School Board trying to get his entire senior waived because he was obviously such a strong student that a school accepted him on early admission school board did not agree the counselors at my school have this big meeting for all the seniors after the typical early admissions date where they tell horror stories of people getting rescinded it works pretty well parents once complained that I'll at my seventh grade intermediate ESL students read a story that was a whole 22 pages long with images for their book report they had more than a month to read it was an edited copy for their level how could you you monster 22 pages is too much for any child I witnessed a parent complaining at the end of a primary school concert that it wasn't fair that their child had no discernable musical talent and that the school should stop giving instrument lessons to the kids who were keen or talented I've never seen the music teacher genuinely speechless for so long my special snowflake can't play a triangle so nobody gets to play a triangle start that her child got lice in elementary school apparently it was all my fault that her child got infected this same parent complained to me that I was calling her child by a shortened version of her name that the child asked me to use instead of her full name I'm sure I have more but those are just from this year I remember something that goes along with the lice part of the story after they got the lice out the mom was adamant that her daughter not be hugged by anyone or that she shouldn't get too close but never specified what too close actually was for me to attempt to enforce to the other kids so that she does not get infected again this is first grade trying to keep kids away from each other is like herding cats my kids all got lice in elementary school last year and I still didn't blame anyone just muttered while combing out their hair for the billionth time by hate lice I have my students wash their hands before lunch apparently I'm being unrealistic with my expectations freak off dawn back when I used to teach I had a parent once complained that my classroom was too quiet and as a consequence her daughter and her peers got too much work done and they felt it was bad for their daughter's brain to be learning so much so quickly a parent called to complain that I hadn't put her daughter's late homework into the grade book yet I told her I can't put the homework in the grade book until she actually turns it in this parent just kept asking me why I hadn't put it in I kept replying with I have nothing to put in she hasn't given it to me finally the call ended with urgh some people just don't know how to do their jobs put in a 0 that should shut them up my cousin who teaches kindergarten had a parent complaint of the principle that she was responsible for being selfish enough to have a baby and take maternity leave before the end of the school year most of my colleagues who are mothers have heard a version of this last year a parent complained that I was missing too much school and it was negatively affecting her child's learning my mom spent a month in the hospital and died I missed eight days I had a girl in an honors class she earned a B+ mother asked if she could be bumped up in cases where it's pretty darn close to an A I consider it but she was at the low end of a B+ at the semester she changes classes and is now in the same class with a different teacher she didn't ask to be transferred that's just how her shed you'll happen to work out I get an email two months later from the parent telling me how much better the review packets are that the other teacher gives and how the other teacher spreads apart the test dates to be more comfortable for the students and that the student was doing so much better in the other class she asked to gain if I could change the grade to an A those would be valid criticisms if it were not for the fact that I give the exact same reviews as the other teacher and we shed you'll tests on the exact same day and on top of that I asked what the student currently had B+ while she tried nagging you I wonder if she thought because she herself was vain enough for it to work on her that it would work on you my mother's a high school teacher this is one of her stories this kid turns 18 joins the military mother goes ballistic storms into the school yelling at everyone well just the staff saying this is all the school's fault that he was corrupted into joining and things like that demands to talk to the kids teacher my mom my mom says this seems like a talk you should be having with your kid not me lady goes ballistic again my mom has to call the AP to escort her out of the building after hearing that no wonder the kid want to join right after high school there are probably not a lot of people who blame him after that display one of my students was the child of a care worker both were huge pains in the butt coworker mother stormed into the class after school to complain that her son had earned a C+ or B can't remember on a homework assignment the week before she was upset that I hadn't contacted her I explained that I always immediately entered grades into a system that parents had access to online parents could have you grades the school calendar etc the school employee who maintained the site huh so she knew how to use it co-worker mother demanded that I contact her personally whenever her son made less than an A and got upset when I said that I wouldn't I told her I didn't have the time I had the work of two teachers an email wouldn't take long for me to send if I didn't want to give myself yet another thing to remember then risk getting chewed out for forgetting and risk all the other parents wanting the same useless courtesy I said I'd contact her if I noticed a trend of slipping grades which wasn't the issue with her son his grades were great overall this.p her off to no end I said that accessing the site took the same number of clicks it had take to access an email about the grade so there was no point she cried yelled and kept pushing and threatened to take this to the principal who was her best friend I finally said that if I could keep track of all the grades for the three grade levels I taught Shirley she could handle keeping track of grades for one kid just one incident of many with my beady-eyed B of a co-worker the bottom of the T she wanted me to force her daughter to write the letter T as it appears in typing she scheduled a PTA meeting about it the color of red pen I use apparently it's too dark of a red to be considered red and if I can't do my job properly using the correct red I am unqualified to teach till children are delicate creatures in other countries and are scared by colors yep I'd start grading in green or even better get one of those pens with the color tabs you push down and randomly switch mid word a parent complained to a teacher when their child fell on the playground and the clothes got muddy and scratched up they wanted the school to pay for new clothing they fell on the pavement which had mud on it since it rained out the day before the child also didn't hurt themselves just got the clothing dirty and scratched a bit when he fell I had a screaming parent in my office because of the marginal comments I made on an essay that had received a grade of 95 percent submitted by a student who was top of the class the comment said and I'm paraphrasing here this argument is unworthy of you don't be lazy find better sources and don't hang your argument on idle assertions the parent claimed I had called her daughter lazy I bought fat suicidal and unworthy of being a student at institution she actually thought I was threatening to have her expelled or at least barred from grad school the best part the girl was a second-year undergraduates the next best part it was an open office and my colleagues were openly mocking her the entire time I just sat there and said nothing I miss those guys the female student had no problem with the comment was absolutely mortified by what her mother had done and seriously concerned that the interference would damage her academic career I just laughed and told her I was even more impressed that she'd emerged intelligent and sane from a home environment like that then asked if she needed any letters of reference she did and she got them her mother got a vaguely insulting note into small triumphs milk chocolates I did a class secret santa with my choir before they were allowed to draw names they had to bring back a signed form from parents promising that they will actually buy the other child a gift this is 8th grade one girl didn't buy our gift I called the parents twice both times a mother told me in a worried voice that didn't inspire confidence that yes of course she would get a gift etc she never did so one kid in the class who signed up never got a gift her mother went absolutely ballistic called me called my principal insisted that we had to make this parent go get her child a gift I had already planned to go out and buy her childhood gift with my own meager salary but she told me I wasn't allowed to do so because I had to make this other parent do it I told her I cannot drive to this other parents house drag her to them all and force her to buy a gift I simply can't it's out of my hands my Adnan backed me up she continued to rail at me for another week I stopped doing secrets and who after that my mom was accused of doing witchcraft in the classroom when she told her kids a chant to make a snow day the chant can only be done if snow is in the forecast and the students get all their homework done the chant is salami salami Bologna let it snow she just wanted her kids to do their homework I'm picturing the kids doing the chant while standing in a circle in a dark classroom lit only by candles as the teacher sacrifices a chicken I had a parent complain that her kid was wearing a tight spaghetti strap tank top because the kid got hot and took off her sweater she yelled at me for what she dressed her kid in a parent once went to the school district over the fact that I wouldn't let her come into my class because she wanted to give her daughter a bracelet that would have completed her outfit this was back when I taught third grade Rowe great way to teach your daughter early that physical appearance is more important than everything else a music student of mine refused to sing one of her lessons in class because she had difficulty reading her bass clef her parents came to complain that it's not fair I'm singling their daughter out because how is she supposed to know this class well this is her final year in solfege so sounds like she's in serious treble not replacing the novel the entire ninth grade was assigned with a novel more aligned with her Mormon values I refused to push the review test and subsequent lessons after the test back because her parents wanted to take her out of school for a week to go on vacation this was about two weeks after the winter break mind you only have so much time to teach the entirety of World War I they couldn't wrap their head around it and kept saying that I was trying to make it so their kid failed the school my wife teaches at a school that uses classdojo it does a lot of different things but it is essentially behavioral management system she can give kids points for doing the right thing and can't take away points if they do the wrong thing the parents who sign up for notifications get them sent straight to their phone or computer she had one student this year who was refusing to do work and was being disrespectful to the student teacher she was basically telling the student teacher that she wasn't really a teacher and the she the student didn't have to listen to her the student teacher my wife overheard what was going on at took away a point for disrespect the girl's parents came in the next day and the dad was demanding that my wife changed the disrespectful point he didn't mind that his daughter lost a point but he was piaf that she lost her point for being disrespectful he told her that a seven-year-old isn't capable of disrespect and insisted that this was going to ruin her chances at getting into Stanford because they would see her as a disrespectful person my wife explained that this information is simply a way to track behavior and communicate with the parents it has nothing to do with a permanent record it's just an app the dad continued to demand that it be changed and my wife eventually relented she changed it to a refusal to work point instead I'm not sure if Stanford thinks being lazy is better than being disrespectful but the dad seemed to think so sir I'm going to have to dock one of your points for being an butthole this is just a way to track your behavior and communicate the idea that you are being an but not a teacher but witnesses exchanged between another parent in the teacher at my daughter's preschool but before Christmas the kids were making gingerbread style houses but using frosting and graham crackers one mom was put out that the teacher requested an entire box of graham crackers and was trying to negotiate exactly how many graham crackers were needed the teacher was trying to explain that they can break and the kids can have a hard time and extra would be sent home but this mom acted like the teacher was trying to extort these graham crackers for her personal gain it was absurd and just to be clear this isn't a school in a poor area where buying a $2.00 box of crackers should really ruin anyone's grocery budget will be a strain my sister is a single mom who works her butt off to keep her three kids in an affluent school district but she has to budget everything down to the dollar and I can promise even she wouldn't bat an eye at sending in a whole box of graham crackers as long as she had more notice than finding out the night before sounds like that mom had issues my mother forced me to go to my sixth grade social studies teacher and asked her why I had missed half a point on a 16-point assignment that's 97% I had a parent try to excuse her son's lack of homework completion as too hard for little boys identifying nouns in a year nine class at my old school a parent complained to the principal that their child's punishment was too severe because when he exposed himself in class it was just the berries and not the twig that I gave their child a detention for saying something foul in Spanish I guess they just didn't like this gringo calling their child out for the stuff they were saying admins came to the parents I was less than amused not a parent but a college student told me she deserves to get rounded up to an a now she had a lot of absences never participated in class discussions and didn't improve it all over the course of the semester oh and she also had an 84 you know five points away from grounding range when she wasn't rounded up she sent an email saying she did not care about the class she cares about getting into Medical School a dream that I have now ruined she signed the email your grace will be rewarded karma the 84 is one thing but that snide remark at the end she should never be allowed in the medical profession when I was in Middle School I got something like eight or nine hours of detention for some stupid thing I did my mom kept telling the teacher it was not enough and he should increase my detention time during one whole month that I know of I still pity him I dread awards day as an elementary school teacher I had a parent complained that her child did not get an academic award I made sure that every child got something whether it be for an academic subject like reading writing math social studies science or for their awesome personality I can't remember what her child got but it was one of these personality Awards he was a very cheerful sweet kid but she said that this award sent the message that academics weren't important or that he wasn't smart with over 120 kids in that grade level it was impossible to give everyone an academic award he had a chance to win an academic award if you read over a certain amount of books you'd win a reading award but you actually had to keep track of that at home and turned the paper back into me which he did not so I'll just say that wasn't the first time she had complained about something petty that year I once had a parent accused me in the admins of a conspiracy against her daughter I had her in my class last period and she always skipped so I always marked her absent she couldn't believe that her precious snow fleet could be skipping I've been in a classroom for close to seven weeks and still haven't met a few of the students while others have stopped by once or twice they are showing up for morning classes and then gone after lunch reports cards come out in two weeks so we'll see if they decide to show up before then a parent from a rival school once complained to my teacher that I was too big to be playing sixth-grade basketball must have been held back a few years were her exact words joke's on her though the teacher was my mum and promptly informed her that I was the youngest kid in my class by several months I just had a tall father and a very early series of growth spurts I believe you source and teach her of sixth graders some of whom are the size of large adults not a teacher but in high school my basketball coach was also one of my teachers after the season was over we had our awards ceremony one dad was upset that his daughter didn't win the MVP award she didn't deserve it she could barely get the ball past half course most of the time anyway after the ceremony was over the dad asked to meet with coach alone coach asks everyone to leave the room after the door closes we heard a loud bang the dad came out and left he ended up throwing a chair at the coach because he didn't give his daughter the MVP award which he was trash coach handled it like a champ oh I thought you were going to say the dad shot a coach Wow glad that it was just a throne chair my sister is a high school teacher and she told me this wild story once a kid who was often a troublemaker stole a computer from the school and then ran away from home for a few days she doesn't teach in a very good neighborhood so these stories are common after about a week the kid came back and were faculty sent him to the principal's office they were trying to get the kid to admit he stole the laptop because they knew he did but had no evidence to press charges once the kid goes home at the end of the day the kid tells his dad that during his meeting with principal that the principal beat him the dad is one of those parents that believes their child is perfect so he goes to the school furious and doesn't believe a word from the faculty I am pretty sure it ended up with the kid getting expelled for something else he did a few months later but still a crazy story I am a preschool teacher and there is a parent who wanted to bump a kid up because she was advanced because she had a September birthday she was not advanced chivas on level she got mad we did move her up and she only came once a week that was mad because she wasn't learning quick enough children were not allowed grapes in my class last year as a result of some unfortunate choking incidents the mother of a boy who we shall name Toby complained about this as it was her boys favorite fruit she went so far as to smuggle him into the bottom of his water bottle in a secret compartment she made her son and daughter two years older into smugglers joke's on her though as there is an ongoing juice smuggling epidemic so we spotted them straightaway you sent me the same email twice scheduled a conference over this issue she packed him a lunch box and gave strict orders that he is not allowed to eat school lunch due to stomach issues it was for tater day equivalent of greasy tater tots greasy cheese and hamburger meat he wanted one and his teacher wouldn't let him due to mothers instruction his mother complained that we didn't let him get something from the lunch line not a teacher but we parents were gathered for a meet the teacher session in our child's classroom one parent complained that the stuff in the lunch all were not standing over her precious spawn while it ate its lunch to make sure it had a nutritious balanced lunch at school that would set it up for the afternoon to come the teacher kinda shrugged and said that he would see what he could do another parent then chimed in saying that it was completely inappropriate for staff to stand over the kids while they ate their lunch as this was tantamount to force feeding them which would led to eating disorders then the same eating disorder parent complained that the class teacher was not accompanying her precious spawn to its music lesson the music department is a five or six minute walk at a child's pace through the school campus this mother expected the teacher to accompany her child to the music school and then go pick the child up at the end of the lesson I started muttering about the invisible lands roaming the campus mulling the poor unsuspecting eight-year-olds on their way to and from piano lessons the teacher kinda shrugged and said that he would see what he could do oh yes our way of saying I checked and it just so turns out you can go outside play hide and go prick yourself I got chewed out for expecting a twelve-year-old to be able to read an analog clock how else will they look up and count down the minutes to the end of the lesson this wasn't so much petty as just crazy expectations a grandfather threatened to end his child's enrolment at our training center if his English wasn't conversational by the end of the semester the child was three and couldn't even speak in complete sentences in his own language he of course was not flew in three months later twenty four hours worth of class so they quit I'm sure that this isn't the place for this but I think many would enjoy I was in third grade and the principal called my mother in for a meeting to discuss my rude behavior my mother was told stories of me being mean to other students for quenching the office duta-de cycle you get the idea my mother was blindsided and wanted to get to the bottom of it right away she was surprised that she was just hearing about this then and asked if they could include my third grade teacher in the conversation to provide clarity the principal agreed and mrs. Hobson came on down mrs. Hobson was more taken aback than my mother was she proceeded to tell her boss that she had never sent Lil Bob to the office and I have never acted like that and she was clueless to where these stories were coming from this is all being said as I'm sitting in the back of the principal's office drum roll well if it wasn't him then it must have been a student that looks just like him the principal I sent home a progress report for the kid to get signed get a progress report back in the parent wants to know if their child can get extra credit for the three grades that she got that were under an 85 the kids overall grade was a 93 no she cannot receive extra credit I got a grade that crap we're on a ten-point grave scale her GPA is as high as it's going to get and that being said the kid is a freakin joy to teach and she sometimes brings me snacks I mean if they weren't super forceful about it I'd say that's not a big deal the kiddo might have asked them to request it to improve her grades I'd take parents like that any day over the ones who don't cur P at my school we do this thing called Lionhearts there slips off paper that you'd give to a kid when you catch them doing something good of their own volition and not seeking any type of attention or reward when you get one you write your name on it and put it in a big raffle box to hopefully win a prize we had a mom just before Christmas break fuming because her child was the only kid in his class that had not gotten a Lionheart yet and he has brought four very expensive toys for the toy drive up the whole school was participating in we had to explain to her that that's not how that works and if he wanted a Lion Heart maybe he should do some good deeds you have been spotted by the money pigeon comment gimme gimme and he will bless you with good fortune like' and subscribe' you magnificent person

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Keywords: school stories, teacher stories, school, teachers, high school, parents, teachers vs parents, helicopter parents, #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub

Id: -zNlP3cEvEs

Length: 26min 14sec (1574 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2020