Teachers - tell me about your unhinged parent experiences.

[NC28]

Purely for entertainment purposes , of course.

Inspired by the thread about the teacher who got an email from a kids mum because the staff didn’t buy her daughter flowers after the school show…what other unhinged, entitled or downright crazy things have parents moaned about at your school?

Parents are fucking lunatics at times, so I hope you all have WhatsApp groups with your colleagues to laugh at them in your spare time.

This is one of the best threads ever!
I wish I could join in but I just don't dare. I have loads but I still teach at the same school so I can't put them online.

Parent of a child who had banged their head a week previously. Not serious, child was absolutely fine at the time and for the whole entire week.
However, father demanding a CT scan, hospital admission for the child for “serious head injury “ as he would quite like to sue the school as he believed he could get compensation into the thousands due to the schools negligence. He wanted to avoid A&E and go straight for the CT scan then the hospital bed so needed me to sort it out for him please.

I worked a health care line and dealt with that call.
Honestly, the kid had zero symptoms and when asked what the child was doing at that moment, was eating an icecream and was on their iPad.

Batshit.

God the Mary one is amazing, thank you! Hope the child enjoyed their sheep dance and happily rehearsed in front of the parents at home!

I mean I definitely think many teachers are a bit mad ( myself included), but I have never considered 'straighten laced' and 'like having rules' to fall into the definition on lunacy. Being sensible and have rules is the only possible way to run a school with lots of kids.

Trying to imagine being in a school where it starts at any old time, and the teachers are all off their face from the night before. May be I'll open one, you can send your kids there

Tut tut with your tin of nits, your jumper loosing ways and your thoughtlessness at having a baby in term time! 🤣

A mum phoned me up and shouted at me because her daughter was regularly buying a sandwich from Tescos on the way home from school. It took me quite a long time to work out what she was angry about as she was shouting so much. It turns out she wanted me to put a stop to this. The girl was in year 9, there was no Tescos anywhere near the school and I certainly wasn’t funding her sandwich habit.

Maybe shaming isn't the right way to go about it, but neither is 'live and let live'. We all pay the price, financial and otherwise, for the burden on health services and the other implications of poor health. We should be aiming for a healthier society, not turning a blind eye.

We have a responsibility to our children. We know that obesity is linked to many other health conditions. Pointing this out should be more of a thing, not less.

This thread is a prime example of how much we need the laugh emoji back. I find it really frustrating! I understand that it may have sometimes been used to mock a comment but surely most people just want to show that they found something funny.

As a young nqt, a prospective parent (much older than me-relevant) approached me on an open evening asking lots of questions about my subject and experience. Thinking it was just a parent who wanted to ensure I could teach their child effectively, I answered as best I could. He then asked me out and gave me his business card. I was gobsmacked and found an excuse to move away and then just prayed he wouldn’t pick our school.

That is horrendous. I am so sorry

True. When my DS was 13 I found out his teacher was having an affair with my now ex husband. Very professional.

I once rang a parent to inform them about their daughter’s poor attitude and rudeness. Dad launched into a rant about how he didn’t know why I was telling him as she didn’t listen to him either and was currently in the garden smashing up his beloved garden gnomes. After then demanding parenting advice from me he told me how I have it easy starting work at 9 and finishing at 3 and having all those holidays 🤣🤦‍♀️

What the hell!? God this is awful. Sorry to hear you have gone through this.

A parent who while I was telling them on the phone about their child misbehaving in lessonss, started asking me subject specific questions to check my knowledge (which they themselves didnt have).

Yeah that wasn’t at all what I was getting at though.

Rather well to do private girls school.
First parents evening where the girls are old enough to be invited to attend with their parents.

One mother was so openly disgusted and appalled to see a pregnant student that as soon as the evening ended she went straight to the head, the trustees and social media to complain as how dare the school promote such immorality and expose the children to teenage pregnancy and she was not paying all this money to have HER daughter be seen in public in the same uniform as a girl walking around heavily pregnant. She's sure this isn't allowed. Does the school have no sense to ask her to leave to protect their image. She obviously won't be doing her exams so should just leave now etc etc

The girl was not pregnant.

I'm a parent not a teacher, but my DS is on D of E expedition right now, and there are parents moaning on the WhatsApp that school aren't sending home any photos and updates, and the kids can't because they're not allowed their phones. Seriously, these kids are 15 and on an expedition designed to promote independence - wtf?!

I’m not a teacher but have witnessed a fair few unhinged parents in my 13 years of school runs. I’m glad there’s a few unhinged teacher story’s on here too because not all of them are saints. Poor DS has been on the receiving end of a few. I can’t explain them because they would be incredibly outing and his sister is now at the school. Tbh one of them isn’t there anymore though 😅

I have a cousin who is Head of Year in a Secondary School. Its my wedding and DH has invited a few close colleagues to come to the evening part.
Colleague shows up with his new GF- who then spots my cousin, marches over and tells her to leave as GF doesn't think its appropriate as cousin teaches her child. I then get involved and tell GGF that if she is that uncomfortable she should leave, not my cousin who is also in the Bridal party.
Yes, GF complained to the school that my cousin should have left voluntarily so she felt comfortable. Batshit.

There’s even been posts on here recently suggesting staying at hotels nearby kids school residential trips, even the kids staying at the hotel over night and joining their classmates during the day. These people are among us. Absolutely batshit.

The mother of a teenager who had done no classwork or homework all term refused to let him do after school detentions, insisting that I must facilitate them in my own lunchtime. Our lunche breaks were only 30 mins. So I did. On the day reminded the teenager to buy his lunch at break. When he arrived I said "Do you need to get lunch" he said no. He did the detention. Mum rang at the end of the day raving about how I had starved him and it was my duty to take him to get some lunch if I was keeping him in for detention, he was far to young to be able to make that decision for himself. When I politely tried to point out that nobody took him for lunch any other day she became even more enraged and in the end I suggested she spoke to someone else and out the phone down.

There's a thread in site stuff about it but apparently some people were using it sarcastically and to show that they disagreed with a comment? Which upset some users.

My colleague was deliberately hit in the face by a student. The mother emailed the school to lodge a complaint that her son had been very upset by being told off for doing this.

Parent who fell out with some of the other parents and sent harassing communications. These were along the lines of setting up a free trial PT session for a woman who was very overweight. On the referral form she'd written I'm just such a fatty. There were others that were more nasty and sinister but I can't share as they would be very outing. Woman was investigated by police and received a conviction.

She then got into a heated verbal argument with one of the parents after the Christmas play. Both sets of parents were subsequently banned from the school site. She put in a formal complaint about the ban and then about her knowing about the conviction and harassment stating it was a breach of GDPR.

Batshit crazy but the school have no comeback. They can't fight back publicly and yet this parent is free to spew absolute nonsense and vitriol about the school and staff on social media and in the car park.