what the most hilarious and groundless parental complaint you've ever fielded?

[HanneHolm]

I have heard of one parent complaining a member of staff wasn't singing in a parents assembly.

Love that Matilda. I forgot the parent who waited ages at parents evening and had SLT running around trying to find me (parents get a desk and we walk round, no appointments). He was most put out to be told that I didn't teach his child so he had waited for nothing (he'd already seen his child's actual History teacher). He insisted that I sit down and talk about his child - so I gave him a report on last year and he went away happy enough.

I teach design and spent 10 years working as a designer. I once had to endure a lecture from a plumber about how he knew all about design and his son was underachieving as I knew nothing. The fact that his ds was bone idle was ignored...

Complaint to head about a Teaching Assistand friend as she had very wisely IMHO laminated a little list of things the disorganised SEN secondary student had to make sure he had in his bag to bring to school everyday i.e. pencil, pen, ruler, homework diary etc.
She punched a hole in the laminated ticket and attached it with a treasury tag to the inside of his bag.

This resulted in mum's angry phone call to head next morning saying she was labelling her child. She had to remove tag.
Mum very happy for TA to contribute to form two weeks later for disability living allowance though.

smelling clothes:
My ds old teacher (who I knew quite well) told me that when she had an unnamed jumper, she would ask the children whose it was. The kids would smell it and say 'oh it belongs to xx miss' They were always right!!!

Not naming clothes - I have just taken home, washed and added to the PTA second hand uniform stash, 12 school sweatshirts without any type of mark in at all. They all have a white label with a space marked name how much effort does it cost to pick up a biro???

I was only in nurseries/schools during my training so didn't come across too many incidents & didn't have to deal with them myself but I do remember one occasion in a nursery where a mother seemed to think the staff were being ridiculous & deliberately awkward. At this nursery they were very keen to take the children on regular trips to the forest. Each group got to go on a fortnightly basis & the parents were always reminded the day before. One day a mother chose to ignore the dress code of long trousers & wellies & turned up right before we were due to leave with her DS in shorts & sandals. It was pointed out to her that these trips had been a regular fixture in the timetable since her DS had started 8 months previously & she was well aware of the rule that children had to be appropriately attired & on time to be able to participate. She insisted that he should be allowed to go to the very muddy forest in the middle of tick season in his shorts & sandals because where she's from (Somalia, IIRC) children run around barefoot & most of them are fine! I must admit I just stared at her open mouthed & was very impressed by the very calm teacher nodding sympathetically & saying, "Yes, but we do have our rules and we'd get in to trouble if he slipped or caught Lyme's disease after we'd taken him & ignored our risk assessments. Unfortunately we don't have time to find spare clothes for him now but if you can make sure he's got the right clothes on next time & gets here in plenty of time we can take him then."

Teacher friend asked by dad to counsel student as he he seemed very depressed. A few days later dad rang to say whatever he says it's not true

Parent who ticked the 'No' option on the standard form giving (or not!) permission to take KS1 children out and about in the local area ( you know the type of thing, geography, history type things) because " When we drop them off at school we expect them to be here and learning, we don't want to find they've been taken out of school" - to do what exactly? Perhaps we're skipping off on jollies, browsing in the local shops and eating ice cream?

Some of these really do make you think people should have to pass an exam in common sense before being allowed to have children :o

Lara2 You've just reminded me of the parent who ticked 'no' on the photographs form.
We had a class event so I took photographs and made sure he wasn't in any that appeared on the school website

The father phoned the head and accused me of having a grudge against his son because all the other children's pictures were online.
When the head explained why he said that I was stupid and should have realised that it was fine to put his picture up in this particular instance - he wanted to report me t the GB for discriminating against his child.

The dance parent who was upset that her DD only had one costume and someone else had six.

That would be because her DD was three and only did ballet, and the other girl was 18, did four subjects and was in her final shoe before uni, where we like to stick them in as much as possible!

Or the parent who asked finer child could have mince pies and cola as a snack as she didn't like rich tea biscuits and water. Messy food near expensive costumes? I think not. They were only in for two hours, she wouldn't starve.

These are hilarious!

A friend of mine was organising the end of term Christmas show (they did Bugsy Malone). It was a bit of a nightmare but she made sure that all the kids got a part. She had a bunch of parents coming in to complain that their kids didn't have a big enough part.

One parent came in to tell her that their child had to have a small operation. She said well okay, if he needs to sit out some of PE that will be okay. They said "well, actually what would make him feel better would be getting a bigger part".

Browsing classics and found this fab thread.

It reminded me of the time a parent came to school to complain that a member of staff had stolen her son's trainers and was wearing them.

Said trainers were found in the cloakroom in about 20 seconds of looking.

Parent of overseas female pupil wanted to know what I was doing to help their DD get into Eton for sixth form...?

Parent got granny to hand in party invites when Nursery opened. All were popped in the pockets each child had. At lunchtime mum phoned to ask why no one had replied yet!

She phoned every day to ask why no one was responding. 90% of the children are in wrap around care so we don't see every parent on a daily basis.

I could come across as one of these parents because I told my dds teacher that my dd will only be doing the main bits of homework ie spelling and maths because the only thing that comes from my yr6 dd having to make random houses, swords, boats out of junk at home is me & her arguing. Homework other than the basics is pointless in my opinion.

I am (actually it should be WAS) one of THOSE parents

When we moved to UK, my DD was just about 5, and eligible for reception yr. However she was taught the alphabets, numbers reading and writing in her previous school and that made me quite adament with the UK school to put her in yr1 and skip reception as she already knows whatever is there to know apparently. Request was obviously turned down!

Now although she currently goes to a reputed grammar school and above average in many subjects, by no means she was spectacular at that age!! Infact when I think back, I realise she was infact not even very average, let alone a super-performer at that time. Wonder what the primary school head-teacher thought about me!! Maybe another 'nutty' parent!

I'm not a teacher , I'm a MH nurse. When I worked on a ward a few years ago, we had a young person admitted who appeared to have had a very equal relationship was spoilt rotten by their parents.

One morning staff discovered that the young person had trashed their bedroom. Had written all over the magnolia walls in biro & flung ribena ( or some other red liquid) over the walls & carpet. Mattress had been thrown off the bed & furniture overturned.

When Mum came in to visit, she demanded that her delightful child be given a different bedroom as theirs was in a terrible state!

Her request was denied

Oh how have I only just found these! I'm a (early) retired teacher. For the last 10 years of my career I trained teachers - I was Course Leader for a PGCE program. I think one of my ex-students must have had parents like these - she was a 24 year old graduate.

The Post Graduate Certificate in Education course began with 3 weeks full time classes in the university. Students then began 'school placements'; initially spending 3 days a week (M-W) in school and 2 (Th-F) back at the university for a few weeks, before going full time in schools and starting 'teaching practice'. All this structure was explained to the students at interview, and again at the beginning of the course.

Initial 3 weeks went well, then into the 3/2 day phase. On the second Tuesday I got a 'phone call from a placement school. "Where is 'Ann'?" "She should be with you on school placement." "We haven't seen her since the first Monday morning, she came in for half a day and then said she had to go home and 'you knew about it'." 'Ann' had attended university on the Thursday and Friday, and given me no indication she had not been in school on the Tues/Weds.

I 'phoned her, no reply, I e-mailed her; she eventually 'phoned me. "How dare the school tell you I wasn't there, isn't that private, like under the data protection laws or something? Anyway, I didn't like the school so I've decided I'm just doing the university part of the course." "Erm, 'Clare', this is a teacher training course, in order to qualify you do have to complete your teaching practice in school and prove that you're competent." "Well that's just silly, I've always wanted to be a teacher and I know I'll be good at it."

Never saw her again.

Ooops, that's what you get for deciding to change the fictional name half way through and not previewing the message :)

Omg I think I am one of "those" parents! Whilst I respect teachers, I have told my (was in y3) that he didnt do anything he didnt want to, in regards to swimming. He was petrified of going into school on swimming day, crying, begging etc. I told the teacher he was having issues, but she said he was fine. Sounded flippant, so I told him he didnt ave to do anything he didnt want to in regards to swimming. cue the teacher saying "well actually he does have to do it" apparently he was fine and dispite being petrified at home, he was okayish at the pool.

Same teacher, same child, He took a melon into school and I had a ditsy panic about him using a proper knife, (cheap, plastic Ikea ones anyone?) Think my husband and his teacher laughed at me for that one!

Finally last week I refused same son, now y4 to do his homework as it was about ww1. I am clearly lazy.

None of these have been complaints to the head though, clearly I need to buck up and get a grip of myself... This is clearly a case of (PLB) Precious Last Born though, as the other 3 have managed school perfectly.

excellent thread, good to see the other side, keep up the excellent work!

note to self
preview before post, repeated myself a little there!

I once heard a parent complaining to the swimming teacher that her DD was getting upset in the water because she was bored by doing the same routine of activities every week and she needed some variety to keep her engaged.

The class was a mother and baby group and the DD was a 5 month old baby. The swimming teacher was very polite about her refusal although a little nonplussed.

I'm a TA (only for the last two months) and I'm gobsmacked at the behaviour of some parents. In such a short time I've seen the most ridiculous things. One teacher told me about the time a few years back that a parent made a complaint to the school that little Jimmy had caught a cold and he must have picked it up at school.