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.

[Uppermid]

These are fab. Keep em coming!

[Uppermid]

Oops am not a teacher. Am I allowed in here?!

[dangly131]

Complaint that I had lost a child's jumper and why had I not smelt it to find it because it didn't have a name in...apparently it smelt of him and I should know this and why was I not able to do this already?! Same parent complained her child was having to share a coat hook for the day until his was repaired...why could I not fix it myself? It was a stupid thing I had dared ask her child to do for the day in her opinion!

[cece]

Can you stop my daughter playing football at playtime?
No.



Told child N that he really should have his school uniform on, as he had not worn it for nearly 2 weeks. He told me it was 'in the wash'. I told him I could always find something for him the next day from lost property....

Next day whilst doing before school gate duty N's mum stomped up to me. Oh good, thought I, she is about to apologise for the lack of school uniform for the past fortnight. No, she just started yelling at me about how dare I even suggest to put her son in second hand lost property clothes!! She went on and on about it. In the end I had to go and teach my class. She was still fuming so I directed her to the Head's office. Next day N was in school uniform .


But not anywhere near as good as some of these

[FeltOverlooked]

Went out in the snow to round up the children of parents who hadn't noticed the staff member holding the door open to let children straight in.

One dad complained that I should have come out to tell him. Slightly surreal as wasn't I doing just that at that very moment?

[Charmingbaker]

Had a parent kick up a fuss once as we didn't supervise the Reception children when washing their hands after trips to the toilet, she was concerned about spread of germs. I politely pointed out that we didn't have enough staff for that, but if she wanted to she could arrange a rota of parents to man the sinks 9-3.30. She never did get back to me about that one!
Another time, not really a complaint, a group of parents at PTA meeting thought it would be a good idea if teachers CVs were circulated to parents- University attended, degree studied, previous experience. Apparently it would help parents get to know teachers, fostering a greater teacher/parent relationship. Head teacher politely told them what they could do with that idea.

[PhilMcAverty]

These are brilliant. I've not taught for a decade now, but I will always remember the parent who called up to complain that we'd scheduled Parents evening on a night when Manchester United were playing, as we couldn't expect people to turn up if we did.

[ShipwreckedAndComatose]

Oh these are just brilliant!!

[CheerfulYank]

to all teachers...you really are my heroes. :)

I love this guy...you might too. :)

[MmeLindor]

Marking place to ensure my kids teachers aren't on here

[Charmingbaker]

Had a dad once who collected his child from school one day a week, he was always late (about 10mins) and it was the day we had staff meeting straight after school. By the time he arrived TA and I would have our handbags on ready to shoot straight off to staff meeting. I had spoken to him several times about the importance of being on time. One day he turned up late as usual and proceeded to have a go at us for making him feel bad about being late. Apparently we were so privileged to be allowed to work with children that time should be of no importance, he did not judge time when it came to his children, instead he concentrated on the experiences they shared, not how long they lasted and we should do the same. My TA piped up if time was of no importance, how come he was never early!

[HariboAndWine]

Pta complained because teachers were not 'showing enough commitment to the school'. They were unable to get enough of us willing to have custard pies thrown in our faces at a saturday morning school fete!

[slambang]

Parent of sporty boy in rugby playing high school wrote a letter to complain that her son's rugby kit kept getting muddy in PE lessons.

[Uppermid]

Love that cheerfulyank

[gwenniebee]

I had a parent of a yr 3 child complain, several months after the event, that little X had not been awarded a credit for a certain topic, when all the pupils in Mrs Y's class had been. One of the (many) reasons little X had not been awarded a credit was that his project (a DT type thing) had been entirely done by his dad. Little X wasn't even really able to explain how the thing had been made. The parent didn't mention this to me but took the complaint straight to the head, too.

[MmeLindor]

Sends and to all teachers

[CaptainNancy]

Weirdly, our school's staff list is published with their degree (subject, not classification!) and university attended against their name. Not sure what this says about the HT!

[Charmingbaker]

Request from a parent whose twins were due to start Rec in a two form entry school.
Felt it was too early for twins to be separated, but did want them to be separated eventually. So what would work was to put them in the same class for Reception, at some point between Y1&Y3 they would be ready to go into different classes (parents would kindly tell us once they reached this point). However we wouldn't be able to just move 1 twin into the other class as this would not be fair on them (I had to stop myself from pointing out that would be a Sophies Choice type scenario). Instead we could mix up the whole year group again. Surprisingly we didn't go for it.

[Crikeyblimey]

These are hilarious! I shall c&p them for my 2 sisters who are current and retired teachers. They'll love them. Will pop back when they've told me some of their's.

[lyndie]

I'm not a teacher either, but awesome thread!

At an induction meeting for P1 though a mum stood up and asked the head how he felt that she was having to quit her job because the school had 'failed to provide' wrap around care!

[ShakeWellBeforeOpening]

A parent didn't want us to read 'The Gruffalo ' to the playgroup children as it was going to be too frightening for her daughter .

[sassytheFIRST]

Some great ones here. My mind is blank about parental complaints but I did have a great parental phone convo once...


Me: ah, hello, is that Mr x?
Other person: err who's this please?
Me: it's mrs sassy, from little Johnny's school. I was wondering if you could explain why he's not in today?
OP: errrr....well...
Me: johnny, is that you?
OP: no, no... It's me mum!