Teachers - Most ridiculous thing you’ve been blamed for?

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

We have had parents’ evenings in my school this week and tonight, I had a parent blame me for her child being awful to his sister at home. It’s my fault apparently because I make him behave himself at school.

Has anyone else been blamed for something ridiculous by a parent? Help me feel better about it because this week has just been awful!

Similar here: he behaves badly at home because you make him follow the rules at school. Not sure how they wanted me to respond TBH.
Starting a new job in January and cannot wait!

Oh good! It’s not just me. I’ve been working on my CV as I’ve reached my breaking point to be honest. The job is making me miserable.

Child taking their coat off on the bus when parent thinks it is too cold. I'm not even on the blasted bus with them. I can put coat on before child gets on bus but impossible to keep it on them...

Wow! Some parents really won’t accept that their child’s behaviour is not our sole responsibility.

The child 'lost' their PE bag including £50(!!!) trainers. The mum went straight to the head to complain about my 'chaotic classroom' and the fact I hadn't done a single thing to find them. (Because he hadn't told me) Apparently the bag was very clearly marked with his name. I had a look in the classroom, he had a look on the pegs. No joy.

Next day I send my bloodhound child who can find anything out to look. The bag was on the ADJECENT PEG. The bag was exactly the same as every other school issued PE bag. His name was scribbled in tiny letters on the inside in faint biro.
I wish there was a rolling eyes emoji.

I have been blamed for lost cardigans and jumpers as well.

“My child has lost their jumper.”

“Oh dear! Was it named?”

“No. It’s blue and from Tesco though.”

“Like about 200 others then. If it was named, we’d be able to return it.”

“That’s the third one this year! Why haven’t we had them back?!”

“Naming it would avoid this problem…”

Ha ha! Joy of joys. Everything is always someone else's fault. Years ago I was blamed for making the living room carpet dirty and told never to send anything decorated with glitter home again.

Oh yes the jumpers! My TA and I both had a moment with a parent the other week who was moaning about lost jumpers that weren’t named…the message obviously got round because for the first time ever, every jumper is named!!

I got told off by a parent for getting pregnant & leaving a week before the end of the year - it wasn’t fair on the children to miss out on their teacher finishing the year with them and I should have planned more carefully. How dare I not think about the children? It. Was. One. Week.

@TortolaParadise

Ha ha! Joy of joys. Everything is always someone else's fault. Years ago I was blamed for making the living room carpet dirty and told never to send anything decorated with glitter home again.

The school cleaning staff tell me off if I dare use glitter. I don’t anymore because of the sheer quantity of mess.

@ProfSprout

Oh yes the jumpers! My TA and I both had a moment with a parent the other week who was moaning about lost jumpers that weren’t named…the message obviously got round because for the first time ever, every jumper is named!!

I got told off by a parent for getting pregnant & leaving a week before the end of the year - it wasn’t fair on the children to miss out on their teacher finishing the year with them and I should have planned more carefully. How dare I not think about the children? It. Was. One. Week.

Wow! Selfishly, I was a bit annoyed that DD1’s EYFS teacher went on maternity leave at Christmas but I was more annoyed because she was a bloody good teacher and DD1 wouldn’t have her for the whole year.

I got blamed for the weather once on a school trip. Early Years, and the weather was too hot for them. Her child wasn’t burnt or anything but we ‘should have had a cooler day for the trip” or “taken them elsewhere” or at the very least “bought them an ice cream” due to the weather because they “could be sunburnt but not visibly and could have caught heatstroke”.

Now the trip was very much an outside trip, however was also in the woods so mostly shady. Temperature heights of 21 degrees. So
Not even a heat wave. And no, the parent hadn’t put suncream on them prior, nor did their child burn or catch heat stroke. Still resulted in an email that took me ten minutes to read about the dangers of too much sun exposure.

Most recent one was this week. I was personally blamed for their child not winning a school wide competition. They had to build a model on a particular theme over the course of the week at school. So obviously I had a huge selection of craft supplies and junk modelling stuff and they were asked to bring stuff in to use too. This child bought nothing in but wanted to use near enough everything. I had to ration everything out fairly (this child initially took THE ENTIRE SELECTION OF BOXES AND 90% of the craft supplies and I had to make him put a lot back otherwise there would not be enough for everyone else. But because I had done this, his robot wasn’t the best so he couldn’t win and it was all my fault for not letting him use everything he wanted and I better make it up to him.

I employ a sniffer child for all the lost jumpers. Child holds up found jumper - sniffer child takes a big sniff and can instantly identify owner. There's usually one every year. I say to them they should go on to be a perfumer or spice buyer.

@phlebasconsidered

I employ a sniffer child for all the lost jumpers. Child holds up found jumper - sniffer child takes a big sniff and can instantly identify owner. There's usually one every year. I say to them they should go on to be a perfumer or spice buyer.

Or a police dog?

@bananabuddy3

I got blamed for the weather once on a school trip. Early Years, and the weather was too hot for them. Her child wasn’t burnt or anything but we ‘should have had a cooler day for the trip” or “taken them elsewhere” or at the very least “bought them an ice cream” due to the weather because they “could be sunburnt but not visibly and could have caught heatstroke”.

Now the trip was very much an outside trip, however was also in the woods so mostly shady. Temperature heights of 21 degrees. So
Not even a heat wave. And no, the parent hadn’t put suncream on them prior, nor did their child burn or catch heat stroke. Still resulted in an email that took me ten minutes to read about the dangers of too much sun exposure.

Most recent one was this week. I was personally blamed for their child not winning a school wide competition. They had to build a model on a particular theme over the course of the week at school. So obviously I had a huge selection of craft supplies and junk modelling stuff and they were asked to bring stuff in to use too. This child bought nothing in but wanted to use near enough everything. I had to ration everything out fairly (this child initially took THE ENTIRE SELECTION OF BOXES AND 90% of the craft supplies and I had to make him put a lot back otherwise there would not be enough for everyone else. But because I had done this, his robot wasn’t the best so he couldn’t win and it was all my fault for not letting him use everything he wanted and I better make it up to him.

What is it with parents and weather? I can’t believe they suggested buying all the children an ice cream.

I had a child whose mum wouldn’t let her come swimming because she’d catch a cold walking back with wet hair. We didn’t even walk to the pool. They had to walk to the bus that took us there. We also went in the summer term so hardly freezing. Also, and I can’t stress this point enough, THAT’S NOT HOW YOU CATCH A COLD!!!!!!

I hope you suggested to the parent whose child didn’t win that they send him in with the requested materials next time.

Just checking - are all these for real?! My eyes are rolling so far back they might get stuck. As a secondary teacher, the worst I’ve ever been accused of is picking on someone unfairly. Not for the weather FFS

@likeafishneedsabike

Just checking - are all these for real?! My eyes are rolling so far back they might get stuck. As a secondary teacher, the worst I’ve ever been accused of is picking on someone unfairly. Not for the weather FFS

Obviously, I can’t vouch for the validity of everyone but mine are 100% real. I can also believe all of the other ones as I’ve had plenty of experience with insane parents.

Good grief
I’ve just remembered a great conversation about lost coats though from years back.
Parent - this is the third coat he’s lost at school. We are getting really annoyed about it.
Me - yes, I can imagine. Are these coats named?
Parent - yes, they certainly are. The last one was a Superdry.
Me - silence while processing this

Well mine was real. I can add this joy- Parent- Cassie has lost her school jumper
Me- Has it got her name in?
Parent- No, but it's obviously hers as it's got a bit of the label missing.
Me -

It’s like these parents have never been in a shop and seen the racks of identical clothing items.

Mine is certainly real. I also get blamed frequently for lost uniform, and the lack of name labels is staggering considering I’m in one of those schools where near enough everything is regulation so everyone matches.

The weather was the funniest one in my career I think. The uniform is annoying because it’s frequent and so avoidable. I hate getting blamed when a child has snuck in some tiny toy and lost it in the playground, likewise when I tell them to put their precious toy in the show and tell box, they don’t and it walks.

It’s not funny when I’m blamed for injuries. I’ve been accused of inadequate supervision when a child has fallen over. Nothing serious, just a grazed knee and a small graze on chin, but the accusations that I clearly don’t watch enough, don’t care enough, and that the child would never have had a lifelong facial scar if I had just done my job.....I should say the scar accusation was a week after the playground fall, and a month later there was no sign of it. It can be painful.

All of the complaints that are ridiculous just add to my resolve to leave the profession. I am not willing to put up with other people’s crap any longer.