Teaching is no easy job, and it doesn’t help when you have a nagging parent. These teachers share the most annoying request they were given by a parent. Content has been edited for clarity.
#1
“I teach 3rd grade. One child earned the ‘Class Dojo’ points for a homework pass. This allows the student to choose one assignment that they’d like to skip, so it’s not even an entire night off from homework. However, the mother sent a nasty email because she was ticked off her son earned a homework pass.
She went on an entire rant about how it’s irresponsible to let a child skip homework. She then went on about how he was struggling in math (had an 88 average) and how skipping a night of homework would set him back.
Her request was to purchase him golf balls instead of giving him homework passes whenever he earned them. I politely responded that I couldn’t do so because it wouldn’t be fair for the other children and that a homework pass is simply given, but it’s ultimately up to the student and his/her family whether or not they use it.
I also Bcc’ed my principal and we had a good laugh about it the next morning.”
#2
“To change a child’s last name. I ran an activity where kids bought matching shirts with customized last names on them. One child has a last name she deemed inappropriate and wanted me to tell the child’s parents to change the last name.
Their last name was something like ‘Cox’ or ‘Slutz’.”
#3
“When the student broke her Chromebook, her parents refused to pay for a new one. However, the school still issued a 2nd device, on the condition that it not leave our building… she then lost the 2nd Chromebook.
The school refused to issue a 3rd Chromebook, so I let her use mine.
One day, the student was late. When she asked for the Chromebook, I said sorry the Chromebook was given to another student, who didn’t have theirs.
The mom called screaming. She demanded I return the 2nd Chromebook because the mom claimed I ‘probably’ stole it.
Then she demanded I give my Chromebook only to her student AND that I drop it at her house in the evening and wait for the student to complete 2-3 hrs of homework and then pick it up again.
Every. Single. Day.”
#4
“To give their child CBD gummies at snack.”
#5
“My husband was in the hospital once. He gets these regular pancreatitis attacks once every 6 months or so, and he’s in the hospital for about a week each time. Once during one of these attacks, I wrote a long email that I sent to all the parents and students explaining that I was going to be out from this day to this day.
A parent replied to me (and even cc’d the principal) saying that she wanted me to help her kid from the hospital. Her reasoning was that because hospitals have wifi, I must be available to tutor her kid over Zoom.
She said the kid (probably 15 or 16 at the time) didn’t feel comfortable learning from anyone else besides me.
When he didn’t turn in any work during the time I was gone, the mom blamed me, and I got in trouble with the principal (and they used it in my annual review as an excuse not to give me a raise.)”
#6
“I had a parent ask my principal if they could make me wrap my chest with an ace bandage because ‘her boobs are distracting and my son can’t learn.’
As if I can help with my bra size. I already wore baggy sweaters and turtlenecks every day.”
#7
“I teach middle school social studies. When I was teaching about Italian Renaissance city-states, I assigned a project for students to take all the features from successful city-state to build their own. They could do it in any medium of their choosing and some kids chose Minecraft.
A parent lost it on me when I mentioned at parent-teacher interviews that her son was quite bright and capable, he just distracts himself with games and reading Manga. She demanded to know why I thought assigning him a game as a project was supposed to help his gaming. And then she requested that he never get another video game project with the school ever again… like I have any say over other teachers in the future years.
I want to say that the kid handed in his project two days before it was due… first one-time assignment of the year. And he knocked it out of the park. ”
#8
“I was asked if I could take a kid’s recess because he wet the bed at home…
No ma’am, I cannot.”
#9
“Not to count on her daughter absent for an ENTIRE semester because her daughter has anxiety.
I’m sorry if your daughter needs homecare, there are channels you have to go through. I can be charged with fraud for falsifying attendance records. ”
#10
“A parent once asked if her child could spend the night at my house OVER THE 3 DAY WEEKEND because it was her birthday weekend and she wouldn’t be sober enough to watch him. “
#11
“I teach middle school ELA/ social studies. Grades 7 and 8.
I had a 5th-grade parent randomly email me to ask me to help her move her kid from remedial math to honors math to be with his friends. The math teacher and principal said no since the kid was below grade level. The parental unit couldn’t understand either the reasoning or the fact that I did not have powers over the principal and math teacher.”
#12
