Teacher's definitely have their hands full when it comes to managing a classroom full of kids, but sometimes it's not their students who cause them to face palm. Parents can be even more obnoxious, as is more than evident with the ridiculous things they've uttered to their child's teacher.
Not a fan of poetry.
“Taught in an old, impoverished town. Father told me he would not allow his son to read poetry because it would ‘make him gay.'” (Source)
The magical haircut.
“I had a parent tell me he cut his daughters hair in a short bob because they noticed her attitude gets bad when her hair gets too long. I had another parent tell me his kid was acting dumb for my benefit and that he is really smart at home. They still refuse to get him any tutoring.” (Source)
The irresponsible and irrational mother.
“‘Every single adult should know where every single child is on campus at all times!’ the mom said, yelling at me. I had been giving her son extra help after school, along with some other students. We were six weeks in and mom hadn’t come to Back to School Night or made any attempt to speak to or contact me. She came to pick up her son and had no idea where to go because she hadn’t been to our school before or read the after school group flier. Instead, she yelled at some other teachers who were waiting out in the front of the school with some of their own after school students to be picked up. They had no idea who she was or who her child was. She couldn’t ask them where my class was because she didn’t even know the name of her child’s teacher. I walked up with her son as this was happening. She turned and continued to chew me out. She said a lot of ridiculous things that day. It was complete and blatant projection of irresponsibility.” (Source)
“He’s your problem…”
“When talking to a parent regarding behavioral issues the parent said ‘From 8-2, he’s your problem, not mine.'” (Source)
Alphabetical order.
“At the end of each year all the students merits are tallied up and the top 3 students get a prize. One of the parents was complaining about how it’s unfair their child started so low every year, it was a lot harder for them to get to the top. The list starts alphabetized…” (Source)
The NFL prospect.
“I was in an IEP meeting. When the counselor asked the student what his post-high schools plans were, he proudly stated that he was interested in studying animal science. His mother angrily swung her head at him and said, ‘Animal science?! Oh h*ll no, what about our plans for the NFL?!’ The student got embarrassed and said, ‘Well, I need a back up plan, Mom…’ and she said, ‘Not when you’re as great of a player as you!’ The student was mediocre at best at football.” (Source)
Can you hear yourself?
“I have a few stories, but my favorite happened to a co-worker. This girl didn’t study and skipped most of the questions on a test. Mom came in to argue about her daughter’s failing grade and said she should only be graded on the questions she did answer, so therefore should have scored a 100 since the few she chose to answer were correct.” (Source)
Paying taxes.
“‘For the taxes we pay, we expect our teachers to get our kids into any college we want.'” (Source)
“The gray area…”
“‘Intellectual property is a real gray area’ in regard to blatant plagiarism.” (Source)
“Give her a C…”
“Not as bad as some, but when I was student teaching a parent emailed saying to give his child a C. No reason. Just…’give her a C.’ She was getting an F and I couldn’t believe the insanity of just saying what boiled down to ‘C, now.'” (Source)
The paper airplane.
“‘Yes, my child is misbehaving, throwing chairs, hitting other kids etc. but you took his paper airplane in 2nd grade and scrunched it up, so this is really your own doing. I think the best thing to do is for you to help him make a new paper airplane and apologize. Then I’m sure he’ll behave.’ The kid was in 6th grade at this point.” (Source)
“Yea…that makes a lot of sense…”
“Spanish class. Parent asked me to exempt her kid from speaking anything in Spanish. Said it made her daughter uncomfortable to say anything in Spanish.” (Source)
The bored student.
“Had an Asian kid that was aceing EVERYTHING. Straight A’s. I told his mother that I think he is a little bored. She puffed up and said ‘I will go home and speak to him about that at once!'” (Source)
“You’ll never have such talent…”
“After Thanksgiving, but before Christmas, one mom said: ‘If you don’t let my daughter sing ‘O, Holy Night’ for the Christmas show, I’ll withdraw her and my son from this school, and you’ll never again have such talent.’ Truth is, her daughter couldn’t sing on pitch, no matter what, and didn’t even try, because she had zero interest in it.” (Source)
The number struggle.
“I used to be a preschool teacher (ages 4 and 5) and we did evaluations every few months. One 4 year old girl, sweet as could be, could only count to the number 4. She struggled with other things, but the counting was by far the worst. Her parents come in to the evaluation and are delighted that their daughter could count to 4. We had to gently explain to them that she was well behind the other kids. Even the actually challenged kids surpassed her. She was obviously bright so we asked them what they worked on with her at home. Nothing. They did nothing with her. They assumed that she didn’t/wouldn’t start learning till teachers taught her.vTo their benefit, they did start working with her at home and by the beginning of the next year she was ready to move up. I’ve never been so proud and disappointed at the same time in a set of parents.” (Source)
The mother in denial.
“My aunt’s a teacher, and I remember her telling me about one strange parent encounter a year or so ago. She taught maybe the sixth or seventh grade. There was this one kid in her class severely underperforming, and even after numerous confrontations with him, he never worked in class or got his grades back up. My aunt had to call his mother down to the school, and sat down and tried to talk to her about it. She mentioned that she felt that he had the capacity to perform much better, but he didn’t. Well… The mother just denied it. To be clear, she wasn’t crazy or anything, just in absolute denial. My aunt showed her his grades, but she ripped the paper apart and told her that it’s not true. She said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, my son is perfect!’ and stormed out of the school.” (Source)