Being a teacher is not easy. You have to wrangle a full classroom of students all day long, handle pressure from parents and the admins, and actually teach those young minds something in the process. Sadly, many teachers face terrible working conditions. In fact, according to one Australian survey, 80% of teachers experience bullying and harassment from students and parents.
Not every parent is a bully, but some say and do such out-of-pocket things that they need to be kept for posterity. Last year, teacher and creator @AmyThingGoes asked fellow teachers to share the most outrageous things parents have messaged them. And the teachers delivered: from ridiculous demands, entitled behavior, and straight-up disrespect, these parents did more than just make the teachers raise their eyebrows.
#1
“I want to homeschool my child. When will the teacher be at our house and which teacher will it be?”
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#2
“Can you make sure to call my house at 6:30 to wake my son up for school. I work.”
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#3
“Miss can you please send homework. it’s 1 week into holidays and he’s driving me insane”
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#4
“Why is Obama’s picture hanging in your room?” — my response was “I’m a history teacher and he’s is (2010) the President”.
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#5
“I really think you need to incorporate Spanish more into your class. It’s a disadvantage to those trying to learn” ma’am, I teach English. And we live in Puerto Rico.
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#6
Went to a splash pad with students over the summer “please make sure my student has a life jacket as he cannot swim, make sure he doesn’t get too hot or cold, remind him to drink water and take breaks and don’t let him get water in his face.”
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#7
I had a parent give ME a report card…
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#8
“With technology today I don’t really care if my child can read.”
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#9
“Please stop marking my son’s work in red ink. It’s very aggressive and we’re trying to encourage him to try hard.” Went right into my trash bin
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#10
“She smells uncertainty, fear, and anxiety, so be prepared.”—this morning
#11
I didn’t get the message (my principal did) but the parent was upset after seeing I was reading Onyx Storm through social media. She said it was inappropriate for me to be promoting those kinds of books where students might be able to see… I teach 4th grade
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#12
“I can’t volunteer for the field trip because I’m a felon”
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#13
I had a parent message BEYOND upset with me that I labeled their child as a BOY on their trimester assessment scores. BOY = Beginning Of Year
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#14
“It is so unprofessional that you took 3 days off and didn’t tell the parents you would be out and why. This impacts my daughter’s learning. You need to tell us where you were” and cc’d my principal…so I gave my principal permission to go into detail about my miscarriage.
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#15
“Please remove all sick children from your room for the next 2 weeks. We are going on a cruise and I don’t want my child to be sick and ruin our vacation.” When I told her no, I would not be targeting children based on their wellness, she went to the board.😅
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#16
“Can you buy pizza for the class for my daughter’s birthday and then I’ll reimburse you afterwards?” Yeahhh no
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#17
Parent messaged me “why are you picking on my child, I only ever hear about things she is doing”…ma’am why would I tell you about the other children??
#18
Kid did a back flip in the cafeteria after being told not to so he owed 5 minutes of recess. Mom emailed saying we need to give him his 5 minutes back because he has ADHD and we wouldn’t ask a kid in a wheelchair to stand up, so we can’t expect him to not do backflips.
#19
“Please remove all sick children from your room for the next 2 weeks. We are going on a cruise and I don’t want my child to be sick and ruin our vacation.” When I told her no, I would not be targeting children based on their wellness, she went to the board.😅
#20
“Hi, this isn’t school related, but I was wondering if (students name) dad is single?”
#21
“Why did my child not hand in this assignment?” I don’t know why your 15 yr old didn’t hand it in. ASK THEM.
#22
“I need money for gas, otherwise (name) will not be attending school”
#23
not a teacher but as a parent I may have sent numerous emails to my child’s teacher somewhat demanding her to make an Amazon wish list 😅 I was like “help me help you. yall dont get paid enough”
#24
Special Ed teacher here: her daughter threw up and she asked me to smell it to make sure it was a “sick” smell.
#25
I got told there was no reason for me to be teaching about the rainbow and “promoting gay culture” I teach elementary art
#26
In 2013 I got divorced, a few other teachers knew. I never told students, just quit wearing my ring. A parent emailed me and asked I keep wearing my ring so her son didn’t learn about divorce. Her son was a senior in high school.
#27
A parent told me her kid was triggered by the word ‘germs’ so asked me if I could call germs ‘munchkins’
#28
1 parent asked me to CREATE and send out her child’s birthday party invitation and sent me all the information to include on it. The worse part was I did it, because it was my first year of teaching and I had not learned to say no yet.
#29
“My son came home without his limited edition Cinnamon Toast Crunch crocs and I’m telling the principal you stole and sold them”
#30
Emailed a parent about her child’s increased behavior issues. Was told “he’s performing experiments on you to prove you don’t treat him fairly. When we gather the data we will go to the principal and let you know what we find”
#31
Had a parent email and accuse me of teaching sexual orientation when I was actually teaching asexual reproduction in unicellular organisms… (I teach biology) lol
#32
“Please don’t teach about voting, it doesn’t seem appropriate for them to learn..” as I stopped reading and laughed because my kids were voting about oreos or chocolate chip cookies.. they’re 3
#33
“You being gone is the reason my daughter had a panic attack today and you weren’t there to help me.” I’m sorry my mom was in the hospital?
#34
One of my parents asked me for a parent teacher conference on a Sunday….
#35
“Please do not talk about your sexuality, your students don’t need to know you have a wife.” After every teacher was talking about what they did for the weekend.. with their husbands.. and I was just explaining what I did with my daughter and wife..
#36
Had a senior with a 3 average in a class that’s a grad requirement. Mom asked if student could go back and do all the work for the entire semester (ended in 5 days). I laughed out loud, then said sure, if she can do 90 days worth of work in 5 days I’ll grade it. She got a 3.
#37
had a CHILD (9 or 10 at the time) interrupting my lesson by saying hawk tuah LOUDLY, emailed home about it, the response from mom was that i was “projecting my adult views onto her child” and now she had to “have a weird adult conversation about what it means what he didn’t know what he was saying” like ma’am. YOU HAVE TO PARENT?!!? REALLY…
#38
“When she is at school you are her parent”
#39
“Please remove my child anytime there is talk about ghost, monsters or demons, as we don’t want the devil to infect our child” I was reading a fantasy book in my curriculum
#40
Got accused of teaching about “drag queens” in a lesson about Japanese kabuki. Women aren’t allowed to be kabuki actors. Lost that fight with admin
#41
Went to my super bc they didn’t agree with the length of my maternity leave (50 school days, per my contract) & said it was “unprofessional” for me to get pregnant knowing I would be due during the school year & tried to speak at the school board meeting about it.
#42
My first year teaching PE I had a students parent at an open house tell me that I don’t know the first thing about basketball because I’m a girl. So I challenged him to one V one and I beat him while wearing my Birkenstocks. I know ball
#43
Put a general comment on everyone’s progress report that says “please encourage your child to attend class regularly, ask questions when needed and participate in class”. Parent thinks I am directing this message at her child. And even after I have explained that I have put this comment on all progress reports for probably the last 20 years she still wants to have a meeting to discuss it. Meeting is tomorrow.
#44
“Please refrain from playing K Pop Demon Hunters music in the classroom, we are a Christian household and do no promote worshipping demons.” 😄 it was the first day of school and we were doing get to know you activities and I played “Golden”. I teach 4th grade.
#45
Had a kid take a tumble during program and swallow her tooth. Two hours later she goes #2 and the parent asks me to go digging for it so she can put it under her pillow. EXCUSE ME?! I’m still heated and it’s been 3 years.
#46
I had a parent email me that when her child was worked up in class I needed to lay him down in front of the class while I rolled an exercise ball over him while playing Andrea Bocelli…. I teach sixth grade
#47
I was turned into the superintendent because I was unable to open a student’s Gatorade bottle. There was a whole investigation by admin. Ummm I have Lupus.
#48
During Covid, i told a parent that their child was logging off during class and the parent asked me where the child was going when they logged off…
#49
Not outrageous, just funny. A kindergarten parent sent in a note asking how much make-up they should put on their daughter for make up picture day.
#50
“I realize she didn’t do any of the work. But why did she get a zero?”
#51
“You’re running a communist classroom by manipulating my child for compliance”. This was regarding an elf on the shelf……
#52
I helped with a class for theater…. had a parent ask why a teen was allowed to teach other teens. I was 27 at the time
#53
I was told I made up the Boston tea party to push an agenda… I teach 4th grade
#54
“Please refrain from bringing politics into the classroom. You should not be discussing the president or tariffs.” I’m the AP Government teacher. It was a lesson on presidential communication.
#55
“You have a Black Lives Matter symbol in your classroom. What does this have to do with ELA? Stick to the curriculum.” Lots to say about that, but mostly, it is a Star Wars rebellion symbol, so…
#56
Parent put in a complaint about me for not sending out her child’s birthday invites. She sent them to me on Class Dojo on July 1st. School ended on May 28th
#57
“Who allowed my child to talk to someone without my permission? I will be suing” (the kid talked to the guidance counselor…parent did not sue)
#58
“I’m taking my husband and my 3 yr old and 7 yr old to Disney world. *child who is 2yrs old* is staying with grandparents. Because she is too young. Please don’t tell her about where we are. She’ll get upset.” They were gone about a month and a half. Poor little girl was so sad.
#59
Imma flip it and reverse it, I’m a parent and I told my son’s teacher “please, if he’s acting a fool YELL AT HIM! By all means I give you permission to reprimand my kid, I will not be upset! And if he doesn’t listen, you can use calling me as a threat bc he KNOWS if I have to leave work bc he’s acting up
#60
I had a parent accuse me of deleting a students writing essay. The student didn’t know that I could look up the work history since it was on Google Docs and the parent was embarrassed when I showed her her son was just typing random letters the whole time. She just said thank you and left.
#61
A parent wouldn’t let their high school senior watch a PG disney movie. They said it wasn’t appropriate. It’s Inside Out…
#62
A parent came in livid to tell me she could not believe I wrote her a note that her son had been pulling grasshoppers legs off at recess and it needed to stop. She told me I didn’t know anything about boys and her son had jars and jars full of legless grasshoppers at home.
#63
Screamed at me for 10 minutes on the phone. How dare I ask her son to stack his chair on his desk, throw away his trash, and plug in his computer at the end of the day. 🙃 I’m not exaggerating. “It’s your classroom! It’s YOUR job to do that!”
#64
Had a mom tell me via the child’s planner to stop messaging her husband bcs it makes her uncomfortable (he was the only contact I had on file & I was just updating every parent on remind)
#65
I got a handwritten note saying they will be sending a bill for the clothing the child ruined. She requested they not be allowed to use markers or scissors. Ma’am it’s kindergarten 🤣 and our curriculum uses dry erase boards and markers DAILY.
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