Teachers Are Revealing The Worst Things Students' Parents Have Ever Said To Them, And I'm Deeply Disturbed
Teachers are some of the most overworked and underappreciated people on the planet. In addition to working tirelessly to educate young people, they also have to deal with an array of parents. Though some parents are kind and easygoing, others can be overbearing, rude, and incredibly problematic.
We asked teachers of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the most unhinged things parents have ever said to them. The responses took us on quite the roller-coaster ride. Here are some of the most unbelievable encounters:
1."I called the dad to address his son’s disrespectful behavior. His response? 'Yeah, he just doesn’t respect women.'"
2."While I was teaching third grade, we took a restroom break. One of the boys decided to pee on all the other boys' pants and shoes instead of in the urinal. He was written up for his behavior in his folder. The father, who was an English professor at the university, called me during my brief lunch break to tell me I needed to remove the demerit from his folder because 'boys will be boys' and he was just being cute and funny. I told him I would not remove the demerit because I had to call seven parents to leave their jobs and come pick up their kids to change clothes because they were urinated on by another student. His father proceeded to tell me that his son thought I didn't like him because he was always in trouble. It was a month before I retired, and told him if his son started behaving, then maybe he would think I liked him, and other students would like him as well."
—Anonymous
3."I once had a student who was behind on her homework. I wrote the missing assignments in the student's planner to let her mother know she was behind. I got a written reply from the mother that said, 'Well, help her fucking do them, then.'"
TV Land / Via media.giphy.com
—Anonymous
4."I once had a parent threaten to kill me on a Facebook Live post because she said I let her baby leave school without a coat. 1) I wasn't even at school that day and had a sub. 2) Because of some issues, the mom wasn't even allowed to step foot on any of our school grounds. 3) I had to get a restraining order against her and have her child moved to a different class. She spent the better part of Christmas break in jail for threatening me. It was an interesting school year, to say the least!"
—Anonymous
5."I was explaining to a mom how to help her son’s fluency when reading and she told me, ‘He doesn’t have to stop at periods if he doesn’t want to.’"
6."I teach at an elementary school. I told a parent that their child checked out a Guinness Book of World Records book from the library and lost it. The librarian wanted me to give the parent the bill. When she saw the amount to replace it, she looked at me and said, 'What are you doing this weekend?' Startled by that response, I said, 'Probably going to spend some time on the water.' (Sidenote: Our town is on a lake.) She said, 'I hope your boat explodes and your family is on it!' Then she balled up the bill and tossed it at me. That was unexpected."
—Anonymous
7."A parent said, 'You can't give my son homework in the fall because of hunting, or in the spring because of fishing. He camps on the island often then. You can give my daughter homework every day.'"
—Anonymous
8."As a high school teacher, I was told by a parent during back-to-school night, 'I hope you don’t get pregnant and have to go on maternity leave, because my son shouldn’t have to deal with a hormonal teacher for months.'"
9."I work in a Catholic school. One day, I gave a student detention for acting out in class, and his mom threatened to call the pope on me. She was not joking. She legitimately thought she'd be able not only to contact the pope but also to get him to care about her son's detention."
ABC / Via media.giphy.com
10."I’m a middle school art teacher. This one kid was super disrespectful, sneaky, and mean to others. I called his mom to talk about his behavior, and she demanded a conference with administration and me. When I got there, she said I was a sorry excuse for a teacher because I called her within three weeks to discuss behavior, though no other teacher had. Without skipping a beat, my principal pulled up the online parent contact log we have and said, 'No, ma’am, it looks like just about all of his teachers have attempted to contact you via phone, text, or email. Suddenly, I was the 'worst' teacher because her child was artistic and he no longer wanted to draw. I finally got to speak, and I told her that we have things we have to do in class, and if he was artistic, he should certainly be able to do them. Unfortunately, he hadn’t attempted the work at all, so I couldn’t tell. She looked me dead in the eye and said, 'Because you killed his creativity.'"
—Anonymous
11."I had a parent who was upset about their child's grade. She emailed me and asked for a conference, to which I replied that I would get in contact with the counselors and have it scheduled. She responded back, 'No, I want a meeting with you, out back.'"
12."A parent, who was also a teacher at another school in the district, didn't like the grade her son got on an assignment. She regraded the paper, scanned her version of the rubric, and sent it back to me with a directive to change the 80 I gave her son to the 92 she thought he deserved. When I refused to change the grade, she demanded a meeting with administration. The grade stood."
—Anonymous
13."Fifth-grade teacher here. I had a parent ask me how their son (10) was behaving in class, since he had some behavior issues with his previous teacher. I told them that he was doing well and I had no issues. His parents then replied, 'It’s probably because you’re really pretty and he thinks you're cute. His last teacher was ugly.'"
—Anonymous
14."'You ruined Christmas!' yelled the mother. She and her daughters, my middle school student and her high school–age sister, ambushed me in my classroom the day we returned from winter break in January. The student had plagiarized an essay about the history of Christmas carols, so I gave her a second chance before vacation. She did not take me up on it. Mom barked at me about how students should never have assignments in December. 'There was little time to shop, wrap gifts, and bake cookies this year!' Then the high schooler yelled something unintelligible at me as she cuddled the younger one, who feigned tears. Wow."
—Anonymous
15."A second-grade student relayed this comment: 'My mom says your homework is trash, just like you.'"
TruTV / Via media.giphy.com
—Anonymous
16."This father came into my room after I dismissed class and demanded to see his daughter's midterm, my grading comments, and the exam rubric because 'she always got A's when [he] homeschooled her.' Did I mention I am a history professor and the student was 20 years old?"
—Anonymous
17."I work for a pretty big and well-known university in Texas. One thing that has stuck with me was the time a parent of a COLLEGE student called me directly to inform me that it was my job to walk to her child's dorm and wake them up for class. According to her, it was MY responsibility to ensure that her child received an education, especially since she was paying for it. I'm sorry, ma'am, but no. Your child is an adult now."
—Anonymous
18."After I forgot to use some napkins at a class party a few years ago, a parent angrily showed up at my door and demanded that I return the napkins so she could find another teacher who would appreciate them."
—Anonymous
19."I called a dad who couldn’t make it to a conference to discuss his daughter’s progress. We had a productive phone conference. The next day, his daughter was overhead telling her friends that her dad said I had a nice voice for phone sex."
—Anonymous
20."I’m a drama teacher, and I was putting on a 30-minute musical with the first-graders. Everyone got to sing, but a few kids got speaking lines. The lines were sent home with a date to be memorized by (which was a month away), as well as a warning that lines would be passed to another child if they weren’t memorized. Well, one child didn't memorize his in time. I sent home another note and gave that child an extra week. When the lines still weren’t memorized, I gave his line to another child. At dismissal the next day, the boy's father told me, 'You live in the brown house right before the blue bridge. So keep in mind I know that next time you punish my child.' Then he told his son he didn’t need to be in the 'fucking play' anyway. A grown man threatened to come to my house and beat me up because his 6-year-old son didn’t get to say 'This is the coldest winter ever!' into a microphone."
—Anonymous
21."I had a mother tell me not to let her kindergartner son fart because he didn't know when he had to fart or take a shit, and she was tired of cleaning his 'Hershey squirts.'"
TV Land / Via media.giphy.com
—Anonymous
22."On the first day of school, the father of one of my students put his hand on my stomach to check whether I was pregnant. He wanted to see if I would make it teaching through the whole school year or if I would be leaving at some point on maternity leave. His wife was mortified by his behavior, and so was I!"
—Anonymous
23."I was on the phone with a parent. As we were discussing her son, she stated, without any shame, that she was on the toilet naked. My mind went blank in shock."
—Anonymous
24."During a parent-teacher conference a week after my father died, a parent told me that she was glad my dad was dead because I would now know the pain I was causing her daughter by not giving her an A."
—Anonymous
25."I’m a high school teacher, and it was our back-to-school night. As parents were walking in, one student’s mother asked if I was Ms. [name]. I said yes. She looked me up and down and said, 'No wonder my son loves coming to this class.' Vomit."
—Anonymous
26."A student’s father was in the middle of a divorce and proceeded to come to parent-teacher conferences and bash his soon-to-be ex-wife the entire 20 minutes. He then proceeded to ask if I was single because, in his words, his son 'looked at [me] like a mom.'"
—Anonymous
27."A boy had a D in my class. His mom said he didn't want to turn his homework in because I didn't give him high fives when he did. He was 13."
NBC / Via media.giphy.com
—Anonymous
28."I scheduled an appointment to speak to a parent and their student about absences and poor work. The mom arrived without the student. She asked me to call him out of class. I had to explain that he wasn't at school. His mom had to phone him at home and go get him. She expressed that it was probably my fault he decided not to attend his classes."
—Anonymous
29."I had to go out of state for my grandfather's funeral. Midterm exams happened to be scheduled schoolwide for the day of the funeral. I personally handed my substitute teacher the tests and answer key, and the principal told my classes that their scores on the exams WOULD be on their report cards. One student just wrote their name on the exam and turned it in with a note that they would take the exam when I came back, and that it 'WOULD NOT BE ON THEIR REPORT CARD.' When the zero showed up on their report card, the mother called and told me I should have left the funeral, gone to school for the exams, and then returned to the funeral."
—Anonymous
30."It was the first day meeting the parents of my students (who were 3 years old). I shook hands with one mom and said, 'Hello, I'm Ms. [name] and I'll be your daughter's teacher,' to which she replied, 'I'm going to make your life difficult.' It was so strange. When I asked her why, as surely we shared the same goal of educating her child, she replied, 'Because I have high standards.' Sheesh, like I don't? Well, she definitely made good on her word, with daily complaints about minor things to anyone who would listen."
—Anonymous
31."At a parent-teacher conference, while I was discussing a student's strengths and areas of concern, the parent said, 'I don't know why you care. The only reason I send him to school is because I have to.'"
—Anonymous
32."After helping a 12-year-old student clean out their backpack and finding 36 pairs of dirty socks, I reached out to the parent to let them know. Their response? They proceeded to ask me why I didn't wash them."
—Anonymous
33."During parent conferences, a mom proceeded to tell me I was so brave to come to school without makeup on!"
Comedy Central / Via media.giphy.com
—Anonymous
34."A month or so after my father died, I ran into a student’s parent in the school office. She said she had heard my father died and was glad that I only taught her child two subjects so that it didn’t impact his learning too much when I was off work for two weeks."
—Anonymous
35."In a meeting, a parent once told me, 'I would murder you, but you're lucky I don't look good in orange.'"
—Anonymous
36."I teach high school English. I had my students write an essay outside of class. One of my students clearly didn't follow the assignment description, so she got a C- on the assignment. The next day, the student's mom came into the classroom fuming and upset about her child's grade. She boldly exclaimed that there was no way her child only got a C- and that she knew for a fact it was good writing because she had spent an hour and a half writing it herself. Needless to say, that confession didn't help her child's case too much; rather, it led to an uncomfortable conversation about cheating."
—Anonymous
37.Finally: "A parent came storming into the office yelling about how we couldn't suspend her daughter for getting into a fight. She gave us the name of her daughter, and we had no record of that student. Turns out the mom was at the wrong school."
—Anonymous
Wooow. Teachers, I don't know how you do it. I truly have so much respect for your patience. If you're a teacher who has ever had a not-so-awesome interaction with a parent, feel free to share your story in the comments below or anonymously using this form.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
