Most parents do not envy the job of a teacher. Having to control not just one child but a whole room of them? We’ll give that a miss, thanks.
But it seems some parents aren’t shy about complaining, after educators shared the most ridiculous (and petty) complaints they have ever received on Reddit.
These parents could probably benefit from a little more time in the classroom themselves.
“I had a parent complain that I was speaking too much French in class, which would be legitimate concern if it weren’t a high school junior level French class.”
“I had a parent complain because I played a CD of classical Persian flute music one day in class. The class was ‘World Languages and Cultures’ and I played a different CD from around the world every day as they came into class. They said I was ‘sympathising with terrorists’.”
“I gave the kid a D on a homework. Parent contacted me to complain that I was picking on him. Even though the parent agreed that most of the answers that he gave were wrong but I should have ‘cut him some slack’.”
“One mother threatened to yank her daughter out of the school if this student were not given the starring role in the Christmas concert to sing ‘O Holy Night’. The girl had made it perfectly clear to me, the faculty and classmates that she realised she wasn’t musically qualified for the part, neither did she want to do it.”
“I’ve had a parent complain to me about her child. Her daughter was doing really well, 90+ grades and consistent effort in classwork and homework.
Me: [The student] puts a lot of thought and effort into her work.
Mum: She sucks up to you?
Me: No, she wants to do well and be successful. That being said, we’d like to improve her grammar a bit.
Mum: I knew it, she’s stupid. Doesn’t do anything. She will fail. She is such a disappointment.”
“The school has a behaviour plan. Basically, if the kids don’t go below a certain good behaviour colour, they get a Friday Lollipop. A certain child wasn’t given a lollipop at the end of the week because he spit on another kid (among other stuff). The parents went ballistic. They barged into the school in a full rage.”
“I used to teach phonics (basic reading skills) to kindergarten-aged kids. One parent came in after class, irate, and demanded to know why I had taught the er/ir/ur diphthong before the oi/oy diphthong. He didn’t want his kid to be able to read the word ‘girl’ before being able to read ‘boy’. Kept going on about how ‘boy’ was just more important and common, as a word.”
“A parent at my sisters school complained because it rained on the school trip to the zoo; ‘I wouldn’t have given permission for my child to go on the trip if I had been properly informed it might rain’.”
“My class were about to take a unit test on physical science. It had been about a month since the last test, so I sent home a two sided review sheet. I was checking these for correctness but grading for completeness (the plan was to hand them back out as a study guide) and I notice one that has no answers one side of it. The child had written their name at the top of the blank side, so they had seen it and just decided not to do it. I gave the child 50, since they had done half. Perfectly reasonable, right? Nope. Parent complained, but to the other teachers in the grade instead of me.”
“I had a parent come in and ask me where our cleaners were from to decide whether or not she trusted that her daughter wouldn’t get her stuff robbed at school. I explained that we didn’t use an agency, all the cleaners were employed directly by the school. ‘No’, she clarified, ‘where are they from?’ She was quickly invited to leave my office.”
“Had a parent forgot to pack their kid a lunch, they called the school to tell me I needed to leave the class to go across the street and buy the kid a Subway.”