14 Teachers Reveal the Pettiest Reasons Parents Complained

1.

I witnessed a parent complaining at the end of a primary school concert that it "wasn't fair" that their child had no discernable musical talent, and that the school should stop giving instrument lessons to the kids who were keen or talented. I've never seen the music teacher genuinely speechless for so long.

2.

I had a screaming parent in my office because of a marginal comment I made on an essay that had received a grade of 95%, submitted by a student who was top of the class.The comment said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'This argument is unworthy of you. Don't be lazy: find better sources and don't hang your argument on idle assertions.'The parent claimed I had called her daughter 'lazy, idle, fat, suicidal, and unworthy of being a student at [INSTITUTION].' She actually thought I was threatening to have her expelled, or at least barred from grad school.The best part: the girl was a second-year undergraduate.The next best part: it was an open office, and my colleagues were openly mocking her the entire time. I just sat there and said nothing. I miss those guys.

3.

4.

The color of red pen I use. Apparently it's too dark of a red to be considered red, and if i cant do my job properly using the correct red, I'm unqualified to teach

5.

Back when I used to teach, I had a parent once complain that my classroom was 'too quiet', and as a consequence her daughter and her peers got too much work done, and they felt it was bad for their daughter's brain to be learning so much so quickly.

6.

I had a parent complain that her kid was wearing a tight spaghetti strap tank top because the kid got hot and took off her sweater. She yelled at me for what she dressed her kid in?

7.

I had a screaming parent in my office because of a marginal comment I made on an essay that had received a grade of 95%, submitted by a student who was top of the class.The comment said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'This argument is unworthy of you. Don't be lazy: find better sources and don't hang your argument on idle assertions.'

The parent claimed I had called her daughter 'lazy, idle, fat, suicidal, and unworthy of being a student at [INSTITUTION].' She actually thought I was threatening to have her expelled, or at least barred from grad school.The best part: the girl was a second-year undergraduate.The next best part: it was an open office, and my colleagues were openly mocking her the entire time. I just sat there and said nothing. I miss those guys.

8.

The bottom of a "t". She wanted me to force her daughter to write the letter "t" as it appears in typing. She scheduled a PTA meeting about it.

9.

I witnessed a parent complaining at the end of a primary school concert that it "wasn't fair" that their child had no discernable musical talent, and that the school should stop giving instrument lessons to the kids who were keen or talented. I've never seen the music teacher genuinely speechless for so long.

10.

Parents once complained that I let my 7th grade, intermediate ESL students read a story that was a whole 22 pages long, with images for their book report. They had more than a month to read, it was an edited copy for their level.

11.

A parent called to complain that I hadn't put her daughter's late homework into the gradebook yet. I told her "I can't put the homework in the gradebook until she actually turns it in."This parent just kept asking me why I hadn't put it in. I kept replying with "I have nothing to put in! She hasn't given it to me!"Finally the call ended with "Urg, some people just don't know how to do their jobs!"

12.

When I was a substitute teacher a parent called me to complain how the real teacher didn't do anything about the fact that the parent's ex husband fed their son porridge for breakfast. All I could think wtf, what's wrong with porridge. Not sugary porridge either, a healthy good breakfast. I was there only for two days and she knew it

13.

My brother is a high school teacher: He had one kid that was accepted in to the college of his choice and decided that his entire senior year could then be the F'yall year. My brother had multiple conversations with the parents throughout the year about the fact that student was failing, as did other teachers. Parents seemed very unconcerned by this.

The day before classes ended, my brother runs into the father out in public and the father says to him "I am very concerned about (the students), really - I think his school performance this year doesn't bode well for how he will do in college."My brother: Your son is not going to college. He has to repeat at least 5 classes this year in order to get his diploma.Father: No, he's fine, he is already accepted.My brother: Its all conditional. Without his high school diploma - which we have been telling you all year he is not going to get - he can't get in.The father - who has a college degree himself - was apparently shocked by this news, and they promptly went right to the School Board, trying to get his entire senior waived "because he was obviously such a strong student that a school accepted him on early admission." School Board did not agree.

14.

For silly fun at the end of the term I showed an episode of Mr. Bean. He was washing his clothes and pulled a dress out accidentally and put it on. That is what they were mad at, that I was encouraging cross-dressing. They were seniors in High School...

15.

I have my students wash their hands before lunch. Apparently, I'm being "unrealistic with my expectations."

16.

My cousin who teaches Kindergarten had a parent complain to the principle that she was "irresponsible" for being "selfish enough" to have a baby and take maternity leave before the end of the school year.

17.

Helped a friend pass calculus by tutoring him. His mom would come in and pray for him to pass sometimes, and I would just go with it to be polite. She goes to bed, and we go out to have a smoke. We come back inside, and she goes off the rails on me, yelling at me for enabling him and how all he does is waste his life and smoke. Saying he'll never pass because he's lazy and I'm a loser. How it's my fault if he fails calculus for a third time.Mind you, she asked for my help and I got paid next to nothing for all of this (the occasional dinner, $40 here and there...)I was so furious that I walked over to the table and handed her a literal ream of calculus problems he had been working on with me from that semester. I skimmed a quarter inch of paper off the top and handed it to her. I dropped the rest on the table, and I calmly said, "all of his hard work is here, you can look through it. I'm not going to stand here and be abused, goodbye".His final was tomorrow. We had been at it for 5 hours that day, and our sessions would sometimes be longer. The kd was a trooper. I've never seen someone work so hard, and it was the only reason I tutored him for such shit compensation.My revenge was that he passed. I no longer tutor for free.

18.

... that her child got lice in Elementary school. Apparently it was all my fault that her child got "infected". This same parent complained to me that I was calling her child by a shortened version of her name (that the child asked me to use) instead of her full name.I'm sure I have more, but those are just from this year.