Teachers Are Sharing The Absolute Worst Excuses They've Ever Heard And They're Really, Really Bad

"My dog ate my homework" just doesn't cut it anymore.

Have you ever come up with a wild excuse for not finishing your homework?

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Turns out, you're not alone. When Reddit user u/Xplosion101 asked teachers, "What is the most ridiculous excuse for unfinished homework that you've ever heard?" the answers were laugh-out-loud funny.

1. Their grandma stole it.

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"A kid (high school) claimed that he couldn’t do his homework because his grandmother wouldn’t give him back his textbook...which she had taken in retaliation for his theft of her wooden leg." —u/TrufflesDuVall

2. Their parrot flew into a fire.

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"One kid told me his pet parrot flew onto the fireplace and caught on fire. It then proceeded to fly around the sitting room, and the dad tried to hit it with a frying pan because he was afraid the curtains would go up in flames if the parrot went close to them. The dad hit it into the kitchen and then grabbed it and threw it under a tap 'because you have to throw a parrot under a tap if it’s on fire.' He then said with all the drama, he’d forgotten to do his homework. Of course I let him off because it was the most creative story he’d come up with all year." —u/geoffraffe

3. A student left his homework in a room that he then forgot existed.

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"The student claimed he put it in a room in his house. He then forgot the room existed. He was at a loss to explain where his homework was. He was upset to think he must have imagined doing it. He apologized to me.

"The next week, to his amazement, he 'found' the room, and more amazingly, he found his homework. He handed it in that week.

"Now, this may seem like nonsense, but it turns out he had an operation to remove a tumor from his brain when he was 10. One of the outcomes was a strange side effect that for a short period, he could utterly forget a room or more in his house.

"True story. Confirmed by his mother and sister." —u/ledgerdemaine

4. A sneaky kid "forgot" to submit his work.

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"We use Canvas, and a helicopter mom swears she sees her son submit work, but I never get it. I also require students to create a Google folder and share it with me so I have access to all docs. This student never did this. I pointed it out to Mom and she had me reshow him how to do this in class.

"Once I could see his Google folder, I saw that only one of the four assignments he 'submitted' was done. I let Mom know and she grounded him. Ahhh, sweet revenge.

"I’ve been emailing back and forth with this mom for so long! She blamed Canvas for everything, and I knew he was lying. Just glad she finally realized as well." —u/daviscait

5. A wild duck flew in and ate their homework.

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"My son couldn't hand his homework in because...a duck flew into our kitchen, panicked, and landed on the kitchen table. Despite her panic, the duck spotted some Rice Krispies and started to eat them out of the bowl, splashing milk and cereal all over the homework. Then...the duck grabbed the homework page (I assume 'cause it was covered in cereal) and flew off with it. Not sure the teacher ever believed us." —u/suddenthing

6. The file was just not available.

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"Lately, it's always 'I couldn't access the file' OR, my personal favorite, 'the [student-facing interface] was acting up.' Like, mh-mmm, okay, but you have my email, I have a no-questions-asked extension policy for every assignment, and I assigned this to you five days ago." —u/insignificantnexus

7. It was in Mexico.

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"I taught instrumental music down in South Texas, so I basically never gave any sort of homework outside of practicing. I gave the sixth-grade kiddos a super-basic theory sheet to complete that was due back in two days, since I had a dentist appointment the next day. As I’m collecting the sheets, a trombone kid tells me, 'My grandma stole my homework in Mexico and wouldn’t give it back.'

"Turns out they were visiting his grandparents over the border outside Matamoros, and his grandma really wanted something of his to hang on her refrigerator, so she took the homework he had just finished and put it up. Kid protested, but she wouldn’t relent, so he snapped a pic as proof. Graded the sheet from the picture. Kid got an A. I got a story." —u/BlooooContra

8. She broke her back.

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"'I broke my back' — she said as she walked toward my desk. I believe she was going to give a different excuse or at least mention a different body part, but the panic overwhelmed her and she went with her back. Both sadly and hilariously, I couldn't help but give her an 'Are you dumb?' face." —u/ElZariguea

9. A coffee disaster ensued.

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"This reminds me of one of my chem lab professors. She was passing back lab reports, and when she got to the girl whose lab station was next to mine, she asked her, 'Do you like coffee?' The student replied that, yes, she does, so the professor said, 'Good! Then I hope you don't mind that I spilled coffee all over your lab report,' and handed her a very brown and crinkly stack of papers." —u/theknightmanager

10. Their cat ate their homework.

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"One of my classmates said that their dog ate their homework. She has a cat...and the homework was online." —u/Cap_ultimate

11. Their dog actually...ate their homework.

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"I remember in kindergarten, my dog actually ate my homework. I don't think the teacher knew I was telling the truth." —u/DJEFFF900

12. Their dad sold it!

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"'I did the homework the day you gave it to us [which was one week ago], except that I did it in an old rough copybook of mine, and yesterday when I got back from school, Dad had sold all of our old stationeries for petty cash. I was so mad at my dad, I didn't do my homework to teach him a lesson. Could you please call home and tell him about this?'" —the_angshu_man

13. The teacher's kid tore up the students' homework.

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"My toddler once completely shredded about five kids' assignments I'd taken home to mark. Luckily, they were able to reprint them for me, but it was a little embarrassing." —u/HappiHappiHappi

14. They burned their workbook at Boy Scouts.

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"I had a math workbook that was basically all of our assignments and homework throughout the whole year. We would do the assignments and turn in the workbooks to be graded, and get them back. I hated math.

"I went on a camping trip with the Boy Scouts after we finished all the work in that stupid workbook for the year, and I gleefully tossed my completed workbook into a fire, let it burn up for a few seconds, then fished its charred remains out before it was completely destroyed and stuck it in a ziplock bag as some kind of keepsake.

"Anyway, we got back to school on Monday for the last week before summer break, and the math teacher announced that we all needed to turn in our completed workbooks for a final grade on them. My classmates who were on the camping trip with me immediately looked at me, because they knew what happened to my workbook.

"Anyway, I ended up handing the teacher the clear plastic bag with the still-identifiable remains of my workbook. I probably explained that I hadn't known we would need to turn it in again. I don't remember what specifically happened with it, but I didn't get it trouble." —u/Th3Element05

15. A squirrel went and defecated on their homework.

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"Well, my math books were defecated on by squirrels. The teacher didn't even take them home; they came in the pivot windows (I think during half term) and couldn't get out immediately, so they went to the toilet everywhere." —u/espardale

16. An actual broken arm prevented them from doing their homework.

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"One of my classmates in fifth grade came to school with a cast and said his homework wasn’t done because he broke his arm and was at the hospital all night. He actually broke his dominant arm, and the teacher told him that that was no excuse for not completing his homework." —u/Www-MtnDew-com

17. A cat gave birth and ruined their homework.

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"I heard the excuse, 'My cat gave birth on my homework' — and then they proceeded to share a picture of a whole litter of slimy kittens on a pile of sheets." —u/Joelymolee

Do you have any excuses for not doing your homework that actually worked? Let us know in the comments!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.