Well, back to school season is officially upon us! Teachers and kiddos alike are heading back into the classroom for another year of memories, learning...and, unfortunately, dealing with entitled parents.
While you might think working with students is the hardest part of being an educator, a lot of teachers have actually revealed that the parents are where the real trouble lies. I asked the teachers of BuzzFeed to share their worst experiences with entitled parents, and I am torn between feeling immense second-hand embarrassment and rage because teachers are definitely not paid enough for this shit. Here are 28 of their entitled parent horror stories:
1. "I taught virtually for three years during/after COVID. I had a parent that enrolled their child in our 100% VIRTUAL school, and expected me to drive to their house to teach their student. Every day. During the pandemic. She was mad that 'I wasn’t committed to her child’s education.'"
—Anonymous
2. "A child did not turn in an assignment, so naturally, he received a poor grade on it. His mother then arrived at the school, furious, and accused me of harboring a personal vendetta against her son, having an unfair grading system, and hating children. She concluded her terrible recital by picking up my iced coffee and throwing it in my face. I later learned that she is the PTA president."
—Anonymous
3. "I had a parent file a formal complaint with the school district because my husband refused to hand my phone to me, and I refused to take her calls while I was in labor with my second child. She said it was unprofessional of me to not take her calls, because I had plenty of time. She also claimed I was in breach of contract because I had originally scheduled my maternity leave for my due date, and my baby was six weeks early. She claimed it would be detrimental to her son's education for me to be out the first few weeks of school and that I shouldn't be allowed maternity leave. I was literally in the hospital for an emergency c-section, because it wasn't at the originally scheduled time."
—Anonymous
4. "When I was an art teacher, a second grade girl wore her fanciest (from Target) dress to my art class. Wednesdays were always her class's art day. A fancy dress wasn't the smartest thing to wear to school in general, but especially on a Wednesday. As groups of students were taking their turns bringing their paintings from their table to the drying racks, she got up when it wasn't her turn, took off her smock early, and plowed right into another kid and his painting. Shockingly, she wasn't covered in paint, just a few splotches on her dress. I dabbed them off with water until they were mostly gone and sent her on her way back to her regular classroom. I got the nastiest email of my life the next day demanding that I pay $150 for the (actually no more than $20) dress that was 'completely ruined.'"
"I CC'ed my principal and the student's classroom teacher when I informed the parent that I would absolutely not be paying to replace the dress she had been allowed to wear on art day. Mom then demanded that we connect her with the parents of the student whose painting she had run into so she could hassle them for the money. We refused that, too, but I welcomed mom to come in for a conference with me so we could go over a plan to avoid this kind of situation in the future. Mom had never shown up for anything at school before, so she unsurprisingly declined that offer, but never sent her daughter to school in a fancy outfit on Wednesdays again."
—Anonymous
5. "I had a parent who yelled at me for an hour and a half in an administrator's office for giving her daughter participation credit, which increased her daughter’s grade. The entitled girl told her parents that she didn’t understand how participation was calculated, although the formula was in Google classroom and in my syllabus. When I was finally allowed to speak, I showed her mom statistical evidence that the participation credit increased her daughter’s grade by 3%, and therefore, she received an A rather than an A-. At that point she stopped yelling at me, but threw in that her daughter and her friends were the elite members of the school who were the best and brightest, and that I was lucky to have them in my class. The administrator left me alone with this mom rather than backing me up."
—Anonymous
6. "I was wearing a new pair of boots to class that were really nice. One of my ninth graders asked me where I had gotten them, so I told her the name of the shop and that I was friends with the manager who had special ordered them for me. She asked how much they cost, and I told her. The next day, she came in, handed me a bunch of bills, and told me to go to the store and order the same boots for her. I told her that she knew where the shop was and could get them herself, but that I would let the manager know she was coming. A few days later, the principal called me in. The girl's mother had complained that I was being 'uncooperative and unhelpful.' I told him what had happened and that I wasn't going to turn into her personal shopper."
—Anonymous
7. "I was once summoned to the principal's office because a parent called to complain that I didn't laugh at her 5th-grade child's poorly made-up joke. I didn't question the joke or comment; I just didn't laugh. I thought my principal was punking me."
—Anonymous
8. "I was a brand new high school art teacher, 21 years old, teaching a senior art class where some of the students were already 18. I left the class for a moment to get some materials from the adjoining art supply closet. When I walked back into the classroom, one of my full-grown, 18-year-old male students was standing on a desk with his pants down. I guess it was some sort of dare — he was a very popular student, on the football team and all that. I wrote him up and reported the incident. As punishment, he was barred from playing in the football game scheduled for the following Saturday."
"His mother turned up in my classroom a day later and started screaming at me that I was going to ruin her son’s life since there might be a scout at the next game. She said that I should be fired and that I was a horrible person. It wasn’t even me who set the punishment — that came from the principal. I was reduced to tears and had to hide in the supply closet for a little while before going back to class."
—Anonymous
9. "I was three months pregnant with my first child, and I hadn't told anyone yet. I ended up getting very sick suddenly and was hospitalized for a few weeks. During that time, I received irate emails from a parent who claimed I had shouted at their child on a school trip and humiliated her (I'm not a shouter to begin with). For some reason, I emailed back from my hospital bed and explained that I wasn't on the trip and there must have been a mix-up somewhere. She then called the principal to tell her that I was accusing her child of lying. The principal told her the same thing that I had, which didn't go down well. At the end of the year, she came and gave me a big hug and thanked me for all I had done for her daughter that year. Bizarre!"
—Anonymous
10. "At my former elementary school, I was required to do an after school chorus two days a week for no additional pay. It was supposed to run from 3 to 4 p.m., but I had to watch them starting at 2:35 while they had their snacks from home. One Tuesday, a mom didn't show up to pick up her kid. She didn't answer emails or texts. By 5, I took the child to the office where our assistant principal was working. We were the only ones left. We gave the child a snack around 6 p.m. and called local police and state patrol to make sure the mother wasn't in a hospital. She eventually showed up after 7 p.m. and said, 'I'm late, I know. Just needed a little 'me' time and went to the spa for the day and lost track of time.' Then she proceeded to berate us for feeding the child out of the vending machines. She said she cared too much about her daughter's health to give her junk. Riiiiight."
—Anonymous
11. "A parent called to ask that, as we were preparing the following school year's calendar, we not plan events on a certain date so there would be no conflicts with her daughter's 16th birthday party."
—Anonymous
12. "Had two pre-k boys have accidents in their clothes on the same day. I accidentally sent the wrong wet clothes home with each boy. One mother blasted me for this error, stating her son's clothes were very nice and the jeans alone had cost $70. She had sent them for dry cleaning to create a nice seam down the front and refused to take her son's actual clothes when returned to her from the other parent, because they had only been washed. She demanded that I buy him new $70 jeans. When I refused, she went to the principal, who also refused. Last I heard, she was going to the superintendent?"
—Anonymous
13. "Every year, the national SCA (Student Conservation Association) holds a 'Reflections' contest. A topic is given, such as, 'What one thing would you do to change the world?' There are many ways to enter: literature, film, song, art, etc. I taught 6th-grade English, so I was often tasked with judging on the school level. One year, I had a boy whose mother was just unbearable. Her son could do no wrong in her eyes, and she expected him to be able to retake tests if she didn't like the grade. She was the worst helicopter mom EVER! The other teachers and I all knew she did his homework, too. When the SCA contest came around, her son submitted an UNBELIEVABLE poem for an 11-year-old to write."
"This kid had a D in my class, so I was skeptical. I called him up to my desk and asked him what a word meant, claiming I'd never heard it before. I pointed to the word 'luminescence' and asked him how to pronounce it. He shrugged his shoulders. I asked him what it meant, and he gave another shrug. Needless to say, I didn't advance his poem to the next round. His mother was LIVID when 'his' entry wasn't chosen. She accused me of everything under the sun. Then, she insisted we meet with the principal, who already knew the deal. She screamed, 'There's no WAY another poem was better than mine. I mean his. I'm so upset I can't even THINK straight!' She tried backtracking, but it was too late. Funny thing is that I LIKED her son. It was his MOTHER who stood in the way of his success!"
—Anonymous
14. "I teach 5th grade. One year, I had two parents come up to me first thing in the morning and very loudly tell me their daughter got her first period. Then they said, 'So, obviously, you’ll be needing to get some pads to make sure she is covered for the rest of the year.' Like?? I’m clearly not going to force this poor girl to free bleed at 10, but it definitely shouldn’t be my responsibility to buy her supplies. I did, and I still feel gross about the entitlement years later."
—Anonymous
15. "My co-teacher and I had a mother schedule a meeting with us to request we tell her daughter (our student) that her dad was dying of cancer and had a short time to live. Please note that the child lived with both her parents. When we declined, she complained about us to the principal. The principal then attempted to convince us to deliver this news. She claimed this fell into the category of 'building positive relationships with the kids.' It was a flat-out no for us."
—Anonymous
16. "I once had a parent send an angry email that her son wasn’t invited to a private sleepover/birthday party over the weekend. She wanted me to look into the situation and find out why this would happen. The same kid never came to school and rarely turned in homework."
17. "As a PE teacher, I sent out a first day 'welcome to my class' letter to my students. In the letter, I requested that students who use an inhaler for asthma bring an extra inhaler to leave in my office in a locked cabinet, so that in the event of an asthma attack, I would have access to their inhaler without having to search for it in their locker, backpack, purse, etc. One parent felt that this request was inappropriate since I was not a doctor and proceeded to explain this fact to all the other parents she knew, telling them not to follow my 'demands.' She did all this despite the fact that her child did not have any asthma diagnosis nor an inhaler."
—Anonymous
18. "I had a parent who was in a managerial position within social work and thought she was MY boss as well. There were four or five times throughout the school year where she would message me TELLING me to go to the parking lot to look for her phone charger, because she thought her son dropped it while getting out of the car. I never wanted to cause a scene, so I would just tell her I went to look and it wasn't there."
19. "One of my third graders handed me $20 and told me her mom said to use the money to buy her a birthday cake. She was such a sweet student that I gave up my lunch break to drive four miles to the store and buy her a cake. The cake was $19.99. During class, I had to cut it and serve it to my 30 students. The next day, the student told me her mom said she wanted her change. To this day, I don't know how I managed to keep my composure as I handed her the single penny."
—Anonymous
20. "I teach high school AP Language. After the birth of my first son, I had several parents call me at the hospital (on my hospital room's landline, since they didn't have my cell number) to complain about the loss of learning my 'thoughtless' and 'ill-planned' due date had created. Evidently, I SHOULD have planned my child's birth for the beginning of summer break instead of early fall. Then, these 'concerned' parents created an informal committee, choosing a doctor dad as their spokesperson. It was his job to inform me, my principal, and the school superintendent that, medically, I only needed two weeks of recovery and that the parents expected my quick return. It was made clear that these students were the children of the community's socioeconomic elite; as such, they paid more taxes and therefore funded our salaries."
"I did end up returning to school after four weeks because I'd run out of my accumulated paid sick days. However, if I had life to live over, I would have invoked Family Medical Leave and extended my maternity leave for as long as possible. Entitled parents have ruined the teaching profession for me."
—Anonymous
21. "When I was teaching preschool, we had one family notorious for bringing their girls in while sick. They'd give them Tylenol to mask fever, drop them off, then be 'unavailable' the rest of the day (both parents were top executives). I worked the morning shift, and one day, the dad came in to drop off the younger daughter, who was 2. She was screaming in pain, holding her arm, and wouldn’t let me near her (she usually ran into my arms). He said she fell out of bed that morning but was fine. I refused to let him drop her off until she was checked by a doctor. It was only after I told him it was a liability issue that he consented. Poor child had a broken collarbone. He got her assessed, then brought her back, and dropped her off. She was in horrible pain and miserable all day. The director let her hang out in her office for the rest of the week instead of being surrounded by 14 other rambunctious toddlers."
—Anonymous
22. "I had a middle school student who would have a tantrum by throwing herself on the ground, followed by much cursing and screaming. I spent a lot of time getting her behavior under control by setting limits and relationship building. One day, the mother came to school to complain that we were not doing enough for her child. I explained that her daughter's behavior had greatly improved and she was actually doing very well. The mom looked at me with outrage and said, 'Well, that's great that she's doing fine here, but what am I supposed to do with her when she's at home?' I had to gently remind her that the school could not raise her child for her. The mother left in a huff. I guess she didn't like my answer."
—Anonymous
23. "A parent called the principal to complain that I wouldn’t schedule a conference on the most convenient day for him, because he was a very busy, important executive and had limited time to spend at school. The day he requested was Thanksgiving. The principal told him that wasn’t going to happen and to try to rearrange his schedule."
—Anonymous
24. "My first year teaching was at a very affluent private Christian school. As such, entitlement was RAMPANT. One day I had one of my 6th-grade male students come to class incredibly upset. I pulled him aside before the bell rang to ask him what was wrong, and he said that at lunch a female classmate had mocked his ADHD and told his table of friends that he was 'off his meds' that day, so he would be bouncing off the walls and would probably get the class in trouble. His class was a rambunctious one, but essentially, his fear was that if his class wasn’t on their best behavior and say (for example) lost recess privileges, all his friends would blame him. So this poor kid was incredibly anxious about his behavior and not getting his class in trouble."
"Making fun of a diagnosed learning disability is obviously no laughing matter, but since I didn’t overhear the actual conversation, I didn’t want to level any false accusations, so I chose to just observe the class's behavior. Sure enough, there was snickering, pointing at the boy, blaming him when the class got loud, etc. Under the advice of my partner teacher, I pulled the girl in question aside later during recess and asked for her version of the story. She feigned confusion, as if she had no idea what I was talking about. So, I decided to talk to some other students, including her twin sister, whom she was incredibly close to. All of the other students including her sister corroborated the boy's story. Her sister even went so far as to say that she warned her twin that she was being mean to the boy.
Despite all this, since I didn’t overhear the conversation myself, I didn’t want to punish the girl based on student hearsay. Instead, I addressed the class as a whole and talked to them about the weight of our words and how even an innocent comment can sometimes be hurtful. I didn’t use a single student's name, nor did I specifically mention the event from lunch. It was just a general conversation about kindness and choosing our words wisely.
That night, I got a NASTY phone call from the father of the twin girls, telling me that I shamed his daughter and falsely accused her of mocking a student's illness. He said his daughter was so embarrassed and felt bullied by me and targeted in class. He then proceeded to write me a LONG email with my principal CC’d on it, accusing me of bullying his daughter and flat-out saying that I must have been bullied as a child and was taking out my pent-up trauma on his innocent child. He said I was a joke of an educator and a toxic influence in my classroom.
My principal called me in to his office the next morning and allowed me to share the events that transpired from my perspective. My partner teacher corroborated my version and insisted I had done nothing wrong. Despite all this, my principal told me I needed to fall on my sword and apologize to the girl and the father, since he was the school's largest donor."
—Anonymous
25. "I'm a third-grade teacher. I once had a student who had a lot of behavioral issues, including mocking classmates, interrupting discussions not involving him, and temper tantrums. His parents acknowledged his misbehavior, saying it mirrored what they saw at home. They wanted to observe how I handled their son in class in hopes of gaining some pointers to help them at home. The only thing is, they did not want their son to know they were in class to observe him. They suggested I move bookshelves away from the wall to make a hiding place for them, because nobody would notice moved bookshelves, yeah. As they lined up a few other requests regarding the seating in the hiding place and their need for breaks, they realized on their own that this scenario was never going to work."
—Anonymous
26. "We were holding a 504 meeting for a middle school student with significant behavior issues. His father blamed the school for his son's behavior and said it was our fault, because we wouldn't let his son walk home during lunch for 'his smoke break.' The father wanted an accommodation written into his 13-year-old son's 504 plan that his son would be allowed to go home to smoke weed, because that would help with his behavior. Obviously, that 'accommodation' was not put into place."
—Anonymous
27. "I taught middle and high school at a private sports academy and had a constant stream of entitled students and parents. The one that takes the cake is absolutely the time that a parent insisted it was my fault that her middle schooler plagiarized a project. Her reasoning? Because I hadn’t required a rough draft. Mind you, this was a project in place of a unit test, and I was generous and only failed him on the subsections that were cut/pasted from Wikipedia, while giving credit for all the other pieces of the project. And to make matters worse, my administration BACKED HER UP! They forced me to allow the student to resubmit, only to have him plagiarize again. When my administration made me give him a third chance, I knew I was done teaching. I loved most of my students more than I can explain, but I couldn’t handle the bullshit and horrible pay."
—Anonymous
28. And finally, "One year I was using the Remind app (text messaging without using your phone number) to communicate with parents. One mom would text me often, wanting phone numbers of families to set up play dates. When I informed her due to HIPPA that I couldn’t give personal information out, she proceeded to tell me to set play dates up on her child’s behalf. I passed along her number to the requested families instead. She would get upset, saying that I wasn’t doing my job because nobody was calling her for play dates."
"The last straw was when I informed parents via email that I was going to be out for two weeks due to emergency surgery, but that I had a wonderful substitute teacher lined up for the class. Knowing I was in the hospital, she would text me often via Remind and let me know how horrible her son’s experience was at school, due to the substitute teacher. She told me to hurry back. I deleted Remind that day."
—Anonymous
Teachers of BuzzFeed, do you have an entitled parent horror story like these? If so, tell us about it in the comments below or via this 100% anonymous form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.