Parent-teacher meetings are pretty important. It gives the parents a chance to learn how their kids are doing, while also giving teachers a chance to get to know their students’ parents.
But, as many teachers can attest to, there are a lot of bizarre, questionable, and otherwise memorable meetings between them and their parents. These Redditors shared their own stories with the world.
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“I had a busy, well-known doctor bring in the nanny to the parent/teacher conference.” – ZenMoonstone
“Whenever I spoke directly to the mother she would say to the nanny, ‘Are you getting all this because you are the one that needs to be paying attention. By the time I get home I don’t want to have to deal with any of this.'”
“Had a meeting about a kid who wouldn’t turn anything in ever.” – nealbeast
“But of course according to parent definitely not the kid’s fault. Teachers screwing the kid over. Never got the instructions. Best excuse: someone broke into his locker and stole specific assignments.”
“The conversation basically devolved into something like this:”
“Parent: ‘We don’t appreciate you teachers, the school, or how you didn’t take the locker break in seriously.’
“Me: ‘We looked into the situation. Camera footage confirms no break-in ever occurred on the date your student told us it happened.’
“Parent: Enraged ‘So you’re telling me my child LIED about this?!?’
“Me: ‘Yes.'”
“Parent: Still enraged ‘Well how can you be so sure?? People break into cars all the time!'”
“Me: ‘Sure, but usually there’s also evidence like broken glass or other damage to the car, possible tools used in the break-in, valuables missing. You get the idea.’
“Eventually we moved on from that topic and by the end of the meeting accomplished exactly nothing.”
“I used to teach High School Art.” – PigeonGoddess
“The administration had this idea to have an evening where we all set up tables and parents went through their kid’s schedules and had a sort of ‘speed dating’ parent/teacher conference set up.
“Being that I taught art not a lot of kids were failing unless they just didn’t show go to class, so It was a mind-numbingly boring four hours for me as no one except a couple of sweet students stopped by to chat.”
“The very last block of the evening a mom and dad just drop into the folding chairs in front of my table. They both had arms full of make-up packets and they both just looked so defeated. The mom looked at me with tears in her eyes and just asked ‘What does my kid do wrong in your class?'”
“I was so surprised by her question because I honestly adored her son; he was one of my favorite students!”
“He completed every project on time and had a great personality; he constantly had me and the rest of the class in stitches! He was always the first to volunteer to help me out with any set up or clean up and went out of his way to say ‘hello’ to me, even on days he didn’t have my class.”
“I took great joy in telling his parents how he was an absolute bright spot in my day and watch a little bit of the sadness fall from their shoulders before they left for the night.”
“When the student came in the next day he gave me a giant hug and told me thank you for saying all the nice things about him.”
“I told him that I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true and that I hoped he treated every teacher the same way he treated me. He laughed a little and said he would work on it.”
“When I checked his grades at the end of the semester he was working hard to pull up all of his grades. By the end of the year, he passed nearly all of his classes.”
These kinds of stories just show how much of a difference a good teacher can make.
“I had a parent throw a chair at me once.” – FlyfishingThomas
“She believed that her son shouldn’t have to do homework. She believed him to be a genius.
“He wasn’t.”
And then there are stories like this, that make me lose my faith in humanity.
“I had a student who was a bit of a troublemaker. He liked to mess around a lot and it got to the point it was interfering with lessons.” – butterbell
“We have a meeting with his parents and all his teachers (normal at my school) just to see what was up and if there were any strategies the parents were using at home that could help us out.”
“The entire time the dad just keeps asking us to confirm that there’s something ‘wrong’ with his child.”
“No sir, he’s just acting like a regular 12-year-old boy. Turns out the parents were in a messy divorce after dad was having an affair with a much younger lady. Cue all the acting out and positive attention seeking* from the kid.”
Poor kid.
“I’ve been an elementary teacher for 14 years.” – graciella11
“A few years back during a regular parent/teacher conference, a student’s father listened intently to everything I had to say about his child. Then, he kindly and respectfully asked how his son was developing as a person.”
“Was he kind to others? How could his son grow as a leader?”
“Was he empathetic and attentive to others’ needs? Was he respectful to all adults? At the time it just blew me away.”
If only every parent could be like this (or at the very least, not delusional).
“I had a mother and father that wanted me to call their son over spring break and encourage him to do better.” – MsDgoteam
“I told them that I don’t want their son’s number, and I don’t want him to have mine. They asked me why, and I got to explain to them that their son asks me out every other day. They laughed. A lot.”
If I were that kid’s parent, I wouldn’t find it funny. Just saying.
“The mother brought her pet monkey. I live in Wales.” – NoICantShutUp
“People don’t have pet monkeys here, I thought the kid was winding me up saying they had one but sure enough, parents evening, along comes mum with a capuchin in a blue jumper lying along her arm.
“Afterwards I took a break and went for a coffee and saw the middle-aged, very sensible head running around going ‘Omg where is the monkey, I want to see it!'”
“The student wasn’t getting her way in class, so the parents set up a meeting with me and the principal to get me in trouble.” – GeneralLamarque
“The mother literally said, ‘she’s just so used to being the teacher’s pet, so it’s really not fair that she isn’t yours.’
“I didn’t get in trouble.”
Do parents think they don’t have to teach their kids life lessons?
“I had a parent-teacher conference with a child whose parents didn’t speak English.” – sofingclever
“She translated for me, and didn’t gloss over any of the problematic stuff I brought up. (I know at least enough of the language to know if that had happened).”
“It really made me think.”
“Yeah, this kid acts up from time to time, but she’s doing her best and is honest to a fault. It’s gotta be hard for all the immigrant families out there.”
“The one where mom came to conferences and used ‘what a good fundraiser!’ to market her MLM business to me.” – 2friedchknsAndaCoke
“Needless to say she was also the psychotic ‘why is my kid not the star’ parent later in the year.”
