As of: February 6, 2024, 5:13 a.m
By: Michelle Anskeit
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“My student had lied to her mother and told her that I couldn’t read to justify why she had failed the test.”
Have you ever been to a parents' evening or had a parent-teacher discussion?
Then you probably know that in many cases such situations can be quite unpleasant for both parties.
For example, as a teacher you have to talk about the strange things you have had to take away from the students and as a parent there may be really valid reasons to complain.
Both are of course completely justified and make sense, but that doesn't mean that everyone is always aware of it.
This happens especially when parents come into play who are a little over-motivated... or not motivated enough.
Under u/TheLegend1125
's Reddit post,
teachers have shared their experiences with exactly these parents and all I can say is: Please don't follow an example.
1. "After two really stressful conferences, I had a conversation with the parents of a star student, so I assumed that his parents would be just as great as their child."
"I was wrong.
Shortly before the conversation they had decided to get a divorce.
They spent the entire conference arguing about who would have to take their child.
More than once in my career I have wanted to adopt a child and hers was at the top of the list.
When I saw her son again a few years later, he was the same confident, considerate and intelligent boy."
-happychallahday
2. “There was a conversation that was both bad and good.
One mother had blamed me for her child getting bad grades, which happens quite often.”
“I actually really liked this student, he was just damn lazy.
He then joined the conversation and said, 'Mom, don't blame Mr. X.
You never tell me at home to do my homework'.
She then got angry, but she couldn't say much more about it."
-illini02
3. “One parent was a lawyer and wanted to question me all the time like I was on the witness stand.
After that encounter, I wasn’t sure if this person was really good at their job.”
-chronopoly
My news
Italy: 22 degrees in South Tyrol, bathing weather in Sicily - and blooming mimosas as a bad omen
Mass pile-up on the Brenner motorway: thick fog causes debris to be read
Horrible incident on an Italian holiday island: Girl (13) raped in front of her boyfriend
“Would turn around immediately”: Café wants to get rid of guests after 20 minutesread
Without drinking: man constantly smells of alcohol – doctors diagnose rare syndrome reading
Huge crack causes the steepest ski slope in the Alps to collapse - read “Never seen before in 30 years”.
4. “A student complained that I was biased when assigning grades.
She and her father later sent emails to me, the principal, the school board and Barack Obama.”
“Obama was president at the time, but no, he didn't respond.”
-dkl415
5. “I had identical twins in class who had very similar names (kind of like Jimmy and Timmy).”
“One always behaved well and had friends, the other often disrupted class and was rather withdrawn.
But their grades were more or less the same, so I couldn't tell their files apart.
I couldn't remember which was which.
So I had to try to use the parents' body language to find out whether my assumptions about the child were correct."
-ligamentary
6. “During my teacher training course, I had to have a parent-teacher interview with the woman with whom my father had cheated on my mother.”
“Her daughter did great in class and I really liked her.
But I don’t have anything nice to say about the mother…”
-Anonymous
7. “I work as an English teacher.
At my very first parent-teacher meeting, a parent stormed in and asked me in a completely accusatory manner: 'Can you read?'"
“I was totally taken aback.
It was a strange conversation in which I, as a 21-year-old, tried to prove that I couldn't do my job without being able to read.
It turned out that her daughter, and therefore my student, had lied to her mother and told her that I couldn't read to justify why she had failed her first test.
The mother believed her child.
I don't think I've ever been so speechless."
-LavenderandSteel
8. "I wasn't the teacher, I was a student, but I remember seeing a woman walking out of school huffing and insulting."
“A few minutes later I learned that she had hit a teacher over the head with her shoe because the teacher and the school were to blame for her son failing.”
-10000000000000000008
9. “I had a student who liked to terrorize others, including teachers.
I was asked to attend the parent-teacher conference.”
“The two principals were also present.
The student's mother began the conference by pointing at the principals and saying, 'I make more than you, I make more money than you.
They won't tell me how to raise my son." The session was over shortly after."
-10spicymeatball10
10. “I teach theater and a mother once told me how lucky I was to have taught her child.”
"She then handed me a signed photo of her daughter with the words, 'This will be worth a lot someday.'"
-Anonymous
11. "I knew a mother wrote all the essays her son was supposed to write (she's been doing this for years)."
"I told her in the parent meeting that the work didn't seem to be his, but that given the assignment, it was so poorly done that it wasn't worth checking for plagiarism."
-Snuffy1717
12. "One parent told me that if their son didn't do his chores, it was at least half my fault, since I gave them to him."
-Honkey_McCracker
13. “Any meeting where parents openly speak ill of their children.
It’s even worse when they do this in front of the child.”
-2articul8
If you're currently shaking with embarrassment, then let's get on with it!
With these 17 tweets about parents' evenings that everyone with children can understand.
The answers have been translated and some have been shortened and/or edited for clarity.