20 Stories About Parents Who Seem to Think Manners Are Optional

If you’ve ever seen a dad let his son throw an “earthquake” sized tantrum in the middle of a restaurant without blinking an eye, or a mom cut in line with the excuse, “I have kids,” then you know that some adults seem to have passed parenting class... but failed manners class. In this article, we have collected stories from users who have encountered parents who have decided that the rules of coexistence are optional, which will make you laugh, feel outraged, and maybe feel grateful that your own parents were not so terrible.

“My father forgot to tell me that the renovators would be taking out the stairs today.”

• A student of mine (first grade) came to school every day without a jacket, and when I asked him about it, he told me his jacket was too small and his family couldn't afford a bigger one. When winter came, I raided the closet in the front office and found a donated jacket for him. He was lucky, and there was a brand new jacket with a matching hat and mittens, so I put them in a box I had lying around and put them in his backpack. They were a little big, so I was hoping he'd grow into them. I told him there was a present for him in his backpack, but to wait until he got home to open it, so as not to leave him vulnerable to questions and teasing from his classmates. The next day was warmer, so I wasn't shocked to see him without his coat. What was shocking, however, was that his mother showed up at the pickup in the family SUV... wearing THE jacket. I had to have a talk with the poor guy and arrange for a "break jacket" for him, which he left in his cubby so his mom wouldn't take another one. @starmon3y / Reddit
• I was in a grocery store, and I saw a girl, probably 5 years old, walk across the apple display, take a bite out of every apple in the bottom row, look around, and then put the apple back with the bite out of sight. I stood there with my jaw dropped, waiting for her parents to do something. Finally, the woman saw me, looked at the child and said, "Mija, no!!!" and promptly turned around and let her continue. @Unknown author / Reddit
• I had this one parent of a child in my Girl Scout troop who was just awful. When we first met her child, she asked questions about everything, didn't listen to instructions (and then asked questions about what she didn't understand), and was generally clueless. Then we met her mom and it all made sense. The first time we met her, she was trying to sell us life insurance (that was her job), and in the first 5 minutes of talking to her, she started about 4 topics, but never finished any of them. She drove around in an uninsured car (the irony!) and often offered to pick up and drop off other people's kids. She was also always late for everything; last to drop off, last to pick up. But here's where the story gets even worse: I think she homeschooled her kids. In 1st grade, she put her child in public school. Every time she had a problem with the school her child was attending, she would pull her child out of the school and move him to another school. It got to the point where the child went to 4 different schools in less than a year - her learning was way behind and it was hard to make & keep friends. I feel so sorry for whatever poor teachers this mother had to deal with. @Unknown author / Reddit

“Parents made me come to school on senior skip day.”

• The most ridiculous experience I had was with a plagiarism case. A kid had ripped his entire essay off the net. I googled it, found the page he got the stuff from, and printed it out so the kid could see that the two copies were word for word. He vehemently denied it, so I called his mother in for an interview. He showed her the submitted paper and the printout of the web page, and her response was that her dopey 15-year-old son had actually written the Wikipedia entry on the Treaty of Versailles, so it wasn't plagiarism at all. Nothing like a supportive parent... @nostalgiaplatzy / Reddit
• A little girl about 5 years old emptied a 4 pint bottle of milk all over the floor of the supermarket where I worked, and her mother stood there watching. But worst of all, the little girl managed to place the empty bottle in the center of a 2 meter wide puddle, and the mother looked at me and said, "You need to clean up a bit." Incredibly rude. @7PurpleAvocados / Reddit
• Kindergarten. I had a class stuffed animal that I sent home with a student every weekend. Our class pet was a turtle, and the school mascot was the astronauts, so I had a stuffed turtle astronaut named Hubble. This kids mom RAGED at me that they were apparently related to a famous astronaut (which was actually true) and I should OBVIOUSLY name the stuffed turtle after HER KID. Same mom expected me to let her hold his birthday party during a school day, in the classroom. Showed up unannounced, with elaborate decorations, cake, and a fully catered meal. Somehow, she sneaked past the front office and actually made it into my room before admin came and intervened. She was allowed to set up on the playground instead, but we still kept our allotted play time, so she only had 20 minutes, and most of the kids didn't want to give up their play time, so they basically partied on their own. @Random-bookworm / Redit

“When you spend quality time with your 7-year-old son working on his dinosaur diorama for school, but your wife comes home and says it looks terrible.”

• I teach at a preschool, and one day a parent was called because her child had thrown up. The mother showed up an hour later, just as he was starting to vomit again into the tiny toilet in our classroom. I was taking care of him, encouraging him to go to the toilet, rubbing his back, etc. The mother comes marching into the room and tells me to “back off, I need to take his temperature NOW.” I very politely told her not to move him right now as he was actively vomiting into the toilet. She then used her shoulder to push me out of the way so she could grab her child and stick a thermometer in his ear. As soon as she gets it in, he vomits all over the floor. She turns to me and says, “Wow, that’s a big mess, you really should have kept him in the toilet.” @GuinessForDinner / Reddit
• This was when I was about 19 years old. There was a bowling alley that had a pretty nice pool hall/arcade that I used to go to with my friends. A friend and I were playing Mortal Kombat II, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye a kid about 4 or 5 watching us. A few minutes later, a woman comes up to us and asks, “Where is the little boy who was watching you play?” We answer that we don’t know. She huffed and said, “Thank you!” and stormed off to find her son. Apparently, I, a long-haired teenager playing a video game, was supposed to be babysitting this unknown child. @Philthy42 / Reddit
• I was at a wedding last year where there was a ~4 year old flower girl and her mom was there during the photos. One of the groomsmen told her that he was going to have his first child in a few months, and this got the mom going on about how awful it was, how she couldn’t wait for daycare on Monday, how she would have reconsidered having kids if she knew what she was doing now, etc. (It should be noted that the child is a very sweet girl and hasn’t made a fuss at all, and there is a very supportive family there). I was just a little dumbfounded because it was obvious that the mother was complaining about her child like that, right in front of her daughter, all the time. And while ok, a 4 year old may not fully understand, there is no way she is not going to grow up knowing that her mom basically doesn’t want her but can’t send her back. Broke my heart. @Andromeda321 / Reddit

“My mother burned all my drawings.”

• I’m a middle school teacher. Students had gone on a field trip to a trampoline park as a reward for good attendance. While there, one of the students stole a rubber bracelet. Not a big deal, but he stole it anyway, so the principal contacted the father. The man called back and left a voicemail basically accusing the principal and the rest of the staff of theft and saying, “How many pens do you walk out of this school with? How many pens do you walk out of this school with every day? My tax money!” (Anyone who is a teacher can see how funny this is, because of course we provide our own pens!) @6roumyeskl / Reddit
• In a movie theater, sitting in the fourth or fifth row with friends. The movie is rated R. Two kids, maybe 4 and 7 years old, are in the audience. They start playing and running back and forth at the front of the theater. The 4 year old falls down and starts crying, the parent doesn’t bother to get up. My friend finally went to comfort the child after a few minutes. The mother never got up. @TheRedWeddingPlanner / Reddit
• We had a parent come in who was upset that one of her children’s teachers was going on maternity leave. We had a meeting with the administration and all of her kids teachers at her request. She went on a rant about how this would affect her kids education blah blah. Then she finally revealed that the reason she was there was because she wanted her child to change teachers. She accused her child’s teacher of being pregnant! She was not. She started screaming at this poor teacher, saying she was lying about not being pregnant. She stood up and pointed to her stomach and told our principal that she was obviously lying. It was crazy. Lots of tears from the teacher. Our principal escorted her out, still berating the teacher. @guitartext88 / Reddit

“My dad does this to avoid cutting pepperoni.”

• I work at a bowling alley and we have a concession for food and such. The window to access the food is open and you are supposed to bring the food up to the counter and then pay for it. So I saw this toddler, 4-6 years old, take a candy bar and run back to his parents. I wanted to stop him, but a kid had just thrown up and I had to clean it up. I forgot about the incident until this child’s mother (age 30-40) came back and secretly took another candy bar for her child. I confront her, appalled by her actions, and ask her about it, and she honestly replies, “Oh, I didn’t know we had to pay for it.” She then just happened to have no money and forced her 60-70 year old mother to pay for her. @Sakkyoku-Sha / Reddit
• A few weeks ago I arrived at the bus station and saw a woman lying on the sidewalk with some people around her. Apparently she had had an epileptic seizure and they were waiting for the ambulance. Then an old lady walked by with her grandson. The boy was worried about the woman and asked his grandmother what was wrong. The old lady said, “This is what happens when you disobey.” It took me a while to realize what she meant, terrible parenting! @Unknown author / Reddit
• This was at Disneyland. A mother is waiting in line for the bathroom with her daughter (~4 years old). The little girl is fidgeting like her bladder is going to explode. There’s a separate handicapped restroom (no gender sign) with no line and no one approaching, so they use it. Of course, when they are finished a few minutes later, a guy is waiting outside the door with his son in a wheelchair. As they exit, this guy just explodes and starts berating this woman and her daughter for using a resource not meant for them and generally trying to shame them in public. Of course, they are embarrassed and try to walk away-but he keeps badgering them. He ends up yelling something along the lines of “I hope one of your kids gets crippled so you know what it feels like.” It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen a parent do. @Uptownfunkmonkey / Reddit

After reading these stories, we don't know which is worse: the children with bad attitudes or the parents who raised them that way. The truth is that rudeness is contagious, and some people carry it around with them like a college degree. Want to see more outrageous anecdotes? You can read this article here with more stories of people who seem to have skipped manners class.