Crazy inconsiderate parents

[Jennasis]

So tonight I held a Halloween party for my students. We had a grand time, candy, hot dogs, soda, cupcakes, brownies and all of them and our horses dressed up for the occassion. My favorite was the kid who dressed up one of the horses as a football player, complete with customized Jersey and a paper-mache helmet! (note, in case you don't know, I have a horse farm and am a riding instructor).

The party started at 5pm and all the kids and parents were told to we would be done at 8pm. We had a few stragglers left who were still here at 8:30 but their parnets were helping me clean up the post-party mess. Two of the little girls (12 y/o) who were having a sleepover were just picked up....at 9:30!

I was shocked and more than a bit livid. I had them call several times to find out what the hold up was. The calls home went unanswered at first, but finally mom picked up (I could hear the call) and chastised the kid "What do you WANT??" The id asked where she was in relation to the farm, and mom said "Jimm (stepdad) just left." Ummm...the party was over an hour ago!!!.

Then of course, Jimmy gets lost so mom calls the kid asking her for directions so she hands me the phone. I calmly give direction and inform her that the party ended an hour and a half ago. She gets huffy with me and says the kids only called her at 9pm to come and get them. Noooooo...the kids had been calling since 8:30 looking for her but she wasn't answering the phone. I was there and saw it all remember.

A few minutes later stepdad Jimmy calls, lost again, and I am able to talk him to our farm. He seemed annoyed. At me? Maybe..at the kids? Maybe.

Ugh. Lucky I love my students so much. the parents drive me up the wall sometimes!

 

[jmskinner]

Sorry that happened. Very frustrating. Why can't people just apologize and admit they made a mistake anymore?

We use to coach a soccer team. There were 9 year old boys, I was amazed how many people just left them with us without even knowing us.

 

[golfgal]

I have been a coach for many, many years and there is ALWAYS one kid who's parent 'forgets' to pick them up. It isn't always the same kid but there is always one. When I was in high school it was usually MY dad!

 

[Stacerita]

No matter what activity, sport or event there are always parents who "forget". Some use practice and parties as free baby sitting. Its sad. Pick up times need to be followed. Parents who don't make it hard for the host. And leaves them not wanting to do it again.

 

[Mish19]

That reminds me of when I was a kid and went to a weekend drama class with 3 other friends. All the parents made an agreement that whomever dropped the kids off would also pick us up. Well, one time all of us were waiting for one of the moms to get us and she never showed up. Stupidly, none of us kids had money to call our parents, so I called my mom collect!! She came to get us and she made sure I always had "emergency money" in the future.

 

[castleview]

That is so nice of you to do a party on your own time! I'm always surprised at the parents that just drop off the kids. We saw this last week at a party for 6 yr olds!!! The mom pulled into the driveway of a parent she only knows through soccer. Her son got out of the car (mom didn't) and walked up the driveway alone. Mom came back three hours later when the party was over.

 

[LBAK]

I had that happen on Friday. I am amazed at the nerve of some parents. I had a 4 year old left in my class. 15 minutes after school ended we made several calls and finally got the dad on the phone. He said he'd be there in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later another call was made (now 45 minutes have gone by) and he said 5 more minutes, then he stopped answering his phone. School ends at 2:45, finally at 5:15 he comes for the child. He was in the Bronx almost 2 hrs. away on a good day, let alone Friday in rush hour traffic! The poor kid was crying, I missed my DD's soccer game and he says to me "Oh well, I guess it won't happen again" . Darn right it won't because it's a private pre-school and we're not allowing the family back in. This was the 3rd time since Sept. that it happened.
I sure do understand where you're coming from.

 

[aprilgail2]

That reminds me of when I was a kid and went to a weekend drama class with 3 other friends. All the parents made an agreement that whomever dropped the kids off would also pick us up. Well, one time all of us were waiting for one of the moms to get us and she never showed up. Stupidly, none of us kids had money to call our parents, so I called my mom collect!! She came to get us and she made sure I always had "emergency money" in the future.

At least back then there were pay phones you could call from- now if you are stuck and don't have a cell phone there are not payphones anywhere to use!

 

[agnes!]

I had that happen on Friday. I am amazed at the nerve of some parents. I had a 4 year old left in my class. 15 minutes after school ended we made several calls and finally got the dad on the phone. He said he'd be there in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later another call was made (now 45 minutes have gone by) and he said 5 more minutes, then he stopped answering his phone. School ends at 2:45, finally at 5:15 he comes for the child. He was in the Bronx almost 2 hrs. away on a good day, let alone Friday in rush hour traffic! The poor kid was crying, I missed my DD's soccer game and he says to me "Oh well, I guess it won't happen again" . Darn right it won't because it's a private pre-school and we're not allowing the family back in. This was the 3rd time since Sept. that it happened.
I sure do understand where you're coming from.

Good for you guys. I could see maybe that things happen sometimes but this is three times in two months. I know of some day-care/pre-school places that if the parent is'nt there by a certain time, the school starts charging for every ten minutes and THEN if the parents aren't there & if they are unreachable, CPS is called.

Those 'parents' should be glad they didn't have to 'splain to The Man why they are neglecting their kid.

And that poor little boy, crying because he wasn't picked up yet.

agnes!
PS - Was it always on the dad's day for pick-up or was the mom an equal-opportunity offender?

 

[Nette]

Our karate instructor was having the same problem with his afterschoolers... After school care was officially over at 6:30, but parents wouldn't pick up until 7:30-8 (on a school night!!!). He finally started charging $1/minute for every minute after 6:30. No more late parents.

 

[just4today]

That is so nice of you to do a party on your own time! I'm always surprised at the parents that just drop off the kids. We saw this last week at a party for 6 yr olds!!! The mom pulled into the driveway of a parent she only knows through soccer. Her son got out of the car (mom didn't) and walked up the driveway alone. Mom came back three hours later when the party was over.

I really don't have a problem with parents who drop off/pick up rather than staying. For me, it would often come down to a choice of whether or not my child could attend at all if I was required to stay. I think dropping the child off is a reasonable solution for parents who would otherwise be too busy to attend. Of course I make that conditional on the parents being accessible and able to come back on a moment's notice if needed. And of course the parents should be on time picking up.

 

[KikiFan]

When my daughter was in PreK we held her birthday party at Chucky Cheese. Most of the parents stayed, but a few of the parents dropped their kids off and came back 2 hours later, right on time. But one mom dropped her son and his older brother off and didn't come back for 6 hours. I was pissed.

I knew from the kid that she was aware the party would be over, because she gave them money to be able to buy dinner later. (Our party was at 11 and included lunch) So she just figured that they'd be fine their until she got good and ready to pick them up.

She actually had the nerve to be pissed that I was still there waiting for her. She could not understand that I felt responsible for the child and couldn't leave knowing he was there all by himself. She felt it was fine and dandy to leave a 4 and 6 year old at CC all day. Poor kid never got invited to another party after that no one trusted her to pick him up.

 

[LBAK]

agnes!- Mom "works" and I've never met her. I'm pretty certain she's not n the picture. We called the police as that is what the states regulates, then the police in turn will call CPS. I didn't have the heart to call the police and scare the child half to death as he was already upset.

 

[pigletz]

I have a crazy parent pick up story. I teach in a very dangerous area. One year we decided to take the kids on a trip to Washington DC. The district couldn't pay for the trip and we couldn't ask the parents for money for the trip, so the teachers paid. Because of this, we could only afford to go for one day. It's about an 8 hour drive for us, so we left at 2:00 in the morning and planned to be back at about 3:00 or 4:00 the next morning. When we were about half an hour from home we had all of the students call their parents. Most parents thankfully were there waiting when we got back. While we were cleaning off the bus and making sure all the kids had all of their things, one of the kids started walking off by herself. As soon as we saw her we called her back and asked her where she was going. Her father had told her just to walk home! I called her dad and told him that there was no way we were letting a 13 year old walk home alone at 3 am. His response was fine, you drive her home. Sadly when I did drive her home there were several cars in the driveway and a bunch of people sitting on the porch. Not one of those people could be bothered to drive the five minutes to the school to pick the poor girl up. I hate to think of what could have happened if we hadn't seen her walking away from the school.

 

[mrsheppo]

When DD#2 was 6 she wanted a birthday party at home on her birthday which happens to be Christmas Eve. We had about 15 kids show up at noon and they were supposed to be picked up by 2:30. At 6:00 I still had 3 kids left to be picked up. Needless to say I was very mad as we had plans for that evening. I called their homes and the parents couldn't understand why I was mad. They had last minute Christmas shopping to do and knew their kids were being taken care of.
After that, I did a party for her a couple of days before her birthday and family only on Christmas Eve.

 

[NC State]

I have a crazy parent pick up story. I teach in a very dangerous area. One year we decided to take the kids on a trip to Washington DC. The district couldn't pay for the trip and we couldn't ask the parents for money for the trip, so the teachers paid. Because of this, we could only afford to go for one day. It's about an 8 hour drive for us, so we left at 2:00 in the morning and planned to be back at about 3:00 or 4:00 the next morning. When we were about half an hour from home we had all of the students call their parents. Most parents thankfully were there waiting when we got back. While we were cleaning off the bus and making sure all the kids had all of their things, one of the kids started walking off by herself. As soon as we saw her we called her back and asked her where she was going. Her father had told her just to walk home! I called her dad and told him that there was no way we were letting a 13 year old walk home alone at 3 am. His response was fine, you drive her home. Sadly when I did drive her home there were several cars in the driveway and a bunch of people sitting on the porch. Not one of those people could be bothered to drive the five minutes to the school to pick the poor girl up. I hate to think of what could have happened if we hadn't seen her walking away from the school.

Maybe a call to Social Services would get them a "heads-ups" on the family.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

All I can say is these people should NOT have kids. It is so sad that these kids are not #1 in their parents priority.

 

[december]

It is so sad what some kids have for parents. When ds11 was 8, he had one little boy on his baseball team that was always in the park before anyone else. His mother would drop him off, by himself, an hour before the game. No one ever stayed to watch his games. He'd call when it was over (borrowing cell phones from parents) and she would come and get him. One night, we played in a neigboring town. He rode with us. We started trying to call her when we got in the car heading for home. No answer. The child called every number he knew-no answer. We went back to the park, and waited for 45 min-he still couldn't reach anyone. So I asked him where he lived-very BAD part of town. I took him home-what else could I do? This was around 10 on a weeknight-no one was there. We found a neighbor that was home and I left the child with her. I was at a loss as to what to do. The neighbor was a relative, so I guess it was ok. I can't imagine my child playing a game without some one from our family watching (me, dh, granparents-we've had to split up when both my kids were playing at the same time), much less playing in another town. But to not even be around that night to pick them up is unforgivable!

But to leave them on Christmas Eve!!!!!

 

[Stacerita]

I'm apalled that someone would leave their kids longer at a party because they had Christmas shopping to do. Parties should not be considered free babysitting. Sure, I like the fact that I sometimes get some free time when DD goes to a party. But I would never not pick her up just so I can have more time.

Being a bad guest like that is the quickest way not to get another invite.

Hearing that parents want their kids to walk hom in the middle of the night in bad neighborhoods or don't come to watch their kids games is nothing new to me. I have heard all that before.

I am shocked at the parent, if you can call them that, who left small kids in Chuck E Cheese all day. What are they thinking??? Give them money for dinner so you don't have to come back early? I am shocked!

 

[JessicaR]

I was a scout leader for years. I feel your pain! Loved all the kids but didnt always tolerate some of thier idiot parents too well! Sounds like a great party and I bet the kids had a ball!

Get any pictures of the horse that was dressed up?