Parenting comes with many challenges. Unfortunately, some of those challenges have absolutely nothing to do with your own kids. Sometimes the obnoxious people of the world manage to procreate with each other. As a result, you have to deal with them at the majority of your kid's activities.
Let's take a look at some of the rudest parents people have ever met.
All posts have been edited for clarity.
Head of the PTA
“The head of the PTA at my son’s school. Our school’s primary division was fairly new, so when my son joined at age four, there were only two grades studying at the school. I wanted to get to know the parents at the school and I thought that volunteering would be the best way to do that while giving my son something extra to be proud of. What a mistake!
The Christmas fair came and we all made our best efforts to set up. Little miss sunshine brought a bottle and glass for one and drank it all while the rest of us worked. Once in a while she gave us snarky comments and yelled orders.
Not long after, the international food fair came. I volunteered again, already less than keen to invest any time or effort, but my son asked me to. I cooked a traditional dish that didn’t look too complicated but took a very long time to make and involved kneading dough over and over again.
I stood at the stall with my dish along with other dishes in front of me, ready to serve the food.
She approached the stall with one of her friends, looked at what I’ve made, unaware that it was mine, and said, ‘Oh my! What is this? Who would want to eat that?’
I was furious. How dare she criticize any food anyone made an effort to make? The fact that the particular dish was mine was incidental. I would have been livid if it were any other dish. I said nothing and left.
The following year, not many people volunteered to bring food donations. They had to practically beg for it. The story didn’t end there.
One of her friends heard that I commented that more people would volunteer if she weren’t so ungrateful and rude to criticize people’s food and culture.
I got an angry text from her threatening me and telling me that I would not stand in her way.
At the end of that year, she resigned. I’m not sure why, but good riddance.”
Fiance’s Mom
“At the end of my second year, I was engaged to a boy I met at university.
He was going to be a doctor. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet. I met his family briefly when we went to visit them for a weekend. I liked one of his three sisters, and I hoped the rest would grow on me and vice versa.
The summer after we were engaged, I moved in with him before heading home for a semester exchange program. A few days before I was set to leave, I answered the phone to hear the voice of my fiancé’s mother.
I answered, ‘Oh hello. No, I’m sorry, he’s at work. He should be home after eight o’clock tonight, should I ask him to call you back?’
She responded, ‘That’s fine, I called to talk to you.’
Surprised, I asked, ‘Oh. How are you then?’
She bluntly responded, ‘I was calling because I think you’re due to leave soon.’
I said, ‘Oh yes. He is taking me to the train on Thursday.’
She sharply said, ‘Well, just see that you’re on it.’
After a second of silence, I asked, ‘Excuse me?’
She continued, ‘You just see to it that you’re on that train. I want you out of his house and out of his bed. My son is going to be a doctor. He doesn’t need you dragging him down.’
I don’t really remember what was said after that. I was completely flattened, and I was fairly hysterical by the time my fiancé got home from work.
I did get on the train. We broke up briefly while I was on my semester exchange, but he came out to visit and we started up again. I’m pretty sure I never saw his mother again or even spoke to her in the years that followed.
As fate would have it, it would have been better for my finances if I had left him, but harder for him to get into medical school. He turned out to be siphoning money out of my checking account, and left me both clueless and horrified as returned checks and overdraft fees built up over months. When I finally figured it out, it was the final straw in our relationship.
I looked back years later and realized that I had been in a very emotionally abusive relationship the entire time. He took everything I said and turned it around to mean the opposite, all to manipulate situations so he always had the upper hand.
If I had had more experience before I accepted his ring, I might have realized that having a horribly manipulative parent might just make for a child who knows how to be manipulative in his relationships. Yes, I know this isn’t always the case but it might have made me warier, and attentive to the signs. As opposed to wasting several years tethered to a self-centered prick who stole my money and ruined my credit.
For the last twenty years, I have been happily married to a fantastic fellow whose family, incidentally, adored me from the first, and I felt likewise. I have stories to tell my kids when they start having romantic relationships, and how to identify both good and bad ones. So I’ll take the win.”
Rock Climbing Wall
“For quite a few years, I would work street fairs for an entertainment company. Many times, I was assigned to our rock wall. This particular wall had four sides of varying degrees of difficulty. It was twenty-five feet high and could accommodate anyone. We even let little kids go on as long as they understood the concept of climbing since they were harnessed.
On that particular day, a father brought his five-year-old to climb the rock wall. I got him harnessed and hooked up to the wall and he started climbing. He got about halfway up and dad started yelling to him for a photo op. Wrong move. The kid looked down, realized how high he was, and froze.
He looked at me, started crying, and said he wanted to come down.
I calmly told the kid, ‘Let go of the wall and you’ll come down slowly.’
His dad started to yell at me and said, ‘He’s going up that wall! Don’t tell him he can quit!’
Then the dad started to yell at his kid. He was relentless as the poor kid, around twelve feet in the air, was scared to death and crying, There were a lot of people and kids hanging around waiting for their turn.
The dad yelled, ‘Get your rear end up there! Are you a softy? Only a softy would quit! I’m ashamed of you! I can’t believe my son is a softy!’
I couldn’t take it anymore.
I looked at the kid and said, ‘You did great! Look how high you got! But if you want to come down, let me know and I’ll help you. You can try again later if you want.’
The kid just nodded his head.
As I went to grab the lifeline, the dad started calling his kid a softy again.
I turned to the prick and said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’ll harness you up once your son comes down and we’ll see how good you do.’
I got the kid down and there was not another peep from dad. I guess dad was the softy since he wouldn’t even try.”
Sports Mom
“There was a mom in my town who had two boys that were both very involved in sports, especially baseball. They were both athletic but the younger one was probably close to being gifted. So much so that other coaches in the league insisted that they produce a birth certificate to prove he wasn’t an older ringer.
The mom had to be the most overbearing, loud, awful person in town, at least when her kids are on the field. Outside of that, she was pretty nice. But, oh boy, when one of her kids were playing, she would scream and rant at the coach, the other team’s coach, the players, the other parents. One time, I actually saw her scream and taunt the other team’s pitcher so much that he cried and had to leave the field. What has to be wrong in your brain that you think it’s okay to bully a nine-year-old until he cries?
At one point, she was asked to not come to any more games for the rest of the season unless she could keep it zipped. Everyone was terrified she would turn on them, so no one said anything.
The funny thing was that both of her boys were the sweetest, most humble kids you would ever meet.
I know there are a lot of those sports parents and I’m happy we really only had one.”
Birthday Party
“There was a parent at my kid’s school that was insane. She muscled her way to becoming the PTA president and was at every school event. She was snobby and always belittled all the parents that worked for not volunteering forty hours a week like she did.
She was having a birthday party for her son, a fifth-grader, and invited my son with a paper invitation. I got a text message from her later that day that said that each kid would need to pay thirty dollars to attend the birthday party, at her house, because she was hiring entertainment and rides and that it would include a custom T-shirt as a keepsake. She also made an Amazon wish list of everything her son wanted and said to not bother going if we didn’t bring a present from the list.
I took a look at the list and all the items ranged from sixty to four hundred dollars. The list literally included GoPros, iPads, a Nintendo Switch, etc. The cheapest item was a Switch game, which was sixty dollars. I told my son this was ridiculous and that he wouldn’t go.
He was disappointed but even he conceded that it was ridiculous.
I felt bad for the kid for having such a crazy mom. I sent her a message that we couldn’t go and she told me to have my son return the invitation back to the kid so that she can invite other kids that didn’t make the original list.
It was so tacky and ridiculous. I heard from another parent that no one showed up for the party.”
Boyfriend’s Mother
“My first boyfriend’s mother was the rudest person I’ve ever met. The worst part was I never even met her.
I was a sophomore when we started dating, but he was only a freshman. While we were only a year apart grade-wise, I was still a year and ten months older than him because I had an early birthday and he had a late birthday.
I remember genuinely looking forward to meeting his parents once we started dating because I was really big on making good first impressions and I wanted them to like me. Unfortunately for me, his parents, namely his mother, never really gave me a chance.
Although I had never even met his mother, my ex would tell me about how she hated the fact that I was older than him and that I was too short. There were other reasons that he told me about but the worst one was that she hated I was adopted.
In her mind, being adopted meant that I was given up because I just wasn’t good enough. So, in my boyfriend’s mother’s mind, there must have been something wrong with me, or else I would have not been given up for adoption. In hindsight, I completely realize that him telling me all of that was absolutely wrong and he never should have done it. It killed my self-confidence and I absolutely felt like I was just not good enough for anyone, and her comments especially made me feel guilty for being adopted.
I think the absolute worst part about all of that was the fact that she didn’t like me over factors that were completely out of my control and would not even give me a chance to try and prove her wrong and show her that I’m more than just a short, adopted girl.
Thankfully, those feelings of worthlessness did not last long, as I soon realized that their ignorance was not my fault and even though they didn’t realize it, I realized that I was good enough for myself and for their son.”
Emergency Babysitting
“Late one Thursday night, I was asked over the phone if I could do an emergency babysitting job for our neighbors’ seven and nine-year-old sons.
I knew the family only as neighbors. As they were more private than our other neighbors. I had always wanted to babysit the two boys and that gave me the perfect chance.
They explained that I was very well recommended and I went over my hourly rate. They negotiated and upon a final agreement, I accepted the job. It was going to be a full-time weekend ordeal but nothing I couldn’t handle.
The parents left the keys and notes placed in my mailbox so I could have them when I arrived home from school. I always arrived home a half-hour earlier then the elementary bus.
I opened our family’s mailbox, took out a manila envelope, and began to scan over the contents inside. Their house was directly across the street and directly opposite ours. As I waited in their driveway, I barely had time to skim and scan the notes over.
The boys were confused at my presence when they exited the bus seeing how always either their father or mother would be waiting on them. The notes explicitly told me to not tell the boys why their parents had left for the weekend despite the fact that they didn’t tell me where they were going.
The children were typical elementary-aged kids, and continuously shifted from rambunctious to needy. I had no problem in providing their ’emergency’ care.
The rudeness came when the parents never did mention to their children why they were leaving and left their kids to experience the trauma of coming home to a babysitter with no idea of where their parents went. Neither I nor, I believe, the confused and baffled boys I cared for that weekend never did learn why their parents left that weekend.”
Mother
“My mother was the type who would help us out but then expected us to worship the ground she walked on. She also expected to control our household from that day forward. Criticism poured from her mouth like diarrhea.
Both my sisters had developed a mental illness and had moved far away. She treated my nanny like a slave and monitored her every move. She threw fits, slammed stuff, and threw stuff when she was displeased. She gave horrible instructions like how they couldn’t turn on any lights even though we had solar power so it wasn’t like it cost anything. She forced our nanny to do tasks that were repetitive and pointless just to keep her as busy as possible. She minimized our nanny’s interactions with the kids as she thought that my nanny was only useful to clean the house and cook. Not a day went by that she didn’t scream at me for selecting the wrong employee, even though I knew that my nanny was one of the best possible as nobody else would even be able to tolerate my mom. She made my first nanny cry and run out of the door.
My husband and I had been on the brink of divorce because she threw fits at everyone over nothing. We couldn’t leave the house or go on vacation without her throwing a fit. We couldn’t even take her out for dinner or do anything nice for her without her throwing a huge fit about how she could do it better. I started to wonder if she had some sort of mental illness.
We lived in her moldy condo for three years. During that time, we had put in maybe thirty thousand dollars in renovation and upgrades. But every day, she threatened and screamed at me to pay back rent, utilities, and the HOA dues. When I told her to give us the final amount we owed, she threw a fit because she actually just wanted to retain power over me. The money was just an excuse.
For Mother’s Day, I called her to plan something and she never picked up the phone. Then finally when I reached her, she screamed at me because we didn’t visit her. Then she went on the same rant about my nanny that I had heard billions of times.
I was furious.
Then she complained about my husband and how we owe her five hundred dollars for Mother’s Day and that we aren’t thankful for her. At this point I’m just like F U! If I give the money to you, will you finally STFU! Btw she thinks I think I’m so great because I earn a lot of money but to be honest I’m nearly broke as we just did construction and I have about a 50%effective tax rate.
She helped out with the childcare but came over even when she wasn’t needed then demanded that we pay her. At most, we would only need her like an hour or two a day but she stayed longer for no reason other than to scrutinize the nanny.
She always told me I was the worst child despite being the highest achieving and the only one that bothered with her nonsense. I may be the worst because I also tolerate less of her attitude.”
Girlfriend’s Dad
I met the parents of a girl I was dating. We were all going out for dinner so my girlfriend at the time could introduce us. We met at the restaurant and went in to get seated. After we were all seated, we ordered and started chatting about the usual stuff a guy would chat about with his girlfriend and her parents.
Out of left field, her dad asked me, ‘Are you hitting it yet?’
Shocked, I asked, ‘Excuse me?’
He exclaimed, ‘You heard what I asked you, boy!’
I was simultaneously shocked and amazed. I told him it was not any of his business.
Next, he asked, ‘Why do you have your beard so long and thick?’
I replied that I had grown it out over the last month so I would appear neater when my beard and hair were cut way down.
Then he went on to tell call me a bum among other things.
I was doing okay until he told his daughter that she was a loser for being with me. He never knew me before that day.
I stood up, apologized to his embarrassed wife, put money down to cover everyone’s dinner, and left with my girlfriend who followed me.
My girlfriend must have been unusually close to her dad because she broke up with me that night when we were back at my house.
Her father was rude to me from the minute we met.”
Sports Dad
“Years and years ago, as a teenager, I started helping my dad referee football games on the weekends as a way to give back to the league of my childhood.
During a game of ten and eleven-year-olds, there was a fumble that was picked but by the best player on the field.
He picked it up and ran to the end zone. Unfortunately, in the scramble for the ball, he got turned around and ended up scoring against his own team.
He was crying a little when his dad came onto the field and hit him on the head, which dropped him to the ground, then yelled at him for being an idiot. I was shocked and had no idea how to respond.
My dad decked him.
He was banned from attending games for five years.”
Sports Parents
“My son had a coach that encouraged his boys to cry when they lost. Their mother would loudly tell the boys the other team was too rough, the other coach cheated, and the refs were unfair. When the coach’s team lost, he told the team the game didn’t count. He encouraged the team to run on the field and shout at the other kids that they were losers, even though the ref and the other coach had told them they won.
The parents of the other players were excited to move on to a development team; however, one mom was upset because the coach said he never would have chosen her kid. The entire team rallied around her and reminded her that was why they moved on to a different team.
Their boys cried when they lost in a scrimmage and their mom went to the authorities and said it was the fault of the other team that they were crying and got a nine-year-old banned from doing a drill at practice.
When their younger son did not make the top team, they went to the director and said they would not enroll the older boy unless the younger one was placed on the top team. The coach did not choose that kid for his team, so they hired the coach’s wife to sell their home to keep their boy on the team.
Their younger son was encouraged to exclude kids to the point of bullying. When the bullied child quit the team and joined another team, the mother got in the face of the eleven-year-old and told him that her son would have made the other team since he had and that he had been kicked off the team.
The dad would make the other plays sit on the bench so his kids could play and he would inappropriately hug the moms of the kids. The rudeness of the parents had caused none of the other kids to want anything to do with their boys.
Normal parents don’t operate that way. I don’t wish the boys bad luck, but I hope their parents get treated the way they treat other people’s children.”