u/intellectualth0t

I taught an elective class at a public school, in a subject I was really passionate about. This was my dream job.

There were these 2 helicopter parents of a student I had (husband and wife) who were extremely entitled, nitpicky, aggressive, and out of touch with reality. EVERYTHING was a life-or-death matter to them, everything I did they complained about. They started rumors about me- it started with some
bs about me “not doing my job” and “abusing children”, and then eventually allegations about me having an “adult content” website.

All of this was grossly untrue, but they still reported me to my principal & central office. They turned my principal against me, and she started taking her frustrations out on me because she was sick of all their complaints. She came up with some bullshit reason about “the district” not being able to rehire me, so I was forced to resign.

Anyways, I have the phone numbers and emails of these parents. I need ideas on how to inconvenience them.

In reference to both studio & school dance teams. I’m 28, just got out of 2 years of coaching school teams, and I have no children of my own so I don’t completely understand the competitive world from a parent’s POV.

I started dancing at a local studio around 9-10 years old, and joined their up-and-coming competition team a year later at 11. This was in 2010, a whole year before Dance Moms first aired and shifted the world of competitive dance. We weren’t anywhere near the level of studios like Club or Larkin or any other big names. The competition program I was in was more of a “my kid takes dance a little more seriously and wants more opportunities to perform” kinda deal. Parent drama was basically nonexistent- the moms were always friendly, never overstepped boundaries with instructors, and always helped each other.

I was in high school 2013-2017, and part of my school’s dance team. On top of a revolving door of issues with administrators and staff (we had 3 coaches in 3 years), the team parents were awful. Constant drama and nitpicking, constantly berating our coaches, constantly pitting each others kids against each other, etc. Basically what you’d see on any given episode of Dance Moms.

I just completed a year coaching a middle school dance team, after I coached a 9th grade team 2024-25. Both schools had parents constantly making jabs at me and complaining about everything (“my daughter doesn’t like the way these costumes look!” “you’re scheduling way too many practices!”) but with the middle school, it was exponentially worse. I’m not going to get into too many details for the sake of post length, but it was bad enough that these parents went to school district headquarters trying to get me fired.

Now I’m currently in this phase where I’m:

1. recovering from the aftermath of a traumatic year
2. debating whether or not I should try another teaching/coaching job somewhere else, studio or school team

I genuinely love sharing my passion with the youth, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it if extreme levels of parent drama are the new norm. I’m confused on whether or not I just don’t have “thick skin”, or if the level of parent drama I dealt with this year was truly abnormal.

Aspen, Elizabeth, Fiona, Olivia, Peyton

Husband and I had a very interesting discussion earlier about potential child names we both agreed on (we’re both 28, planning on trying for children in the next year or two). These were our mutually agreed on top 5. What are y’all’s thoughts?

I am so goddamn sick and tired of this “ragebait” culture, and the way kids purposely break rules, don’t follow assignment directions, trash rooms, etc. because “making teachers mad is funny”.

I have heard way too much bullshit from my middle school students since the beginning of the year about how they “ragebait” their other teachers, or laughing (celebrating, almost?) when their teachers flip out and yell and outwardly express their rage. The bullshit behavior, outright refusal to follow basic rules, and learned helplessness makes ME want to yell every day but that would just be entertainment to these kids & I can’t allow that to happen.

Fortunately I have admin who issue consequences reasonably, but the parents of my students don’t raise their goddamn kids and sure as hell don’t enforce consequences at home. I am so sick of this gen alpha behavior. I am so done with this year. No idea how I’m going to survive these last 3 weeks of the school year.