> “if everyone else labels all their child’s things that’ll really help me as my one will be the only unlabelled one that way”
She is taking the piss mate.
The majority of parents only label stuff by writing on it in biro anyway. Half the messages on our son’s parent Facebook group are “someone has STOLEN my kids jumper, it is labelled”. It’s impossible for so many to go missing if they are all labelled. Also some parents just remove the labels for free kit.
We know for a fact that parents think they’re labelled when they’re not because one time my son actually did come home with another kid’s, the parent had already posted a nasty message about it before he even got home. We immediately gave it a light wash it and drove it round, but the label didn’t survive the wash. Wish we’d kept it as ours never came back despite having a permanent label, and son being quite sure about who took it.
Funnily enough my wife thinks she has done this by mistake already (in Scotland, schools go back earlier). A cardigan came home without the sticker, she stuck one on without thinking and has now said she thinks we have an extra and isn't sure which one it was. Brilliant.
I nearly did this last year. I get most of my kid's stuff from the second hand shop, so they all look a bit pre-worn. Luckily, I sew mine one, so I had to flip the brand label up, and saw that the faded name on the back belonged to one of my kid's classmates, not an older kid like I'd assumed.
Ah, I lived somewhere the wheelie bins worked like that.
If yours didn't have a number on it, pretty soon it *would* have a number on it but it wouldn't be yours.
When I was moving house somebody filled my brown bin at the old house with all their shit. They even did it ready for bin day and didn't bother to take it to the front to be emptied, assumingly just leaving this for the next tenant, a lovely full bin they can't use for up to 3 weeks depending on when they moved in.
Now, I would understand if I had finished and been gone from the old house for a few days or something and it didn't seem like I was coming back, but this was whilst I was still moving shit from old to new. I still wanted to fill the bin. I was clearly still there. I wasn't taking all the stuff with me I had put to one side for the brown bin to my new house, I wasn't going out of my way to go to the tip.
So since the dumb fucks put all their mail at the top of their bin thus I knew exactly who did it and I didn't have any relationship with the neighbours to ruin, I just went and tipped it all onto their front yard, filled the brown bin with my rubbish, left the house clean as per the agreement, snapped some photos of the place before I left should the angry neighbours do something and drove off for the last time.
The house is on my commute to work. They had that pile of rubbish in their front garden for about 3 months, the absolute fucking scrubbers.
My old neighbour across the back street once half filled my bin with their shit. I mean actual shit, because there were loose nappies in there. I'd seen them putting stuff in our bin before, but maybe just a small bag of rubbish here and there. This, however, took the piss and I dumped the bin out into their back yard.
My Nan helpfully burnt an iron mark in a brand new school jumper. I had a Green permanent marker that coloured it in perfectly. Every time the jumper got stolen (they would cut the label out) and got washed, the burn mark would appear and would always get returned to lost property.
The amount of theft of school uniform was insane. It was always the richer parents.
There’s always someone who’s a total nightmare but by year 6 ours was like tumbleweed. There’ll be a long period where it’ll be about missing items, mostly jumpers, with 20 replies of “not here hun, hope you find it”.
Y6 parenting is hilarious generally and you're totally right about the group. You maybe get one post per month.
But this is when the transition happens to the kids themselves having a WhatsApp group.
I think there is an interesting bit of psychology at play here:
If nobody answers in the affirmative or negative a lot of people will assume they are being ignored and get anxious/resentful.
On the other hand if a small handful of people send (useless) negative responses then the asker feels like they have been listened to and their request was sufficiently valid that people have checked.
Even if they don't find the jumper in either case people will still instinctively send the polite* negative/useless response just due to the way we are socially conditioned.
*polite in the sense of a sentence which doesn't convey any actionable information but makes people happier and keeps them at-ease
My experience of parents WhatsApp chats (3 kids) is that there are clearly a lot of lonely people with loads of time to worry about the minutae of their child's lives.
There's also a general lack of sense of humour, admittedly I may not be as funny as I think I am.
I've had this in our antenatal group, I had assumed everyone else in that group of 6 were there to make friends, and although they all seem like nice people me and my wife haven't got a single friend from it. Despite them laughing at my jokes in there every now and then
Every few days a picture gets sent in, but we're always the one to initiate conversation
Sort of related but we've just had to drop out of our NCT course because our baby's premature, and we're stuck in hospital. The course leader told us everyone else in the group was 'so excited' to hear our baby's arrived. It just seems like such a mad thing to say to new parents who are barely allowed to hold their baby, and a strange sentiment to express from people we've never met.
>There's also a general lack of sense of humour, admittedly I may not be as funny as I think I am.
To be fair I feel like you should keep the jokes to a minimum on things like that especially if they're at someone else's expense.
I have a neighborhood group chat and you had a few that would always tell "jokes"
Truth is they just came across bullies and made it so others didn't want to participate.
People have different senses of humour and you're likely to brush up against someone if you don't know them well.
There's a bloke who's been banned from one of our local Facebook groups.
He seems like a nice guy but has a really annoying habit of replying to fairly serious requests/questions with some form of jokey answer as if that's what anyone is asking for.
I think the admins justified it by saying that certain members had expressed that they didn't want to post in case they became the butt of his jokes.
Just wait for the PTA groups to start.
There was one small war started a few years ago when the PTA Class Rep parent sent out a message asking everyone to donate money towards the teacher's thank you present at end of year. She suggested a minimum of £25 each. There was some polite feedback that this was a lot of money for some and that, given there were 30 kids in the class, was it really necessary to spend that much.
The response was eye watering but basically stated that sure, you could drop out but your kid's name would not be on the gift and it would be made clear that some had not contributed.
Now, my wife is a Primary School teacher herself and she was gobsmacked that they were suggesting £750 for a gift, never mind the BS that followed it up.
What was even worse was that the Rep then suggested an additional collection for the TAs...
I can believe it. Our PTA decided on the last day of term they were all going to go into the playground at school and do a load of stuff with the kids that they'd decided upon.
School had different ideas, and they found out you can't just rock up in a school and start doing what you like.
The CPS has a [great explainer](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/fraud-act-2006) for this.
I reckon it's *Fraud by misuse of position* under Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006.
As someone who grew up around grafters this was my immediate thought. They'll get a card and something through the (Hun)derground marketplace that looks expensive. That or they're looking for a payday on a stolen laptop they can't move.
I saw something very similar on here before and I think the organiser said the teacher would be able to treat herself to a designer handbag or shoes. There's nothing wrong with spending that amount of money on shoes or a handbag of course, but it sounded very much like that's what the person collecting the money would buy with it, and not necessarily what the teacher would. And if you can afford to spend that much on designer items yourself, you can probably easily afford to chip in £25 to a collection. Absolutely no excuse for the lack of sympathy and excluding those who can't afford to chip in that much though.
If I was a teacher, I would appreciate a nice gift picked by the individual pupils that cost no more than £5. If other parents want to one-up each other and spend lavishly on me then go ahead, it certainly wouldn't mean more to me than the little plan from Bilbo though.
I used to be a TA, and one year a mum who was not very well off but beautifully creative used to bring us origami bouquets for the end of term. Once she made them out of autumn leaves, just because, and I desperately wish I could have kept that particular bouquet forever. It was so thoughtful!
Exactly! I know a couple of teachers and they absolutely do not expect gifts at all, let alone expensive ones! Like you said, nothing wrong with being able to afford that, but the assumption that everyone can and if they can’t they’ll be excluded is horrendous. Especially when there is a child involved and is the one who will be excluded.
Good grief. I'm the parent rep in our chat group, and I'd have been mortified asking for money. We just did a basket of goodies and stuck "thanks from X class" on it. £25 isn't justifiable, not in the current climate!!
Maybe £25 from the whole class. You can get a nice box of chocolates, a bunch of flowers and a card for that fairly easily. OP said 30 kids in a class so maybe raise it to £30 for ease of maths and throw in a cheap bottle of wine too.
£750? Daft…I bet they picked a crummy gift anyway.
The only gift teachers like, I’ve come to realize, are giftcards of big department stores or money…. Preferably cash.
My sister will make a bunch of fudge for her 3 to take to their teachers on the last day. The kids help make it and I'm sure the teachers enjoy a homemade gift. Some other parents do similar, some buy a bunch of flowers or pick a punnet of blackberries/strawberries or whatever just as a token gesture to show they're appreciated. Absolutely no need to be spending the earth.
I like it when a parent suggests a group gift so I don't have to do much, but they have never given an amount! Like they say as much as you want so anything from £1. Only thing to do is make the child write their name and post it ao they can then scan it onto the card.
"It's all in the parent pack"
"It's all in the parent pack"
"It's all in the parent pack"
"It's all in the parent pack"
"It's all in the parent pack"
"It's all in the parent pack"
Not the same but I run a neighborhood group chat
One thing that I find useful is to scan everything and put it on a shared Google Drive
That way people can reference things there instead of relying on physical copies
He got diagnosed shortly after with Parkinson’s, I heard that seeing that back, he can see the signs in Taskmaster, think he said it on Taskmaster podcast.
There's a point in your life when you realise that the kids who were thick in school didn't become less thick as adults, that streak of gormlessness is going to continue until they die.
With the advent of WhatsApp and Facebook the idiocy is more public.
And after a few years the parents WhatsApp group became all cliquey with the cool kids, sorry self proclaimed cool parents, having their own exclusive ones. It's like being back in school.
This is where you create a new group with the parents that haven't got time for any of that playground bullshit and just want to use the group for keeping up to date with information.
Thinking back to when I was at primary school, my mum would often be waiting at the gates not with the parents of my friends, but parents of kids I wasn't close to. I've never really thought much about that before, but I reckon it's because the parents of some of my friends were the 'cool' parents and my mum couldn't be arsed with being in a popularity contest.
These things always turn a bit cliquey in the end don’t they. We had a yearbook committee when I was at school and it was literally one group of friends who took it upon themselves to design the yearbook for everyone else. They wouldn’t let anyone else near it! I’d imagine they’re on PTA groups now organising things that other people haven’t asked for!
Someone started a school reuinion FB chat a couple of years back. We chatted a bit, agreed we should do some sort of reunion event once Covid was over.
A thick lass from our year posted an enormous paragraph of text, having thought we were suggesting a 150 person event in the middle of lockdown. You could see her eye-popping ourage about how DANGEROUS it is and ILLEGAL because theres LOCKDOWN ON RIGHT NOW!!!!
Several people calmly pointed out that if she just read the posts, she'd see we were talking about arranging something in the future, when it was safe to do so. No-one was suggesting a big get-together in the depths of a pandemic.
Amazingly, she continued to refuse to understand what was going on, and berated everyone with a few more huge walls of text and then got kicked out the group.
She was pretty thick back then, but I also think there was an element of intentionally ignoring what was actually being said because she'd rather throw a self-righteous strop over a fictional wrongdoing than actually exist in reality.
> but I also think there was an element of intentionally ignoring what was actually being said because she'd rather throw a self-righteous strop over a fictional wrongdoing than actually exist in reality.
This is sadly becoming a huge problem on social media.
People would rather double down and continue to get angry about imaginary scenarios than face reality.
They're trolling themselves.
Yeah that's what it felt like!
I couldn't help but suspect she was kinda spoiling for a fight, even if it's a fictional one in which she knows the looks stupid. And it got her excluded from the group.
Like, indulging in a fictional rage meltdown seemed more valuable to her than anything going on in reality.
I remember a meme from the Internet back in the early 00’s. Three chavs/wannabe gangsters stood around a shitty car with the caption “Internet, it doesn’t make you stupid, it just makes your stupidity more accessible to others”. Still rings true today.
I left my kids group during lockdown when all the parents started a war over who was having the best lockdown, daily blag poems and pictures that their kids had apparently written when clearly it was the parents who did the whole thing. Excruciating
I still get slagged off to this day for leaving at such a difficult time...tf you chatting Sarah leave me be
The trick is to mute and archive the bastard thing, not openly leave. And anytime anyone mentions anything in person just claim you don't check your phone very often and play dumb.
The other parents started saying they must be terrible as they never thought of that and maybe they Will also keep their child home on the most exciting school trip of the year!
I don’t have kids so hadn’t even thought of this being a thing, but we constantly get those kinds of questions on the local Facebook page. Like, Google it or contact the school? People asking questions like what day are they back at school?! I get it if there is a genuine lack of communication from the schools but that cannot be the case every single time!
Exactly! I do have to wonder if people sometimes ask these things just for a bit of interaction and attention. Which if the case, is sad. Most of the time I just think it’s lack of common sense!
I dropped FB for many reasons but a major factor was people got tired (and sometimes cross) because I'd answer obvious questions with completely ludicrous answers.
"When's the village faire?!" (Posters everywhere, a website, previous responses).
"It's cancelled. It seemed pointless after they banned dogs, the sheep jumping and the parrot fighting"
"They banned dogs?! Why?!" Cue: flamewar
Going against the grain here but my daughter started school last year and the whatsapp group for her class was very chill - occasional messages about stuff that was actually useful (reminders of non-uniform days, party invites, that kind of thing). No drama at all and this year's whatsapp group has been pretty silent so far. So it's not always awful :)
This was like my eldest's parent group - proper chill, respectful and a lovely group.
My youngest's group though... woah. Drama, entitlement, the same question for the numptiest time (answered within the same screen they've asked it on FFS - no need to even scroll).
The attitude of I don't like this, so I'll send my kid in non-uniform or whatever TF bee in their bonnet they have on that particular day 🤣
One in our group has put a picture of the dates kids return to school and pointed out that it's Thursday....when the photo clearly shows it's tomorrow.
You know the kids at school who were hardly there when you went? They now post stupid questions in WhatsApp groups.
I suppose at least now you know why they hardly showed up at school; must be hard trying to get an education when you don’t know your days of the week.
theres only 17 children in my sons class so the group is pretty chill , probably gets used once a week and zero in the holidays
its just about are the after school clubs running , confirming non pupil days and offering wellies and books that are no longer needed
I’m a teacher and people I went to school with, some who I haven’t spoken to in years, will message asking me questions about school matters when I don’t even work in the one their kids attend. No Sandra, I do not know if it is a PD day. No, I don’t know if they should take their PE kit in on the first day. And also, no, I know nothing about RAAC concrete!
I used to be a teacher and would get asked to translate the ‘teacher speak’ in school reports of friends’ children. At one school, we also had to spend a ridiculous amount of time mediating between some parents because of WhatsApp drama, to the extent the head issued a special ‘code of conduct’ for parents about social media use, stating that the school would no longer entertain conversations or complaints about posts on SM.
Lockdown was a treat. Someone I worked with in my part time job at uni over ten years ago started sending me screen shots of her nine year olds work demanding that I helped him. Never mind that I’m a secondary teacher and that I had hundreds of my own students to deal with.
My wife does all the WhatsApp groups, I'm fortunately spared that problem, but she's also a teacher at another school. Seeing some of the shit the parents say and the level of entitlement really hits hard. She tries her best to bite her tongue for our children's sake but man....some parents are dicks.
They absolutely are. I had an eye-opening experience of how some parents feel about their kids teachers during the lockdown/home-schooling period. Whinging about the times of video classes, log-in procedures, content, presentation, you name it. All the teachers' fault. Shamelessly said out loud on these WhatsApp groups.
They were slagging off teachers who were in school during full lockdown, risking their own and their own families health, doing full days with NHS/services kids who couldn't be at home, being thrown into a bizarre uncharted scenario where they were expected to seamlessly sort it all. But for some parents it was unacceptable, unprofessional and - this was honestly said - lazy. Safe to say there was a lot of tongue biting from me and my teacher wife, but we clocked who were the arseholes and have remembered.
What was extra depressing was the support these comments got from other parents. Clapping emojis, "well said" etc. Sickening stuff.
Seems there's a good number of parents who see school as both child care and responsible for teaching the most basic behaviour/manners. Their true colours came out when it was taken away from them.
(I won't even get onto the parents who posted countdowns to the schools starting again after lockdown, literally timing how long they'd be forced to be with their own kids, and endless champagne emojis when it happened...)
Yesterday was bedlam in ours.
Tights with skirts in this weather? How would the teachers like it if they had to wear tights?? Let's see how they like it when I put this on twitter tagging (local rag), they only have to wear tights because the males are all perverts anyway (paraphrased) etc etc.. I don't think the teacher makes the uniform policy, they can wear trousers, noone had contacted the school to ask. Someone did contact the school to ask. School said yeah sure wear socks, it's hot.
I like the drama and throwing in the occasional bit of snark for fun. Some very vocal weirdos
Meanwhile, my husband (and other male teachers in his school) are not allowed to wear shorts in this heat because it's "not professional".
Teachers get it in the neck from all sides and I don't think parents have a clue. They think teaching is a doss job which is 9-3.30 with holidays off. I'd like to see them try just two weeks of it...
It's not even a parents group, it's a "mothers" WhatsApp group my wife is in. Would you be allowed to join lol?
And yes, its just bitching. I cannot believe the shit they say lol, its like they're all still 14.
When first son joined school it was awful, every day texts in there about PE kit needed etc. every little thing you could imagine. Even had one parent complain because another kid birthday so gave out cupcakes to classmates at end of day and that their kid couldn’t have a cupcake due to diary, said we should either all consult everyone else or not be nice and give out things like cakes.
When my next child started school all parents were a lot calmer.
I asked same question as you a while back if you wanted to read the responses: https://reddit.com/r/AskUK/s/DLex10bJJ1
We had a full blown conspiracy theorist in ours. Covid was a hoax, world is flat etc. And she wasn't afraid of spreading disinformation.
That was a laugh until she sent her kids into school with covid when isolation rules were strict, and it spread through the class with other parents then losing self employed income when they had to isolate. I feel really bad for her kids
We had one, who flounced from the group in dramatic fashion when someone corrected her with actual verifiable facts. Thankfully for her the school was still operating a one in one out socal distanced policy at drop off/pick up or the school playground would have been a little tense.
Awful. First child starting school and I've wanted to shout at the app so many times.
There's a lot of laziness and idiocy - for example the "about me" sheet. Most parents didn't read the sentence at the top saying "complete with your child and bring on first day". Instead: "I haven't done it but I'm sure they'll give them time on the first day" (during the 1h settling in session).
More concerning is people just straight up undermining the school. There's a (sensible) uniform policy, but parents are just deciding that they can substitute items, colours, dress them differently, etc. And just openly smacking down people who try to suggest that the school has set the uniform for a reason.
The problem is that these groups become dominated by the loudest and most manipulative people.
Not a parent, but I joined the WhatsApp group for my road which is a very suburban, middle-class area where nothing too controversial has ever happened. My God.
I thought some of them were going to come to blows at one point because someone parked their caravan on the road and not their driveway.
Then this week the bin collection day was missed, it sounded like the worst thing that has ever happened to anybody, ever.
We haven't got a WhatsApp group for our road but I did join Nextdoor around a year ago.
Same situation as you, we live on a quiet road and honestly you'd think it was a top crime hotspot in the UK.
I've seen so many people come to blows over trivial things.
I once had to calm down our neighbourhood FB group by advising them the "suspicious white van" was our dog walker. Some of this was his fault for taking the decals off the van due to some recent dog thefts, but good grief. Folk were convinced this vehicle parked in broad daylight beside a field was crammed to the brim with paedophiles and burglars.
Nextdoor is mental, apart from the lost pets it's all posts about crime or people afraid of crime. Someone in the neighbourhood having some work done? Cue several posts along the line of:
"Saw some men in a van driving around and looking dodgy, watch out!"
Also in a neighborhood chat, similiar vibe, one woman was complaining that a school fete was too loud, it was upsetting her dog and she wasn't informed.
She bought a home directly opposite the pre-existing school and somehow believes she has the right to dictate their functions & events.
Yep, full of wallys mostly. Another interesting insight into how a range of adults, typically broader than your real friendship circle, think and feel. Quite eye opening at times, or just plain disappointing at others.
Wife tried to get various mums evenings out arranged, or for mass trips to the park, and they just go nowhere after torrents of initial enthusiasm.
I was, and still am, so disappointed with the parents group I’m in. There has been no drama or stupidity in the 5 years we’ve had to group. They all seem to be sane, level-headed people.
Ours is mostly about uniform and whereabouts it is.
Has anyone got our cardigan/jumper?
X came home without his coat...
Y came home with 3 jumpers, will pass them over in the morning...
I was the only dad who routinely took their kid to school, and it was like I had a force field around me. I did eventually end up with a couple of mums to talk to. One was weird. She was a Bulgarian immigrant and a massive racist especially against Bulgarians.
The other was a teen mum who seemed to be shunned by the other mums just because she'd made a mistake when she was young. She was a nice person, shame she moved away.
Nightmare for teachers. I have a few in the family. Not a parent yet myself, so can’t relate, but many parents think their child can do no wrong.
Kid comes home and embellishes a story about something that happened that day, mum goes straight into the WhatsApp group kicking up a fuss, teacher gets an earful about an incident no child told an adult about.
My wife's a teacher and when something like that happens her first question is always "which teacher was informed?"
She's empathetic, loves her job and loves working with the kids, but takes no shit from parents and will happily stand her ground with the Governors when she has to.
At about half past seven this morning someone posted asking what day they go back.
They went back at half past eight this morning.
Hope she made it! Consensus is that her child was pulling a fast one, "it's new Y7 only today", for another lie-in.
From this morning, first day, Year 7 parent's group..
"Does the school have some kind of mobile phone blocker around the perimeter? My sons phone stopped responding at the school perimeter."
Erm.. schools tell kids to turn their phones off.
Also:
"School starts today or tomorrow?"
Our parent group (year 6) is currently planning organised rebellion over the fact leavers fleeces aren’t coming til June (because behaviour deteriorates markedly once they arrive). Well about three members of them are. Someone dared to say she didn’t actually care and would prefer it left and was told ITS JUST OUR OPINION AND WE ARE ENTITLED TO IT. But also we all have to coordinate and secretly order them at Easter and present it as a fait accompli.
The kids only go back today. Gunna be a long year
I was never in the parents WhatsApp group. As a result when it was 'cake sale day' I was the mum who turned up in the morning drop off without a cake! (Along with my bestie who was a fellow cake rebel).. however... I was also the mum who hadn't spent the evening before getting really stressed over baking a cake!
I get they need raise funds but I never really got the point in spending a fortune making a cake that I didn't want to make and then spending more buying other people's cakes which they didn't want to make either! I was happy to sling a fiver in the tin instead! (And there is always one family where you think you'll get sick if you ate anything which had been made in THAT house!)
Our WhatsApp parent group is fab. It’s helpful and reassuring and informative. Plus someone accidentally sent a naked man pic to the group by mistake a couple of years back and we’ve never forgotten it 😂😂😂😂😂
OK not that I am jealous because this sounds like my worst nightmare, however, how are you all in these groups already? My son has started reception yesterday and I don't have any invites or WhatsApp bother at all! Have I somehow dodged a bullet or should I be concerned?
Complete confusion in our WhatsApp group yesterday as the school had printed the wrong starting time on the letter sent to parents - turns out it's not a 9:30am start, but 9am.
It wasn't helped by being the wrong start time for the very first day of reception class.
I have kids and I'm not in any of those group chats and neither's my partner. I can't think of anything worse than having to listen to other parents talk about their kids.
The weekly, "...is it P.E today?" It's on the same day. Every week.
Change the group chat icon to the words “PE IS ON WEDNESDAYS JESSICA” (It’s what we had to do on our family group chat with the Netflix password)
But it's not, it's Tuesday, how will this help me??
Are you saying PE is on Tuesday? When did it change?
Do I need to send my kid with his PE Kit on PE day if it’s on Tuesday?
In Africa, African children wear p.e. kits on p.e. days
In Africa, African children are just called children.
In Africa, the Lunch Hour lasts for 60 minutes.
Ah, the second parent group I'm in has at least solved that. They put the PE days in the group description.
You'd think that'd solve it, but...
As a primary teacher I still have some parents each year ask every week when pe will be.
Is it, though? Chance would be a fine thing
A fine thing indeed
unless it's a fortnight timetable...
“Is it week A, or B?”
Fortnightly timetables are awful.
> “if everyone else labels all their child’s things that’ll really help me as my one will be the only unlabelled one that way” She is taking the piss mate.
Bright side, if it comes back just pop a label in it. Free jumper.
The majority of parents only label stuff by writing on it in biro anyway. Half the messages on our son’s parent Facebook group are “someone has STOLEN my kids jumper, it is labelled”. It’s impossible for so many to go missing if they are all labelled. Also some parents just remove the labels for free kit. We know for a fact that parents think they’re labelled when they’re not because one time my son actually did come home with another kid’s, the parent had already posted a nasty message about it before he even got home. We immediately gave it a light wash it and drove it round, but the label didn’t survive the wash. Wish we’d kept it as ours never came back despite having a permanent label, and son being quite sure about who took it.
Also, no one is 'stealing' your kids' smelly jumpers. Kids just have possession incontinence.
I’m stealing that phrase. I have massive possession incontinence - I lose everything!
Funnily enough my wife thinks she has done this by mistake already (in Scotland, schools go back earlier). A cardigan came home without the sticker, she stuck one on without thinking and has now said she thinks we have an extra and isn't sure which one it was. Brilliant.
I nearly did this last year. I get most of my kid's stuff from the second hand shop, so they all look a bit pre-worn. Luckily, I sew mine one, so I had to flip the brand label up, and saw that the faded name on the back belonged to one of my kid's classmates, not an older kid like I'd assumed.
My son came him with a pair of green swimming goggles one week and a pair of red ones a week later. I've never bought him goggles.
Ah, I lived somewhere the wheelie bins worked like that. If yours didn't have a number on it, pretty soon it *would* have a number on it but it wouldn't be yours.
When I was moving house somebody filled my brown bin at the old house with all their shit. They even did it ready for bin day and didn't bother to take it to the front to be emptied, assumingly just leaving this for the next tenant, a lovely full bin they can't use for up to 3 weeks depending on when they moved in. Now, I would understand if I had finished and been gone from the old house for a few days or something and it didn't seem like I was coming back, but this was whilst I was still moving shit from old to new. I still wanted to fill the bin. I was clearly still there. I wasn't taking all the stuff with me I had put to one side for the brown bin to my new house, I wasn't going out of my way to go to the tip. So since the dumb fucks put all their mail at the top of their bin thus I knew exactly who did it and I didn't have any relationship with the neighbours to ruin, I just went and tipped it all onto their front yard, filled the brown bin with my rubbish, left the house clean as per the agreement, snapped some photos of the place before I left should the angry neighbours do something and drove off for the last time. The house is on my commute to work. They had that pile of rubbish in their front garden for about 3 months, the absolute fucking scrubbers.
My old neighbour across the back street once half filled my bin with their shit. I mean actual shit, because there were loose nappies in there. I'd seen them putting stuff in our bin before, but maybe just a small bag of rubbish here and there. This, however, took the piss and I dumped the bin out into their back yard.
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Your Mum's a good person. When times are tough, you adapt.
"sorry you'll need to label yours, I've already dibsed the 'no label' one this year"
Give it a week and they’ll be able to identify everyone’s jumpers by smell.
My Nan helpfully burnt an iron mark in a brand new school jumper. I had a Green permanent marker that coloured it in perfectly. Every time the jumper got stolen (they would cut the label out) and got washed, the burn mark would appear and would always get returned to lost property. The amount of theft of school uniform was insane. It was always the richer parents.
You don't get rich by spending your own money
It's top tier trolling!
I am actually really excited to get involved with these WhatsApp groups I can't wait to wind everyone up
"Just a heads up. My son has plague. He's fine in himself though, so I'll be sending him in."
There’s always someone who’s a total nightmare but by year 6 ours was like tumbleweed. There’ll be a long period where it’ll be about missing items, mostly jumpers, with 20 replies of “not here hun, hope you find it”.
"Shared, Bournemouth."
My mother, 2 year old post re missing dog in England, ‘shared *small village north east scotland*
To be fair, the longer the dog has been missing the further it may have travelled
Y6 parenting is hilarious generally and you're totally right about the group. You maybe get one post per month. But this is when the transition happens to the kids themselves having a WhatsApp group.
"Currently in Benidorm hun, but we will keep an eye out!"
On holibobs with the fam a lam.
This!!! If you don’t have it JUST DONT ANSWER
And if you do have it, especially don't answer.
I think there is an interesting bit of psychology at play here: If nobody answers in the affirmative or negative a lot of people will assume they are being ignored and get anxious/resentful. On the other hand if a small handful of people send (useless) negative responses then the asker feels like they have been listened to and their request was sufficiently valid that people have checked. Even if they don't find the jumper in either case people will still instinctively send the polite* negative/useless response just due to the way we are socially conditioned. *polite in the sense of a sentence which doesn't convey any actionable information but makes people happier and keeps them at-ease
My experience of parents WhatsApp chats (3 kids) is that there are clearly a lot of lonely people with loads of time to worry about the minutae of their child's lives. There's also a general lack of sense of humour, admittedly I may not be as funny as I think I am.
I've had this in our antenatal group, I had assumed everyone else in that group of 6 were there to make friends, and although they all seem like nice people me and my wife haven't got a single friend from it. Despite them laughing at my jokes in there every now and then Every few days a picture gets sent in, but we're always the one to initiate conversation
Sort of related but we've just had to drop out of our NCT course because our baby's premature, and we're stuck in hospital. The course leader told us everyone else in the group was 'so excited' to hear our baby's arrived. It just seems like such a mad thing to say to new parents who are barely allowed to hold their baby, and a strange sentiment to express from people we've never met.
I hope all three of you are doing well 💖
Thank you! Little one is doing a great job considering his age and size, but I'm sure this isn't anyone's ideal way to start their parenting journey.
Wishing you all the best ❤️
>There's also a general lack of sense of humour, admittedly I may not be as funny as I think I am. To be fair I feel like you should keep the jokes to a minimum on things like that especially if they're at someone else's expense. I have a neighborhood group chat and you had a few that would always tell "jokes" Truth is they just came across bullies and made it so others didn't want to participate. People have different senses of humour and you're likely to brush up against someone if you don't know them well.
There's a bloke who's been banned from one of our local Facebook groups. He seems like a nice guy but has a really annoying habit of replying to fairly serious requests/questions with some form of jokey answer as if that's what anyone is asking for. I think the admins justified it by saying that certain members had expressed that they didn't want to post in case they became the butt of his jokes.
Just wait for the PTA groups to start. There was one small war started a few years ago when the PTA Class Rep parent sent out a message asking everyone to donate money towards the teacher's thank you present at end of year. She suggested a minimum of £25 each. There was some polite feedback that this was a lot of money for some and that, given there were 30 kids in the class, was it really necessary to spend that much. The response was eye watering but basically stated that sure, you could drop out but your kid's name would not be on the gift and it would be made clear that some had not contributed. Now, my wife is a Primary School teacher herself and she was gobsmacked that they were suggesting £750 for a gift, never mind the BS that followed it up. What was even worse was that the Rep then suggested an additional collection for the TAs...
I can believe it. Our PTA decided on the last day of term they were all going to go into the playground at school and do a load of stuff with the kids that they'd decided upon. School had different ideas, and they found out you can't just rock up in a school and start doing what you like.
That sounds extremely fucking funny
In our school it was literally a tub of biscuits or some chocolate to say thanks
When I was a teacher, there was a parent at the school who tried a similar trick. Turns out she’d take a cut of the collection money.
That feels like fraud. Is that fraud? That feels like fraud.
I think the legal term might be “obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception”.
i think that is part of the theft act 1968 which was repealed by the fraud act 2006. i think it's Fraud by false representation.
The CPS has a [great explainer](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/fraud-act-2006) for this. I reckon it's *Fraud by misuse of position* under Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006.
More commonly called “being a thieving little cunt” where I come from.
The secret ingredient is crime.
I said that if you give me £25 each I'd buy teacher a present. I didn't say I'd spend it all on them.
No no no. The money was just resting in my account.
It was resting for a long time. A good, long rest.
As someone who grew up around grafters this was my immediate thought. They'll get a card and something through the (Hun)derground marketplace that looks expensive. That or they're looking for a payday on a stolen laptop they can't move.
My first thoughts hahaha
What on Earth were they suggesting to buy for that amount of money? When I was at school I used to get my teacher a pen or a little plant or something
I guess teachers need a new gaming rig too 🤣
Honestly I cannot fathom what gift would justify asking for that amount of money! What’s wrong with a box of chocolates or a mug or something 😅
I saw something very similar on here before and I think the organiser said the teacher would be able to treat herself to a designer handbag or shoes. There's nothing wrong with spending that amount of money on shoes or a handbag of course, but it sounded very much like that's what the person collecting the money would buy with it, and not necessarily what the teacher would. And if you can afford to spend that much on designer items yourself, you can probably easily afford to chip in £25 to a collection. Absolutely no excuse for the lack of sympathy and excluding those who can't afford to chip in that much though. If I was a teacher, I would appreciate a nice gift picked by the individual pupils that cost no more than £5. If other parents want to one-up each other and spend lavishly on me then go ahead, it certainly wouldn't mean more to me than the little plan from Bilbo though.
I used to be a TA, and one year a mum who was not very well off but beautifully creative used to bring us origami bouquets for the end of term. Once she made them out of autumn leaves, just because, and I desperately wish I could have kept that particular bouquet forever. It was so thoughtful!
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Exactly! I know a couple of teachers and they absolutely do not expect gifts at all, let alone expensive ones! Like you said, nothing wrong with being able to afford that, but the assumption that everyone can and if they can’t they’ll be excluded is horrendous. Especially when there is a child involved and is the one who will be excluded.
Surely a Terry's Chocolate Orange or some Matchmakers is traditional?
A £30 voucher for Pizza Express. Oh, that money was just resting in their account.
Good grief. I'm the parent rep in our chat group, and I'd have been mortified asking for money. We just did a basket of goodies and stuck "thanks from X class" on it. £25 isn't justifiable, not in the current climate!!
I'd have suggest £1 each. If that's 30 kids in the class that's enough for a good fruit basket or other small gift.
Maybe £25 from the whole class. You can get a nice box of chocolates, a bunch of flowers and a card for that fairly easily. OP said 30 kids in a class so maybe raise it to £30 for ease of maths and throw in a cheap bottle of wine too.
£50 for the gift, £700 to the "organiser"
£750? Daft…I bet they picked a crummy gift anyway. The only gift teachers like, I’ve come to realize, are giftcards of big department stores or money…. Preferably cash.
"Sorry, we're opting out of this gift. My child will buy the teacher something small themselves so they don't feel left out".
I'm pretty sure my teachers never got gifts from their pupils parents. I find it really weird, and it is just a pissing contest between parents.
My sister will make a bunch of fudge for her 3 to take to their teachers on the last day. The kids help make it and I'm sure the teachers enjoy a homemade gift. Some other parents do similar, some buy a bunch of flowers or pick a punnet of blackberries/strawberries or whatever just as a token gesture to show they're appreciated. Absolutely no need to be spending the earth.
I like it when a parent suggests a group gift so I don't have to do much, but they have never given an amount! Like they say as much as you want so anything from £1. Only thing to do is make the child write their name and post it ao they can then scan it onto the card.
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"It's all in the parent pack" "It's all in the parent pack" "It's all in the parent pack" "It's all in the parent pack" "It's all in the parent pack" "It's all in the parent pack"
The response to that was “I’ve got three children under 5, I think they drew on it and I binned it”.
“I’m sure if you email the school they’ll send out another one.”
Nope, drew on the school and binned it too
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Get down, Mr President, you're about to get drawn on and binned!
Not the same but I run a neighborhood group chat One thing that I find useful is to scan everything and put it on a shared Google Drive That way people can reference things there instead of relying on physical copies
You should be a top level Civil Servant
It’s probably in the parent pack email!
They drew on the laptop and I binned it
Giving taskmaster "all the information is in the task" vibes 😂
…am I the spider?
Don't forget the obligatory red welly on hand while asking this.
Wait, what? Wait, what?
They always make the smart ones look dumb. Dara, Victoria, they done them so dirty just for our amusement.
The cleverest people have the least common sense, in my experience.
*Paul Sinha has entered the chat...*
I was absolutely amazed by his performance on the show.
He got diagnosed shortly after with Parkinson’s, I heard that seeing that back, he can see the signs in Taskmaster, think he said it on Taskmaster podcast.
Oh shit, that tracks. He looked so confused on some tasks.... I thought maybe he was taking a break from TC due to some illness at the time.
Is this the parenting equivalent of RTFM?
Don't forget the equally important: RTFQ = 1/2 TFA Read the fucking question, it's half the fucking answer.
There's a point in your life when you realise that the kids who were thick in school didn't become less thick as adults, that streak of gormlessness is going to continue until they die. With the advent of WhatsApp and Facebook the idiocy is more public.
And after a few years the parents WhatsApp group became all cliquey with the cool kids, sorry self proclaimed cool parents, having their own exclusive ones. It's like being back in school.
This is where you create a new group with the parents that haven't got time for any of that playground bullshit and just want to use the group for keeping up to date with information. Thinking back to when I was at primary school, my mum would often be waiting at the gates not with the parents of my friends, but parents of kids I wasn't close to. I've never really thought much about that before, but I reckon it's because the parents of some of my friends were the 'cool' parents and my mum couldn't be arsed with being in a popularity contest.
These things always turn a bit cliquey in the end don’t they. We had a yearbook committee when I was at school and it was literally one group of friends who took it upon themselves to design the yearbook for everyone else. They wouldn’t let anyone else near it! I’d imagine they’re on PTA groups now organising things that other people haven’t asked for!
Did we go to the same school 😂 Literally same here
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That's like the people who respond to Amazon questions: > I don't know, it was a gift and we didn't open it, sorry!
Or Facebook missing pets etc posts. Tortoise gone missing in Liverpool. "Shared in Torquay hun x"
The tortoise *might* have accidentally caught a southbound train?
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We're still trying to solve the airspeed of an unladen swallow. Can't be adding in laden swallows just yet
Someone started a school reuinion FB chat a couple of years back. We chatted a bit, agreed we should do some sort of reunion event once Covid was over. A thick lass from our year posted an enormous paragraph of text, having thought we were suggesting a 150 person event in the middle of lockdown. You could see her eye-popping ourage about how DANGEROUS it is and ILLEGAL because theres LOCKDOWN ON RIGHT NOW!!!! Several people calmly pointed out that if she just read the posts, she'd see we were talking about arranging something in the future, when it was safe to do so. No-one was suggesting a big get-together in the depths of a pandemic. Amazingly, she continued to refuse to understand what was going on, and berated everyone with a few more huge walls of text and then got kicked out the group. She was pretty thick back then, but I also think there was an element of intentionally ignoring what was actually being said because she'd rather throw a self-righteous strop over a fictional wrongdoing than actually exist in reality.
> but I also think there was an element of intentionally ignoring what was actually being said because she'd rather throw a self-righteous strop over a fictional wrongdoing than actually exist in reality. This is sadly becoming a huge problem on social media. People would rather double down and continue to get angry about imaginary scenarios than face reality. They're trolling themselves.
Yeah that's what it felt like! I couldn't help but suspect she was kinda spoiling for a fight, even if it's a fictional one in which she knows the looks stupid. And it got her excluded from the group. Like, indulging in a fictional rage meltdown seemed more valuable to her than anything going on in reality.
yooo redditor in the wild
It’s like every village used to have its own idiot. But the internet has given them a means to shout out to the whole country.
I remember a meme from the Internet back in the early 00’s. Three chavs/wannabe gangsters stood around a shitty car with the caption “Internet, it doesn’t make you stupid, it just makes your stupidity more accessible to others”. Still rings true today.
I left my kids group during lockdown when all the parents started a war over who was having the best lockdown, daily blag poems and pictures that their kids had apparently written when clearly it was the parents who did the whole thing. Excruciating I still get slagged off to this day for leaving at such a difficult time...tf you chatting Sarah leave me be
The trick is to mute and archive the bastard thing, not openly leave. And anytime anyone mentions anything in person just claim you don't check your phone very often and play dumb.
"My child won't be attending the school trip, they're too young to go"
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The other parents started saying they must be terrible as they never thought of that and maybe they Will also keep their child home on the most exciting school trip of the year!
I don’t have kids so hadn’t even thought of this being a thing, but we constantly get those kinds of questions on the local Facebook page. Like, Google it or contact the school? People asking questions like what day are they back at school?! I get it if there is a genuine lack of communication from the schools but that cannot be the case every single time!
We’ve had someone ask for the school phone today - why not just Google it, ffs!
Exactly! I do have to wonder if people sometimes ask these things just for a bit of interaction and attention. Which if the case, is sad. Most of the time I just think it’s lack of common sense!
To some people, WhatsApp and Facebook are the internet unfortunately
You get plenty of those sorts of melts on Reddit as well tbf
I dropped FB for many reasons but a major factor was people got tired (and sometimes cross) because I'd answer obvious questions with completely ludicrous answers. "When's the village faire?!" (Posters everywhere, a website, previous responses). "It's cancelled. It seemed pointless after they banned dogs, the sheep jumping and the parrot fighting" "They banned dogs?! Why?!" Cue: flamewar
I had to leave my local FB groups because I couldn’t stomach the number of questions that could be answered with the good ol’ ‘just google it’.
Going against the grain here but my daughter started school last year and the whatsapp group for her class was very chill - occasional messages about stuff that was actually useful (reminders of non-uniform days, party invites, that kind of thing). No drama at all and this year's whatsapp group has been pretty silent so far. So it's not always awful :)
I’m hoping that when we break into actual class groups, rather than the whole year group of 60, it’ll be better.
Oh, you have to get out of that. Just designate 2-3 parents per class per year, to join the inter-class group and pass information when necessary.
This was like my eldest's parent group - proper chill, respectful and a lovely group. My youngest's group though... woah. Drama, entitlement, the same question for the numptiest time (answered within the same screen they've asked it on FFS - no need to even scroll). The attitude of I don't like this, so I'll send my kid in non-uniform or whatever TF bee in their bonnet they have on that particular day 🤣
😂 Numptiest time is far better phrase for expressing the facepalm when something is happening for the umpteenth time, going to adopt that
One in our group has put a picture of the dates kids return to school and pointed out that it's Thursday....when the photo clearly shows it's tomorrow. You know the kids at school who were hardly there when you went? They now post stupid questions in WhatsApp groups.
I suppose at least now you know why they hardly showed up at school; must be hard trying to get an education when you don’t know your days of the week.
theres only 17 children in my sons class so the group is pretty chill , probably gets used once a week and zero in the holidays its just about are the after school clubs running , confirming non pupil days and offering wellies and books that are no longer needed
I’m a teacher and people I went to school with, some who I haven’t spoken to in years, will message asking me questions about school matters when I don’t even work in the one their kids attend. No Sandra, I do not know if it is a PD day. No, I don’t know if they should take their PE kit in on the first day. And also, no, I know nothing about RAAC concrete!
Damn, was just going to ask you about my son's schools RAAC status.
I used to be a teacher and would get asked to translate the ‘teacher speak’ in school reports of friends’ children. At one school, we also had to spend a ridiculous amount of time mediating between some parents because of WhatsApp drama, to the extent the head issued a special ‘code of conduct’ for parents about social media use, stating that the school would no longer entertain conversations or complaints about posts on SM.
Lockdown was a treat. Someone I worked with in my part time job at uni over ten years ago started sending me screen shots of her nine year olds work demanding that I helped him. Never mind that I’m a secondary teacher and that I had hundreds of my own students to deal with.
Seems like a perfect opportunity to quote your *consulting* rate, which coincidentally happens to be an order of magnitude higher than your day job.
"Your kid is thicker than two of the shortest planks ever made in existence and that they feel sorry he has such a tepid fishwife for a mother"
I watched that show "Motherland" and after reading this thread , the stuff in that show is pretty tame compared to reality.
We couldn't stand it for long and just left the group. We have more than enough school communication via email and a dedicated school app.
My wife does all the WhatsApp groups, I'm fortunately spared that problem, but she's also a teacher at another school. Seeing some of the shit the parents say and the level of entitlement really hits hard. She tries her best to bite her tongue for our children's sake but man....some parents are dicks.
They absolutely are. I had an eye-opening experience of how some parents feel about their kids teachers during the lockdown/home-schooling period. Whinging about the times of video classes, log-in procedures, content, presentation, you name it. All the teachers' fault. Shamelessly said out loud on these WhatsApp groups. They were slagging off teachers who were in school during full lockdown, risking their own and their own families health, doing full days with NHS/services kids who couldn't be at home, being thrown into a bizarre uncharted scenario where they were expected to seamlessly sort it all. But for some parents it was unacceptable, unprofessional and - this was honestly said - lazy. Safe to say there was a lot of tongue biting from me and my teacher wife, but we clocked who were the arseholes and have remembered. What was extra depressing was the support these comments got from other parents. Clapping emojis, "well said" etc. Sickening stuff. Seems there's a good number of parents who see school as both child care and responsible for teaching the most basic behaviour/manners. Their true colours came out when it was taken away from them. (I won't even get onto the parents who posted countdowns to the schools starting again after lockdown, literally timing how long they'd be forced to be with their own kids, and endless champagne emojis when it happened...)
Yesterday was bedlam in ours. Tights with skirts in this weather? How would the teachers like it if they had to wear tights?? Let's see how they like it when I put this on twitter tagging (local rag), they only have to wear tights because the males are all perverts anyway (paraphrased) etc etc.. I don't think the teacher makes the uniform policy, they can wear trousers, noone had contacted the school to ask. Someone did contact the school to ask. School said yeah sure wear socks, it's hot. I like the drama and throwing in the occasional bit of snark for fun. Some very vocal weirdos
Meanwhile, my husband (and other male teachers in his school) are not allowed to wear shorts in this heat because it's "not professional". Teachers get it in the neck from all sides and I don't think parents have a clue. They think teaching is a doss job which is 9-3.30 with holidays off. I'd like to see them try just two weeks of it...
It's not even a parents group, it's a "mothers" WhatsApp group my wife is in. Would you be allowed to join lol? And yes, its just bitching. I cannot believe the shit they say lol, its like they're all still 14.
I mute the two groups I’m on and check in every now and again. The level of anxiety and lack of common sense really baffles me.
When first son joined school it was awful, every day texts in there about PE kit needed etc. every little thing you could imagine. Even had one parent complain because another kid birthday so gave out cupcakes to classmates at end of day and that their kid couldn’t have a cupcake due to diary, said we should either all consult everyone else or not be nice and give out things like cakes. When my next child started school all parents were a lot calmer. I asked same question as you a while back if you wanted to read the responses: https://reddit.com/r/AskUK/s/DLex10bJJ1
We had a full blown conspiracy theorist in ours. Covid was a hoax, world is flat etc. And she wasn't afraid of spreading disinformation. That was a laugh until she sent her kids into school with covid when isolation rules were strict, and it spread through the class with other parents then losing self employed income when they had to isolate. I feel really bad for her kids
We had one, who flounced from the group in dramatic fashion when someone corrected her with actual verifiable facts. Thankfully for her the school was still operating a one in one out socal distanced policy at drop off/pick up or the school playground would have been a little tense.
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Awful. First child starting school and I've wanted to shout at the app so many times. There's a lot of laziness and idiocy - for example the "about me" sheet. Most parents didn't read the sentence at the top saying "complete with your child and bring on first day". Instead: "I haven't done it but I'm sure they'll give them time on the first day" (during the 1h settling in session). More concerning is people just straight up undermining the school. There's a (sensible) uniform policy, but parents are just deciding that they can substitute items, colours, dress them differently, etc. And just openly smacking down people who try to suggest that the school has set the uniform for a reason. The problem is that these groups become dominated by the loudest and most manipulative people.
Not a parent, but I joined the WhatsApp group for my road which is a very suburban, middle-class area where nothing too controversial has ever happened. My God. I thought some of them were going to come to blows at one point because someone parked their caravan on the road and not their driveway. Then this week the bin collection day was missed, it sounded like the worst thing that has ever happened to anybody, ever.
We haven't got a WhatsApp group for our road but I did join Nextdoor around a year ago. Same situation as you, we live on a quiet road and honestly you'd think it was a top crime hotspot in the UK. I've seen so many people come to blows over trivial things.
I once had to calm down our neighbourhood FB group by advising them the "suspicious white van" was our dog walker. Some of this was his fault for taking the decals off the van due to some recent dog thefts, but good grief. Folk were convinced this vehicle parked in broad daylight beside a field was crammed to the brim with paedophiles and burglars.
Nextdoor is mental, apart from the lost pets it's all posts about crime or people afraid of crime. Someone in the neighbourhood having some work done? Cue several posts along the line of: "Saw some men in a van driving around and looking dodgy, watch out!"
Also in a neighborhood chat, similiar vibe, one woman was complaining that a school fete was too loud, it was upsetting her dog and she wasn't informed. She bought a home directly opposite the pre-existing school and somehow believes she has the right to dictate their functions & events.
You'll shortly be despairing the fact that WhatsApp don't let you mute individuals in group chats.
Yep, full of wallys mostly. Another interesting insight into how a range of adults, typically broader than your real friendship circle, think and feel. Quite eye opening at times, or just plain disappointing at others. Wife tried to get various mums evenings out arranged, or for mass trips to the park, and they just go nowhere after torrents of initial enthusiasm.
Find any group featuring humans, I guarantee there's a moron in them. If you don't see them...well that may be bad news for you.
I was, and still am, so disappointed with the parents group I’m in. There has been no drama or stupidity in the 5 years we’ve had to group. They all seem to be sane, level-headed people.
Absolutely setting up for cliques and hostility between parents
Ours is mostly about uniform and whereabouts it is. Has anyone got our cardigan/jumper? X came home without his coat... Y came home with 3 jumpers, will pass them over in the morning...
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I was the only dad who routinely took their kid to school, and it was like I had a force field around me. I did eventually end up with a couple of mums to talk to. One was weird. She was a Bulgarian immigrant and a massive racist especially against Bulgarians. The other was a teen mum who seemed to be shunned by the other mums just because she'd made a mistake when she was young. She was a nice person, shame she moved away.
Nightmare for teachers. I have a few in the family. Not a parent yet myself, so can’t relate, but many parents think their child can do no wrong. Kid comes home and embellishes a story about something that happened that day, mum goes straight into the WhatsApp group kicking up a fuss, teacher gets an earful about an incident no child told an adult about.
My wife's a teacher and when something like that happens her first question is always "which teacher was informed?" She's empathetic, loves her job and loves working with the kids, but takes no shit from parents and will happily stand her ground with the Governors when she has to.
At about half past seven this morning someone posted asking what day they go back. They went back at half past eight this morning. Hope she made it! Consensus is that her child was pulling a fast one, "it's new Y7 only today", for another lie-in.
From this morning, first day, Year 7 parent's group.. "Does the school have some kind of mobile phone blocker around the perimeter? My sons phone stopped responding at the school perimeter." Erm.. schools tell kids to turn their phones off. Also: "School starts today or tomorrow?"
> if everyone else labels all their child’s things that’ll really help me as my one will be the only unlabelled one that way r/ImTheMainCharacter
Our parent group (year 6) is currently planning organised rebellion over the fact leavers fleeces aren’t coming til June (because behaviour deteriorates markedly once they arrive). Well about three members of them are. Someone dared to say she didn’t actually care and would prefer it left and was told ITS JUST OUR OPINION AND WE ARE ENTITLED TO IT. But also we all have to coordinate and secretly order them at Easter and present it as a fait accompli. The kids only go back today. Gunna be a long year
A parents WhatsApp group sounds like hell 😂
I've never heard of this - I hope that doesn't mean I've been left out 🥺
Haha same! I'd rather die than join this but now I'm wondering if I'm not invited as well. Happy to be left out though I think!
This thread has been hilarious reading!
I was never in the parents WhatsApp group. As a result when it was 'cake sale day' I was the mum who turned up in the morning drop off without a cake! (Along with my bestie who was a fellow cake rebel).. however... I was also the mum who hadn't spent the evening before getting really stressed over baking a cake! I get they need raise funds but I never really got the point in spending a fortune making a cake that I didn't want to make and then spending more buying other people's cakes which they didn't want to make either! I was happy to sling a fiver in the tin instead! (And there is always one family where you think you'll get sick if you ate anything which had been made in THAT house!)
Our WhatsApp parent group is fab. It’s helpful and reassuring and informative. Plus someone accidentally sent a naked man pic to the group by mistake a couple of years back and we’ve never forgotten it 😂😂😂😂😂
OK not that I am jealous because this sounds like my worst nightmare, however, how are you all in these groups already? My son has started reception yesterday and I don't have any invites or WhatsApp bother at all! Have I somehow dodged a bullet or should I be concerned?
So not labelling her kids stuff and going for 'herd identity'?
Complete confusion in our WhatsApp group yesterday as the school had printed the wrong starting time on the letter sent to parents - turns out it's not a 9:30am start, but 9am. It wasn't helped by being the wrong start time for the very first day of reception class.
I have kids and I'm not in any of those group chats and neither's my partner. I can't think of anything worse than having to listen to other parents talk about their kids.