Parents Expected A Teacher To Write And Send Out The Birthday Party Invitations For Their Kid

Teachers are chronically overworked and underappreciated. As if they didn't have enough on their plates — teaching students, lesson planning, managing student behavior, the list goes on — one student's parent decided to add yet another thing to their teacher's plate. 

A parent expected their child’s teacher to write and send out party invitations for their child’s birthday.

"Yesterday, a parent asked me for a class list so they can invite all the kids to the birthday party," teacher and author Katie Larson explained. "And I'm invited to the birthday party, too."

She happily sent over the class list and the next day was handed a stack of invitations to put into the mailboxes — at least that's what she assumed. 

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“The last 20 minutes of the day, I was gonna do it. I was gonna stuff the invitations in the envelopes and then put them in the mailboxes,” the teacher shared. However, when she opened up the invitations, she realized that only one of them had been written on and the rest were blank. 

“That parent had messaged me during the day with the information, and I thought that was for me because I was invited,” she admitted.

She soon realized that the parents expected her to write out all of the invitations, stuff them in the envelopes, and put them in the students’ cubbies — something far beyond the job description of any teacher. 

Since she had been teaching all day, there was understandably no time for her to do so. And frankly, even if she had the time to spare, it's the parent's responsibility to write the invitations for their own child's birthday party.

“I responded I can’t write all these invitations out and I sent them home with the class list,” the teacher reported.

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Others could not believe the expectations the parent put on the already very busy teacher.

“Absolutely not. The audacity is loud,” one TikTok user commented.

“The fact that parents think teachers have time to address and stuff party invitations. We don’t have time to use the BATHROOM, ma’am!!!” another user noted.

“Is she going to make you help at the party if you go?” a third commenter could not help but wonder.

antoniodiaz | Shutterstock

Teachers are not paid to be parent assistants and deserve more respect.

While it was kind of the parent to extend the invitation to her child’s teacher, this should not automatically make the teacher their right-hand man or require her to do any work outside of the scope of her job.

According to research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, when it comes to actual hours worked, including outside of the classroom, grading papers, doing lesson plans, etc., teachers average a 10-11-hour day. Additionally, 30% of teachers report bringing work home with them in an effort to catch up. That doesn't exactly leave a lot of extra time for doing administrative tasks for entitled parents. 

Her day is already packed enough; she certainly does not have the time to write out 15+ party invitations for all of her students. That is solely the responsibility of a parent.

A teacher’s job is to handle the educational aspects of children’s lives, which does not include birthday parties that happen outside the classroom.

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Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.