10 parents from hell you meet during tuition in Singapore

In any given year, ManyTutors helps 30,000 tutors find tuition jobs. As you can imagine, we know all the dark secrets of the tuition industry in Singapore and have amassed a collection of out of this world customer horror stories witnessed by some tutors.

Naturally, there are awesome parents / students combinations but this is not that list. This is the other kind of list. Here’s a toast to some of the worst ones as recounted by some tutors.

These are TRUE stories of the parents from hell you meet during tuition in Singapore, but luckily, only 1% of customers are like this.

• Let’s say you are a tutor and you teach whole heartedly.
  You talk a lot but you made the fatal mistake of eating a McSpicy burger just before the tuition session. So in a span of two hours, it is only fair that you use the toilet once or twice to relief yourself. This is only understandable. Now, imagine receiving a bill of $0.50 each time you flush the toilet at the end of the month. Yes, this parent eavesdropped outside the la la room to count the number of flushes. What else is she counting?

• Similar scenario.
  You are teaching a child Probability and you are thirsty. Being the math genius you are, you prepared your own water bottle as the odds of being thirsty while teaching is high. The parent however passes by and recommends an awesome tea her husband brought back from (country removed).
  “Try it. Try it.” Upon her urging, you decided to take the plunge. It was delicious.
  Same ending. At the end of the month you are docked $1.00 per cup during your payment. (Don’t laugh, it’s all true.)

• It seems that some parents are always looking for excuses to dock the tutor’s pay.
  We have heard accounts of pay docked for using tissue paper, allegedly passing a flu to the student, students getting low grades etc…

• Some parents will drag paying.
  No cash, forgot it’s the end of the month, lost wallet etc…

• Parents who don’t pay at all. Nuff said.

• This sixth point is strangely common.
  Two weeks into a newly arranged tuition session we sometimes receive a phone call requesting us to change out the tutor with someone else. So we asked: “What’s wrong”.
  The answerer is always sheepish. “Your tutor is too pretty / handsome, she is distracting my son / daughter.”

• Similar scenario above. 
  But this time its “Your tutor is too pretty. She is distracting my husband.”
  If anyone ever asks you for negatives of being too good looking, the above are two.

• The creepy parent who tries to hit on undergrad tutors.

• Some parents will think the tutor is not elite enough.
  For example the son is from GEP, straight As in Primary and Secondary school but the tutor has a B+ in O Levels.

• Finally, parents who refuse to pay you after you buy assessment books with their explicit consent.