Parents who do not
Parents think it's acceptable not to discipline their children, as "that's what school is for". No it's not. You had them, you care for them or I will shout at them for kicking me in the supermarket/playing chicken/throwing stones at my car...

Parents who expect the school to sort out all the health problems the child has, including nits and tapeworms... (My aunt's a school nurse. Some of the stories she comes out with are terrifying.)

Parents who think it's acceptable to encourage their children to smoke and drink by buying them cigarettes and buckfast to take out to the local carpark with their mates, and then think nothing of their darlings coming home in the back of a police car or taken to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Fair play to the parents who allow supervised drinking in their house and clear up after their children, but they are few and far between.

Parents who, during school holidays, kick the 7, 8 or 9 year old out first thing, without a key, and don't expect to see them again till later at night and then the mother spends most of the evening standing on the doorstep screaming their child's name, while the child is down the road in a friend's house playing the Xbox/WII/Playstation after having been fed lunch and tea. (By aforementioned pleasant parents.)

I live near Edinburgh and this has all happened within the last 6 months...
(WeeJen, Thu 27 May 2010, 22:14, 7 replies)

'Parents who, during school holidays, kick the 7, 8 or 9 year old out first thing, without a key, and don't expect to see them again till later at night '
This used to happen to me, over 40 years ago. I learned from it that my parents didn't want me around. Profound, eh.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 28 May 2010, 9:22, closed)

'Parents who, during school holidays, kick the 7, 8 or 9 year old out first thing, without a key, and don't expect to see them again till later at night '
I had an ace time when I was kicked out for the day. I used to climb trees, see how far I could walk before I decided I had to start walking home. Tried to find new places that I have never been to before. If everyone kicked their kids out on a sunny day there wouldn't be so many fat ugly kids about.
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Fri 28 May 2010, 9:58, closed)

Less fat kids, yeah - but how does climbing a tree make you less ugly?
(Freakmandu, Fri 28 May 2010, 10:32, closed)

The ugly tree
leaf camoflage
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Fri 28 May 2010, 10:46, closed)

nitpicking I know but
S'not really a profession is it?
(unclestinky, Fri 28 May 2010, 19:39, closed)

It's close enough.
with the amount you can get paid for it.
(Banjo-Jeff I don't play a banjo, and I'm not called Jeff., Sat 29 May 2010, 21:57, closed)

Due to the amount of money they get from the government, there are definitely some career mothers out there! :)
(WeeJen, Sun 30 May 2010, 18:25, closed)