Many parents will have experienced the dreaded moment of getting a call during a busy work day and seeing the phone number of your children's school flashing up on the caller ID.
Whether it's to report a vomiting bug or detention - it's usually never good news.
But sometimes it can be to report something downright bizarre, as proven by a new thread in parenting forum Mumsnet.
One curious mum kicked things off by asking: "What's the strangest call you've ever had from your child's school?"
The replies show just how much of a journey parenting can be: there was news as terrifying as a school fire and accusations of 'sexual harassment', along with some as minor as a child getting in the lunch queue.
Here are some of our top picks:
- "You know that cold feeling when the phone goes and its school? A few years ago mine went on pancake day. The school receptionist said: 'We're sorry about this but [your child] has been hit over the head with a frying pan'. Thankfully it turned out to be only a very light, one and they'd been having a pancake race when he tripped, the boy behind him tripped and somehow in the tangle the frying pan whacked him on the head!"
- "It was lunchtime in reception [for my child], I think she'd only been there a week or so. The school phoned to say: 'We're sorry, [she's] eaten all the cucumber off the salad bar and we don't know what to do about it'."
- "The school called whilst I was at work, and told the receptionist the NEEDED to speak to me ASAP. My darling son, aged five, had joined the wrong lunch queue. He had taken sandwiches, but had joined the dinner queue with his friends, and had had a school dinner."
- "Before everyone had a mobile... my aunt was in a meeting at work, when her assistant burst in to inform everyone that my cousin's school was on fire."
- "'Good afternoon Ms Frocks, we need to have a chat about little Pru. We've had new security cameras installed in the playground and he's taken to flashing his willy at them.'"
- "I got urgently called away from seeing a patient to take the dreaded call from the school - she had hiccups and they wanted to know what I wanted them to do about it."
- "Apparently my son (under 7) was being sent home for sexual harassment of a class mate. He had claimed one day he would get to kiss his friend John. I mean really? They're both 12 now and still mates. No snogging ever. And John's mother has no issues that my son is a sex offender in the making."
- "Darling son was drinking from puddles in the playground because he wanted to know what they tasted like."
- "[They said] 'You need to come immediately, he has a very suspicious looking rash.' I rushed to school. "That's a birthmark,' I said. 'I know it looks unusual, therefore have told you about it on numerous occasions to avoid this situation'. They asked me if I was sure. I said I was sure, it was checked when he was born and he is now five and it's exactly the same."
