Coaches who work with youth athletes have to have an extra level of patience.

Sometimes for their kids, but more often, for their parents.

In this case, a mom was angry that a coach followed protocol instead of allowing her daughter to lie her way into her preferred practice.

Read more to find out how the coach handled it.

“Why won’t you let my daughter lie to you!?”

I am a gymnastics coach, and I generally love my job.

I work with the upper level girls, the ones that go out and compete, even though I’m considered pretty young (college age) to be coaching teams.

We’re a pretty small gym and the parents are, for the most part, great to work with. But there is one. Ohhhhh there is always that one.

There is indeed always one.

This mom, a woman who takes pride in the fact that she is a children’s therapist and basically a glorified tutor, is the most “I’m their friend first, and their parent second.” person I have ever met in my life when it comes to her children.

She brought her daughter, Entitled Mini Witch (EMW for short), to our program just under 4 years ago.

Now, EMW is talented, but because her mother lets her get away with murder, she is one of the most lazy, rude, and miserable children I have ever had to work with.

I am absolutely heated in a conversation that happened during my lunch break, and I just need to get this out of my system before going back for the team’s second work out because I’m still livid.

She just wanted a breather.

I’m eating at the front desk and sorting through paperwork, because it’s easier for me to just stay there rather than drive all the way back home then all the way back to the gym, and there are no classes during the afternoon, so my boss is fine with it.

This mother storms into the gym, marches straight up to the desk and says, “Ginger24, I am absolutely shocked and appalled by what EMW told me today, but I know kids can exaggerate, so I wanted to come talk to you before going to [Owner].”

Awh shoot. I know exactly what’s coming.

Here are the details.

This girl came to practice 20 minutes late, we were almost done with warm up, and she was being generally unpleasant.

But its two-a-days, and mornings suck, so I was trying to be understanding. I got nothing but backsass and “I can’t do [event she doesn’t like], my ankle hurts.”

Yet, when we got to an event she enjoyed, she was magically healed.

I was having none of it. But like the good little peon I am, I responded with, “Oh, uhm, okay. What did EMW tell you about practice?”

And here is mom’s side.

Mom: “She said that you made her condition for the whole practice while everyone else was working out. All practice! She was in tears by the time she got home because you were so rude to her”

Alright, now I’m kind of agitated, but I expected this kind of thing.

This sounds like a typical case of a 13 year old girl who is blatantly manipulating her mother.

But the coach played it cool.

Regardless, I know this family, and I know that trying to explain this would go in one ear, and out the other, so I respond in my most sickly-sweet customer service voice.

“Ah, well, I’m sorry EMW was crying after practice, but I was trying to keep her as healthy as possible. See, when she got here late I asked her to warm up on her own while we went to tumbling. As soon as she finished she got through two turns before complaining that her ankle hurt. I had her sit and ice it for 10 minutes, take the ice off for 5, then had her come try tumbling again. She said it still hurt, so I had her do the “Leg/Ankle Injury” conditioning list so that she was still working while giving her ankle a break.”

The setup couldn’t have been better.

Mom: “Okay, but then why didn’t you let her do Trampoline?”

Understandable question, but I was so sick of this girl coming up to me, demanding to do trampoline, insisting that her ankle felt better, and that I was just a horrible, mean person, that I had had enough of the way she was treating me.

I explained to the mother that, “If the impact of using nothing but a spring floor and her own momentum caused pain in EMW’s ankle so badly that she couldn’t tumble, adding a trampoline into that mix would absolutely cause her excruciating pain. I didn’t want her to further injure herself, so I had her finish the list.”

Of course, Mom couldn’t just let it go.

This is where it gets insane. This is where I legitimately expect to lose my stuffing. Her mom decided to inform me, “EMW was just being dramatic. I’m sure her ankle wasn’t as bad as it seemed, she just doesn’t like tumbling. I’m sure you know that. She wanted to do trampoline though and I don’t understand why you wouldn’t let her just because she was pretending to get hurt.”

What? No, seriously, what?

My mind was absolutely blown. I was so infuriated I was tempted to kick her out right then and there.

But alas, I kept my voice steady and my smile permanently plastered as I informed this mother, “I’m sorry Mrs. [last name], here at [gym name] we take athlete health and injuries very seriously. I had no way of knowing whether EMW’s ankle was barely twisted, or about to fall off. I had nothing but EMW’s word to decide what to do. When an athlete says they are in that much pain, I cannot, in good conscience, allow them to further injure themselves. If EMW wants to be a part of gymnastics, she has to practice gymnastics. If she wants to be a part of trampoline, there is a [name of a business with wall to wall trampolines and a history of a lot of injuries that is pretty popular on the west coast] about 20 minutes away.”

I think the younger woman won here.

She huffed out and said that EMW wasn’t feeling well and would not be coming to night practice today.

I asked that she make sure EMW gets some ice on that ankle as she walked out the door.

I called the owner as soon as the mother left and let her know what happened.

She just laughed and said she’d take care of it if she got a call.

This mom is having a rough time.

I know Reddit doesn’t feel sorry for her, though.

No question about it.

Inquiring minds need to know.

Always stay calm and professional.

At least someone is on her side.

I’ll get in line.

Parenting can be hard.

But that doesn’t mean she can make it someone else’s problem.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.