I can't believe I forgot my best one. This one even included a visit from DHS!
The parent came to me when her friend and current provider closed her daycare. I knew the previous provider and knew she closed because she had burnt out quickly. The family was only with me a short time but it was obvious why the previous provider burnt out.
First the mother wanted me to spoon feed her perfectly normal/healthy 4 year old. The were still doing it at home because she was so messy at meal times. Of course I had to nip that in the bud and even gave them some handouts about parenting (importance of self-help skills/feeding etc.) Mom was not happy.
Mom would come from drop off/pick up and hang around for HOURS! The first thing I tried was just ignoring her and going about my day as if she wasn't there. The last straw was when I was reading a book out loud to the group and she started reading a book out loud to her daughter. It was ridiculous the kids didn't know who/what they should listen to. It was over 9 years ago so I don't remember how I got her to stop hanging around at pick up/drop off but it did stop quickly after that incident. I do remember that she then tried coming during nap time and after hours to "hang out" which I didn't allow.
Then she wanted me to write her a receipt every week. I've never given weekly receipts (I give an end of the year W-10) and this is in my contract. I told her that her check (she always wrote checks) should serve as a receipt but that if she wanted more she was more than welcome to buy a receipt book, fill everything out each week and I would sign it.
The final straw ended with her call to DHS. It was winter and mom brought the child's snowsuit and remarked that it was a beautiful day to play outside. We didn't play outside a lot that winter because I had two infants but they were gone that day and I only had older children so I decided we would do it. I was about 6 months pregnant at the time but took them all out to a big snow hill across the street that had been created after plowing. I was standing at the top of the hill watching them play when parents of siblings came for pick up. I could see my driveway from the hill and the parents could hear me call out so they walked over and got their children. A while later my then landlord drove by and made fun of me ("Are you having fun up there, ha ha") because he couldn't see the kids from the street (they were on the other side of the hill) so it looked like my pregnant self was just standing on top of the snow hill.
Anyway we went back home after a bit and when the mom picked up she asked me how her daughters day went and I said, "she had fun playing on the snow hill" and then we got into a little power struggle about the receipt issue and they left. They didn't come the next day but DHS did and the accusations were that I had let the child go outside in extreme weather, that the child was not supervised and outside by herself playing across the street.
Luckily it was easy to look up the weather report for the day, my landlord and the parent that picked up the siblings saw me out there and I had pictures I took of them playing while I was on the hill. It was cleared up quick but I was bamboozled. The parents could have asked their 4 year old what happened but because I said "she had" instead of "we had" fun playing in the snow they jumped to conclusions.
The parents were college professors and I don't think the mom liked that I wouldn't do what they wanted me to do (spoon feeding and receipts, that I gave them advice on parenting (the child was adopted and they were clueless about child development) and that I didn't want to be mom's new best friend.
A few years later mom came over to my house frantically searching for her daughter. They only lived a few blocks over and the child hadn't gotten off at her bus stop. Mom was hoping she got off at my bus stop because she trusted me.
I called the bus garage and school and got it figured out but it took all of my will not to ask mom if she had checked across the street.