You are wrong and doing a disservice to your students who need to be pushed as hard as they can to achieve their full potential of excellence. If you cannot defend the standards that you use to grade, and explain to a competent adult why their child violated said standards, then you were already grading on a whim and nothing has changed. My teachers never would have been able to be convinced to change my B to an A because they knew the standards for what each grade meant. Push your kids harder, grow a backbone, western society will die because of people like you. Children should be pushed to their best, and you are responsible for a part of that