Teachers how about a PARENT Rant

[Danauk]

My rants from just last week.

1) The parent who asked if we could do something to get her child to school on time each day. This child lives a 2 minute walk from school and mum does not get up on a morning to see her child off, so how about you get out of bed and walk him here?!!! The child is 10 years old.

2) The parent who came in shouting and swearing that their child had not been picked for the school sports team. Eerm, perhaps if you had signed the permission slip for your child to stay behind after school to practice for the sports team then they would actually stand a chance of being picked. If your child does not attend practice then they will not get picked.

3) My current favourite one. At my school we provide free school meals for children whose parents are on income support (I teach in England so our rules may differ from in the US). Anyway we do not have a kitchen on site so the meals are cooked at the high school down the road and then brought to our school in heated containers. Each day our secretary has to phone the lunch order through so they know how much to send. Anyway the parent of the child in point number 1 wanted to know if we could just order her son a meal anyway even if he wasn't in school when the order was phoned through. We told her that if her son was at school, on time when the order was placed then a meal would be ordered for him as we did not know if he would be here for the meal or would be absent that day. If he was not here on time she would need to bring a packed lunch to school for him. She said that she probably wouldn't be able to make it up to school (even though she does not work and has no other children at home) if a meal was not ordered for him, then he would have to do without.

 

[barkley]

or the ones who knowingly permit their kids to ignore the rules on dress code or "banned" characters on backpacks, folders and the like (and by buying the stuff for them are in my opinion openly supporting the violations). k-3 kids have a real hard time understanding that following the rules is more important than getting to wear their favorite disney character or superhero on a shirt for even one day, so the teachers have to deal with the questions from the other kids, and the parents have to deal with the "why can't i just ONCE?" whining.

and with the older ones the parents who let them get the banned hair colorings done or the facial piercings and then manage to delay addressing it long enough to let the kid spend weeks flaunting the violation

 

[Mskanga]

I have seen arguments between parents and teachers that I can't help it but wonder if the parents behave like this , what can you expect from the kids? Like I said my kids are not bad kids by any means but they are no saints either , and if they can try something and get away with it , chances are they will.

 

[barkley]

oh i remembered another-the parent who brought their kid to school as the kid is eating a pop tart, their snack is a sugar loaded granola bar, their lunch is fruit punch (with no fruit listed as a content anywhere on the lable), carmel apple dippers (peices of apples with carmel sauce to dip them in-the kid licks the carmel sauce off and throws away the apple), a jelly sandwich, chocolate milk and a fruit pie for dessert (again no real fruit in the pie-just fruit flavoring )-then gets upset that the kid is having problems settling down and focusing! um, gee-maybe it was the fappachino they told me they finished before they got out of the car??????

 

[Missy1961]

Although not a teacher, I don't blame you for starting this thread one bit. I'm so tired of all the teacher-bashing that goes on here, and after spending the last five years volunteering at ds's school and listening to the complaints of ds's classmates' parents ("Oh, my sweet Johnny would *never* lie, cheat, hit...!"), I couldn't have more respect for the men and women who are not only teachers, but nurses, psychologists, mediators, banks, referees, nutritionists, etc...the list goes on and on.

There will always be those who are poorly suited for their chosen professions--teachers, doctors, lawyers, whatever--but it disheartens me so to see the generalizations made about teachers, and the Us vs. Them mentality that is often so pervasive both here and IRL.

You all have my utmost respect and admiration--and at times, great sympathy for the unnecessary distractions with which you must deal on a daily basis.

What she said!

 

[lyeag]

Not teaching right now, but how about the parents who take their kids out of school to babysit younger siblings because they can't find a babysitter?


or

How about the parents who send their children to school in designer clothing but can't afford to buy posterboard for a project?

How about the parents who call to find out what they can do to raise a child's grade AFTER report cards come out. (mind you, these are the ones who never seemed to make it to conferences)

or

How about the parent who says, "I don't know what to do with him/her. What do you think I should do for (insert problem)? Gee, I see your kid for 44 minutes a day, and you think I know your child better than you do?

 

[cinmell]

how about the parents who take their kids out of school to babysit younger siblings because they can't find a babysitter?

People do this??

 

[tinkerbellmom31]

I am in total agreement there. I wish our school had an ID card that parents could 'load' lunch money on.

Thats what my kids school district does and I LOVE it.

 

[daisyduck123]

I had a 2nd grader once who didn't come to school one day (she was absent a lot, & in the LOW reading group). I called home to talk to her mom about something & the little girl answered the phone. I said, "Jenny, why aren't you in school today?"

She replied, "I can't find my shoes."

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Not teaching right now, but how about the parents who take their kids out of school to babysit younger siblings because they can't find a babysitter?

I had to do this once and I don't fault my mother for one bit--though at the time I was very sad b/c I missed Philly Phanatic day at school (philly pa area).

My (evil, nasty, dimented --but I digress) step=granmother was the caregiver for my brother and I when we were little (and she was technically part of the family).

My mother leaves for work at 5am for the base (Navy).

I wake up and go to school.

Step-grandmother was evidently VERY VERY sick one day. However--told noone, didn't call my mother. Nothing. I came home from school and my then 1-2 yo brother was still in bed...with a dirty diaper. Hadn't left his room all day long (one to not break the rules and my mom later found out some abuse was happening ) and wanted breakfast at 3:00 in the afternoon. I told my mom when she got home from work.

Evil nasty dimented lady--told mom she would be fine the next day, but she jsut didn't trust it and she had me stay home from school.

turns out evil nasty dimented woman was indeed fine and was up just fine and dandy the next day after pleading illness.

So I missed school to be mentally tortured by the strange lady.

My mother wasn't a bad parent for it.(ETA: she was worried and it's the military--she was unable to call in that day)

Later abuse was discovered and evil dimented rotten lady flew the coop and my mother found us a very loving caregiver to take care of us .

 

[Aidensmom]

How about the parent who says, "I don't know what to do with him/her. What do you think I should do for (insert problem)? Gee, I see your kid for 44 minutes a day, and you think I know your child better than you do?

Just a parents perspective on this. I have asked my son's Pre-K teachers advice before. I figure that since they have an early childhood degree, they might have some insight that I lack as a first-time parent. I'd take it as a compliment that someone wanted your advice, it means they respect your opinion.

 

[Pixiedust34]

My dh is a teacher and told me to add this to your list: How about the students who come to your class every day without a pencil, yet they always have a cell phone in their pocket?!

Or students who claim that buying a newspaper for a homework assignment now and then (dh teaches social studies/current events) is too expensive, yet they own all of the latest electronic gadgets and games on the market.

Or parents who write notes saying Junior couldn't do his homework because he was busy watching wrestling on TV.

 

[Marseeya]

I had a 2nd grader once who didn't come to school one day (she was absent a lot, & in the LOW reading group). I called home to talk to her mom about something & the little girl answered the phone. I said, "Jenny, why aren't you in school today?"

She replied, "I can't find my shoes."

Call me a bad parent, then, because that happened to me!!!

One morning we were getting DD ready for school and one of her shoes was missing. Hmmmm, wonder what happened to the shoe??? Hmmmm... She had another pair of shoes, but they just happened to be in daddy's car all the way in Pittsburgh where he works. I had to wait until 10:00 when the ONLY shoe store in our town opened.

But yes, I'm SUCH a bad parent.

 

[lyeag]

Just a parents perspective on this. I have asked my son's Pre-K teachers advice before. I figure that since they have an early childhood degree, they might have some insight that I lack as a first-time parent. I'd take it as a compliment that someone wanted your advice, it means they respect your opinion.

O I don't mean about academics. I taught seventh grade and just had parents who didn't know how to deal with their child in general. They acted like they were giving up and that I would have some magic plan to make them behave at home.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

People do this??

as I posted--my mom had to---but it was an unusual circumstance and only happened once in my 12 year academic career.

 

[Mskanga]

I am such a bad parent.....once my daughter just REFUSED to do her homework after I asked her to do it 5 times, I gave up and the next morning she wanted to rush and I would not let her do her homework , I took her to school that day and told the teacher what happened and to give her recess detention so she could do her homework. Never again she has refused to do it.

 

[lyeag]

People do this??

Yes, I would see parents pull their kids out during the day because they needed the 7th grader to watch a younger sibling. It happened quite often with a few girls I taught. They were very honest about why they didn't make it to my class. Their mom had to go somewhere. I understand it could happen as an emergency, but a few times these girls knew about it ahead of time- they knew what time they were going to get pulled out for the rest of the day.

 

[luvmydogs]

I am such a bad parent.....once my daughter just REFUSED to do her homework after I asked her to do it 5 times, I gave up and the next morning she wanted to rush and I would not let her do her homework , I took her to school that day and told the teacher what happened and to give her recess detention so she could do her homework. Never again she has refused to do it.

I applaud you for this. You marched your daughter into school, and instead of making excuses for her, you held her accountable and made her accept the consequences of her actions.

That is what responsible parenting is all about.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I am such a bad parent.....once my daughter just REFUSED to do her homework after I asked her to do it 5 times, I gave up and the next morning she wanted to rush and I would not let her do her homework , I took her to school that day and told the teacher what happened and to give her recess detention so she could do her homework. Never again she has refused to do it.

GOOD move!

I had a step-dad who thought i was too smart to need to study for tests. Took me years to get the discipline on my own--about 8 years. And it was after my first semester in college when I almost lost my scholarship.

Yeah--he's not a winner and he was a complete idiot for that one. No argument from me.

I WISH my parents (esp the step) were more diligent about me completing my academics. Seemed chores and catering to the needs of the lazy step-dad were more important.

Wow--never realized how bad one-half of my parenting teams were. So not good!

 

[Marseeya]

I am such a bad parent.....once my daughter just REFUSED to do her homework after I asked her to do it 5 times, I gave up and the next morning she wanted to rush and I would not let her do her homework , I took her to school that day and told the teacher what happened and to give her recess detention so she could do her homework. Never again she has refused to do it.

When my DS was in elementary school, he used to have screaming fits over not wanting to do his homework. He loved his teacher that year, so I said, "Fine, then. Don't do it. And then you can go in and tell your teacher why it's not done." I sent her in the note explaining why I was doing this and to bear with me -- if the natural consequences didn't work, I'd figure something else out.

Worked like a charm.

It doesn't work with DD, though. She's perfectly happy missing recess.