Dealing with Difficult Parents

I will be talking about dealing with difficult parents, more specifically I will be relating this post to the workshop with Pat Tari on Parent Engagement. This post relates to OCT Ethical Standard 5. Members recognize that a commitment to ongoing professional learning is integral to effective practice and to student learning. Professional practice and self-directed learning are informed by experience, research, collaboration and knowledge.

During Pat Tari’s workshop, he said that no matter what, we will all be faced with difficult parents in our careers as teachers. I believe that we must look for any opportunity to reach out and form positive relationships with parents early on. When dealing with difficult parents, I think it is important to always stay calm and professional and to deal with each situation to the best of our ability. Having supportive colleagues and admin staff is critical. I have been lucky enough to have formed special and strong relationships with numerous parents over the past two years of placements. 

In my third placement in a grade 1 classroom, I tried to get to know the parents early on. When the kids arrived in the morning, I always greeted them, asked how they were, etc. This was so critical; I didn’t even realize how a small hello in the morning could go such a long way. Receiving handwritten notes thanking me at the end of my placement made it all worth it. Unfortunately, this won’t always be the case. During this placement, there was one family that complained that their son wasn’t challenged enough at school because he was ahead academically compared to the other students. They sent numerous emails to my AT and the principal complaining and saying they were going to move schools if something didn’t change quickly. 

This was a very difficult situation that took lots of brainstorming and collaboration with other staff members. In the end, he moved schools and it was for the best. What I took away from this was that we can only do so much. If you care and are willing to always be learning and listening to others, then everything will sort itself out. The parent-teacher connection is everything. We must be proactive in forming these relationships.

Courtesy of AmandaC@NU-491

Resources:

https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/7-tips-teachers-dealing-difficult-parents1804.htmlLinks to an external site.

https://www.teachingchannel.com/k12-hub/blog/dealing-with-difficult-parents/Links to an external site.