My Favorite Parent Comments

Over at Buzzfeed.com, there is a list called "21 Things Parents Say That Drive Teachers CRAZY." As I was reading through them, I was amazed at how many of them were incredibly true. It was like they had a microphone and camera in my classroom.

In honor of this list, here are a few of my favorites.

• My child would never, ever act that way! Sadly, I hear this one a lot, especially from the parents of the students who actually do act that way...all the time! I sometimes want to say, "Ma'am, if I am calling you, it is either really bad or this is the seventeenth time this week your child has done this very thing." I guess we all see our children through rose-colored glasses.
  
• How could my child possibly fail his math/spelling/science test? Unfortunately, this statement is repeated way too often. Of course, the lack of preparation for the test may have something to do with the doubleheader he played in or the 3-hour dance rehearsal. As a teacher, I know I do my best to prepare my students for the upcoming assessments, but nothing can take the place of reviewing the material at home the night before the test.
  
• Did you get my email? I receive many, many emails per day. Because I work for a large county, every online university in the nation wants me to enroll to receive my masters degree from them. Sometimes they want me to enroll so badly, they send me two or three invitations...within minutes of each other. I say this to say that sometimes emails get shuffled around. Sometimes email has to wait until the end of the day or the next morning. I appreciate that email is an excellent communication tool, but sending reminder emails about the first email is often not helpful. It just pushes the first email that much further down the list. This is why I remind parents that there is a 24-hour response time on emails and emergency matters should not be communicated this way.

I hope that this post doesn't come across mean-spirited. I have been blessed over my teaching career with some really incredible parents to partner with. Teaching is a challenging job. Parenting is a challenging job. Together, we can make it that much more rewarding for everyone.