To ask teachers what your pet peeves are?

[Collettegirl]

Personally mine are wet playtimes, and children who don't have a pen/pencil.

I knew this thread would go pear shaped immediately with the professionally offended jumping aboard 🙈 Teacher of 25 years and mother of 3, one SN, here.....

I'll stick to my work group chat to let off steam 👍🏼

Having to force kids to write about everything, no time for practical and it sucks the joy out of everything.

Parents who don't send their kid's reading book back for weeks on end then after sending it in for one day go and complain to the HT that we don't change the reading books regularly enough.

Adults who have LOUD conversations in my classroom when I'm teaching and asking the children to be quiet!

The mother who complained to the Principal because I didn't take her phone call during teaching time (it was the office that refused to put it through).

The (same) mother who wanted me to call a whole school assembly and check the name label on every child's (nearly 1000 of them!) hat because her child had lost his hat (again) for the sixth time in four weeks. Hat was located in the child's locker.

The parent who immediately says 'he must be being bullied' whenever you try and discuss their child's behaviour with them (naturally, it's the same parent).

The parent who takes their child on four weeks term time holiday and complains to the Principal because you won't set four weeks of school work for them to do during their absence.

The parent whose child doesn't bring their communication diary every day, but the parent complains that you never write anything in it.

The parent who wanted to pick her child up every day at 12pm and told me that I couldn't do anything curriculum related after that because her child would miss out.

The parent who complained to the Principal because I wouldn't peel her 9 year olds banana every snack time for him.

The parent who told me off because I made her child sharpen his own pencil.

The parent who says 'you don't understand what it is like having to work full time and be a parent'.

Not a teacher but....

Parents who deny their child said or did something when told when they weren't there but teacher was - because their child denies it!

Wet playtimes and parents who say 'all the parents think...'

Parents who moan about the lack of school trips and then, when a school trip is organised, moan that it’s too expensive and that they won’t pay.

Parents who email me with ridiculous demands such as ‘please go and find my sons school jumper, he lost it last year and it isn’t named’ and ‘can you make sure everyone in the class sings happy birthday to Jemima as she gets upset if some children don’t join in’ These are Y5 children!

Kids who just can't be arsed doing anything, I'm stuck, well I just asked you to write the title and you're fifteen.
Complete lack of resilience when task are actually hard.
I've not picked this for my options so I don't need to bother.

My dc had pretty poor manual dexterity, was definitely one of the stragglers when getting changed for pe, putting on/taking off outdoor clothes etc.

Ofcourse it must be frustrating for the teacher, how could it not be??

Ajas you're taking offence unnecessarily - your child's character is not being attacked.

Lace up shoes for children who can't tie them. I really hate tiring sight wrt laces when you've no idea how they got wet and soggy!

Inappropriate shoes and clothing for the snow this week. Yes, we will be outside for playtime and lunch. No, little pump shoes and a hoody is not going to keep your child warm outside.

"The thread is clearly aimed at teachers and meant to be lighthearted"

It isn't lighthearted to have a peeve about something a child in your care can't help, though is it?

Many children with SN won't get diagnosed until a lot later, so the comments about them not being toilet trained, or being able to dress themselves are out of order and if you don't want to deal with them, get out of teaching.

Having a peeve is going to change how you interact with the child and it's Parents, I've seen in time and time again.

A constant lack of white board pens - where do they go?!

My oldest child was crap at getting dressed in Reception (later dx with dyspraxia).
I volunteered to help in the class as I was working part time. I was given PE day as they said I was the only one who was patient enough to deal with the slow dressers . And then again with my second child. I didn't do a weekly stint with my third!

I did a placement in reception/year 1. I was in charge of changing reading books and letting the kids read to me. One of the girls refused to read because she couldn’t do it. The teacher told me this was a load of crap, and she was very intelligent. Let her pick a book intended for year 4’s and she read it perfectly and was obviously just bored.
The amount of kids that said “I cantttttttttt do itttttttttt” annoying.

Dinnerfor1 - other teachers steal them I'm sure

It isn't lighthearted to have a peeve about something a child in your care can't help, though is it?

Which isn’t what is happening. The peeves are about things that CAN be helped birds. That’s why they’re peeves.

That parent who sends long ranty emails at almost midnight after a few glasses of wine.

That parent who thinks their very average child is a genius.

That parent who completely denies that their child has any form of SEN and needs help, especially easily 'sorted' things like specs or hearing aids.

That parent who refuses point blank to believe that their child is the bully.

Headlice.

Readermumof3 you can't label a Parent as professionally offended, when it's personal in the opening post, it was an aspect of a child that may not be able to be helped. Professionally offended is when you are being offended on some imaginary person's behalf.

But Parents of children with suspected SN are used to getting dismissed by Teachers (especially the ones that like to quote how long they have been teaching) that it should have been expected.

Tenner says a large % of the answers begin with "parents who..."

The parent who phones in to complain that little Johnny was cold during PE outside, because yes, it’s the teachers fault that Mum or dad send in shorts for PE in the middle of winter.

The parent that blames everything on the school. A child who is so clearly, severely autistic to the point that they throw chairs across the room when a different teacher walks in to take the lesson than was expected. Parents insist this is the school’s fault.

Primary teacher here. My pet peeves are:

Parents who don't read with their kids/don't encourage reading.

Parents who come in and complain when their 'little angel' gets told off.

The government and general public's lack of respect for teachers and education in general.

The petty arguments at break time that spill into the classroom.

Children asking to sit on chairs during carpet time as they 'have a sore foot' (some children have a legitimate reason to sit on chairs during carpet time and this creates a FOMO amongst the others).

The children who have to show me their work every time they write a sentence. Just. Sit. Down. And. Get. On. With. It.

Light hearted - the latest fad e.g.bottle flipping gives me the rage

Truthfully - the constant changes being forced through without proper consultation or resources available that seem to only consider the most academic students and throws all others under a bus

Kittycattycoco a child not being toilet trained? It can't always be helped. A Parent not being able to afford a school trip?

What some posters don’t understand is that when people proclaiming to be teachers state that they hate children who are not toilet trained, children who cannot dress themselves and so on and then quickly follow it up with ‘Oh, but we don’t mean SEN - we don’t mean your child’ it is of scant comfort.

The overall message - because let’s cut out the other stuff and get to what those posters are really saying, which is something like, “I judge lazy, stupid parents who cannot be bothered to toilet train their child.” Adding a cheery “but we don’t mean you, parents of disabled children! No indeed” doesn’t make that any less hard to read.

It is probably a bad example but it reminds me of when AIDS was still a “taboo” disease and distinctions were drawn between say, people who had obtained the disease through a blood transfusion and people, especially homosexual people, who had caught it through having unprotected sex. Oh But I Didn’t Mean You makes no difference, they both still had AIDS, they both still had to deal with stupid ignorance and prejudice, early death, pain, suffering.

Do you see where I’m going?

If a child is not potty trained by the time she gets to reception - accidents aside - something is wrong, whether that’s a disability or an infection or lazy parenting or trauma.

Why don’t some of you just say “I don’t want to teach children from certain homes”

It would be honest, anyway.