To feel for the teacher in this situation?

[Breckenridged]

DD had her swimming lesson this afternoon as she does every Thursday. She is in the big pool with a super teacher and lovely group of kids. At the same time, another lesson happens in the small pool. I always take the other DCs swimming at the same time so see what happens in both lessons. Most parents leave to use the gym/cafe.

In the small pool lesson, there are 2 kids who listen and do what the teacher asks and 2 who completely take the piss. Every week.
In the changing rooms after the lesson today, the Mums of the 2 piss takers were complaining because apparently the teacher had told them that next week they need to stay as she is going to ask the kids to leave the class if they won’t cooperate and their parents need to be there to remove them.

All the other parents seemed to think this was very U of the teacher and that she should be able to control the kids. I get that... but at the same time, she has 4 small children (aged 4-6?) who she has to teach and also keep safe (okay, there is a lifeguard, but still...) I can really see where the teacher is coming from - AIBU?

That's all you need to ruin a class - two messers.
the teacher is damn right.

I don't like badly behaved kids.

I feel for the teacher too.

Parents should have no choice at that age but to be close to the pool, either like you said op in the pool keeping an eye on what's going on or on the deck correcting their child when necessary. I have kids in this age bracket and one of them got into difficulty while waiting on their turn with the instructor if I hadn't of been there I don't know what would of happened as I was able to alarm the instructor.

I'm amazed the parents were allowed to leave their children! The teacher is absolutely NBU!

My DCs had lessons from about 4 to 9 years old - and we (parents) were not allowed to leave the building (we'd be in the viewing area) until they were 8 years old. Even if there were no behaviour or safety issues, if one wanted the loo then parents had to be there to escort them from the pool (happens quite often, with little ones). Or sometimes one would feel unwell, or scared, or whatever.

I was so excited when they reached 8 and I could pop to the supermarket while they were in their lessons....

jpclarke that's a really concerning story and must have been very scary for you, did you report that? The combination of the teacher and lifeguard should have all bases covered and if staff are not noticing a toddler in distress then I would worry. In your case, thankfully, you did notice but what if another child has a less observant parent? Please report it as the lifeguard and/or instructor may need training.

Op yanbu. I would be mortified if my child was misbehaving and would not judge the teacher. I hate the phrase "the teacher can't control them" No adult should be or is able to "control" a child. Children have to learn to control themselves with the right guidance. Yes some people are better at guiding a child than others but ultimately some children have poor guidance at home which makes it much much harder for any teacher particularly one who only sees them for half an hour once a week.

A parent who blames the teacher for their child's misbehaviour is rather pathetic and I am sure that you were not the only one judging her.

YANBU