One for teachers - parent 'pet hates'

[spammywammy]

Hi - this is a question for primary teachers. Just wondered what your 'pet hates' are re. parents? Pushy ones? Lazy ones? Those who think they can do your job better than you?

No real reason, just that so many people seem to have issues with teachers and I wonder what it's like from the other side of the fence.

All parents are equally delightful and a real perk of the job.

Except for those who expect me to have a supernatural ability to locate their child's school jumper by sense alone, since they didn't write their child's name in it

And, no, it doesn't help to know that it was age 5 and brand new. Or that it was from Asda.

And, much as I would love to, I really can't follow your child around at lunch time to check that he/she is wearing his/her coat.

Probably the lazy/disinterested ones. Ones that don't ever hear their child read, don't let them come to school in themed outfits/non uniform; sending them in in floods of tears (not times when the parent hasn't had the letter, but where the parent has just said no), when they promise the child they will come to Christmas plays/assemblies and then don't turn up on the day.

Also, ones that never ever come to see me when it's parent consultation time, ones that don't wash their child's clothes/hair/nails/teeth-some of our children really do smell and it's so sad :(

Also parents that send their child in when they are obviously ill and should be tucked up at home in bed. Sometimes the children say things like 'I was sick on the floor this morning but mummy told me not to tell you'. Not only is this miserable for the child-it also means that I get ill two days later.

Ones that teach their child silly and incorrect things annoy me as well. I had one parent proudly write in the 'home-school link' book that they had spent the whole of the weekend teaching their child that 'th' made the 'f' sound.

I'm sure I can think of some more ;)

Ooh yes-parents that ask me what their child has had for lunch! I don't know-I was eating my own lunch...

I have been accused of 'losing' children's jumpers and once when a coat went missing and I asked if their name was in it, was told 'don't be ridiculous, that coat cost me £50-I'm not spoiling it by writing inside it'

Sending children in who are obviously unwell and then appearing rather put out and annoyed when we have to phone them an hour later to take the ill child home again.

Definitely disinterest. Parents that complain their child isn't dressed up for the special event because 'nobody told us about it.'

Did you read the weekly newsletter which summarises absolutely everything that will ever and has ever happened in the school ever?

Oh no I never read that thing.

Hulababy we had a chiid who ended up in A&E because her temp was dangerously high. Her parents were most disgruntled because they were half an hour away having a special day out and 'she was fine after a few hours.'

do you find less parent things unreasonable if you have dc of your own? Or just different things maybe?
My younger sister is teacher. No dc of her own at moment. She often comes out with doozies about parents saying stuff which she feels is totally unreasonable which as someone iwth dc seem totally understandable to me....

:( Poor little one

togana - yes. I am far more relaxed about some things that happen and my class teacer gets more annoyed by things parents do/din;t do more than I do. I guess I know that I have done some things in the past with DD that could be seen the same way!

Oh yes tigana I do find myself much more understanding about some things now that I am a parent too. On the other hand, some things make me even more frustrated. There are sometimes situations that I can see from a teacher's POV but I don't like much as a parent and vice versa.

I'm not a teacher, but would like to add parents that don't bother with nit checking leaving their children in assembly scratching away at their heads.
Whilst the parents that nitty gritty & get their children nit free have to do it all over again because their children share a table/carpet space.

yes, it's not that the parents are right to be worrying about xyz, it's just that, as a parent, you can sort of understand why they are worried, at the same time as wishing they weren't.

cat64, y'see that whole "I don't actually know what it's like so I shouldn't really get all judgeypants" concept would be lost on my dsis

The really high powered intellectual ones who have been in the system for years and treat me as either a) a servant or b) a child.

Luckily I haven't met too many like that.

Interesting. Tisalla/ Teachermumof3 -

This is going to be an interesting thread! I'm not a teacher (yet) but will read with interest.

Of course it may change once I am an experienced teacher, but I'd guess that disinterest would be worst. I saw a lot of it at my DSDs' primary, children running out telling their mums what they'd done and the mums made it quite clear they didn't give a shit about it. :(

That sort of attitude is alien to me, Freud. So

Marking place.
I'm not a teacher, but I know have come across as a disinterested parent this last year, but explaining it repeatedly to school has fallen on deaf ears.
I know it has, as I had school attendance officer on the phone the other week, and they are very rude to me now.

Does it annoy teachers when parents ask for more reading, extra homework etc?

I think showing an interest annoys dd's nursery teacher

at the expectation a teacher should locate an unnnamed jumper...????? I find it amazing that the teachers not only remember my child's name (I couldn't in a class of thirty, two days in), but take me aside t tell me something funny he said that day - that is truly heroic and deserves a medal!!!

Jollyma-I would just tend to get then to do something simple and age appropriate if they asked for extra homework. This can disappoint some of the parents who want me to to spend my free time photocopying worksheets that they would then like me to mark, but it is far more useful. I would get them to do things like-

Reading-if they asked for extra books, get them to join/use the local library every week and they can read more or the parent can read to the child. This will get the children picking book which will further their interests and also broaden their vocabulary. Parents that want more ORT tree books so that their Connor will be one book of little Tierney don't like this though ;)

Writing-get them to write a diary of what they do at the weekends/during the holidays. They could write stories, letters or book reviews of books they have recently read.

Maths-times tables games, playing with plastic jugs and containers in the bath for capacity practice, telling the time games, snakes and ladders, dominoes, number bonds practice, writing numbers in the sand etc

Helping with cooking, going to museums, playing scrabble-all these things are far more beneficial than a worksheet in my opinion.

How would you, as a parent, feel if I were to suggest these things as a response to asking for more reading/homework?

...Connor will be one book ahead of little Tierney

Sorry-it's been a long day!