I decided to read this book because one of the things I am nervous about is dealing with parents. I realize that ninety percent of the time parents will be enjoyable to work with, but for the other ten percent it will not hurt to try and be prepared. The kinds of parents discussed in this book are the minority but most of us will come across some parents that are harder to work with than others.
According to a study done by the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, the stress of dealing with difficult parents is one of the top reasons teachers quit. This is why it is important for teachers to learn parent management skills along with classroom management skills. While there is no one way to learn how to effectively handle difficult parents this book has an array of strategies for handling difficult types of situations. This book talks about nine different types of difficult parents and how to handle them, but for the sake of time I will go over three.
Give example on page on page 32
This is the mom who drives who her child to school when he misses the bus . . . Every day. She brings McDonalds because her child forgot lunch. When her child loses something she replaces it the same day. If her child fails a test, then it must mean the test wasn ’t fair, and if her child talks back to the teacher, the teacher probably deserved it.
When student ’s are in grammar school parents often want to know how their child gets along with his or her peers. In most cases you will work well with the parent but if a parent becomes hostile you should calmly end the meeting and invite the parent to speak with the principal.