judging parents

I think my biggest pet peeve is teachers who blame parents for everything that is wrong with their kid. I have dealt with my share of parents that made me want to require people to fill out an application and take a training class before having kids, so I am well aware of the power parents have over their kids.

But

this is the exception, not the rule. I notice complaints about parents the most from young teachers like me who do not have children yet. It's easy for us to roll our eyes when papers don't come back, when lunch money isn't paid, kids are dropped off late, or when reading logs aren't signed. We haven't yet tried to juggle life like that. Then there are the teachers who use to complain about parents all the time, but have become silent as they had their own children.

I want a parent/teacher partnership that is working toward our shared goals for these awesome little kids. That may seem naive and a stretch, but us young teachers will never get there if we approach the parents as though their baby's problems are all their fault.

If they can drive us crazy all day, who is to say they aren't driving their parents crazy as well? The parents do not intentionally create monsters. They do not go out of their way to turn what would be a sweet, caring 6 year old into a screaming, hitting monster. Child development does that, not parents. We only have to deal with their child 7 hours a day. They have the rest, plus weekends, summers, breaks, etc. Let's cut them some slack and try to work together.

Or maybe I'm just worried what will be said behind my back when I have my own kids...