Gone are those days when teaching was just a repetitious process of information stuffing. Today, educators have to deal with several developmental, behavioral and psycho-social aspects of the students; thus, psychological studies are widely integrated into the training curriculum of teacher’s training courses. The psychological knowledge capacitates them with adequate skills and knowledge to train students well. But, apart from handling a heterogeneous group of students, today’s educators have to face another hurdle, dealing with difficult parents.
Who is a Difficult Parent?
In simple words, a difficult parent is defined as a less cooperative parent. Rude, arrogant, arguing and less-understanding parents are always difficult for teachers to deal with. There are various types of difficult parents.
Pushy parents: they give an unnecessary push on teachers to actualize unrealistic expectations on their children.
Aggressive parents: aggressive parents are the rude parents who always find a reason to put the blame on teachers. Aggressive parents often burst forth their arrogance to teachers.
Uninterested parent: uninterested parents are those who leave the entire responsibility of their kids onto teachers. This category of parents does not recognize their own role in their kid’s education process.
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Ways of Dealing with Difficult Parents
Dealing with difficult parents requires a strenuous effort to convince them, involve them and above all understand them as they are. Being equally rude with a difficult parent or neglecting them may worsen the situation. Here are a few effective ways of handling so-called difficult parents. It requires profound skill and knowledge to effectively deal with them. If you ever feel that you need help in dealing with them, then you can even think about acquiring this much-required and unique skill from professionals. Expert training facilities like Preferred training networks are available to get trained in dealing with difficult parents.
1. Understand various types of parents
It is important for an educator to understand a parent. Just like students fall into different categories in terms with intellectual capabilities, personality traits and behavioral patterns, parents too are into various types. Their behavior levels, socioeconomic backgrounds, and personality attributes differ from one another. A successful educator has to recognize and understand a difficult parent, well, to design a solution. Know that parents can fall into impaired judgments, and they are just common people with possible flaws.
2. Try to convince them
It is observed that a lack of convictions often snafus teacher-parent relationships. Take your time to convince them that all the efforts from your side is for their kids well-being and development. Also, make them understand that it is only with their help, as an educator, you can effectively implement the best possible teaching strategies.
3. Ensure parent’s involvement
Give them an active role in the education process. Ensure that parents get involved in classroom activities. Let them monitor their kids learning odyssey. Always keep the conversation alive. Ask their opinion on everything. Let them come up with their suggestions, concerns, and plans about their kids. Assured active involvement will help an educator to soothe difficult parenting traits.
4. Do not judge
Never judge a difficult parent. Fallacious conclusions will worsen things, for sure! Instead, try to know why they behave difficultly. Once you have found the reason, a cure is easy to reach. By falling into quick judgments you may be losing your chances of possible solutions.
5. Stay away from the guilt trap
Difficult parents always put the blame on teachers. They expect the teachers to mold their kids as the most successful person. If a child falls into low grades if he/she is not competitive enough in sports or other extra-curricular activities a difficult parent always tend to blame the teachers. It is for the educator to realize that such kind of approach may put teachers into a guilt trap. Be calm and deal with it; that’s the only solution. Do not take all the blame on yourself, instead, try to make the parent understand that bringing up a child and educating is a collective responsibility of teachers and parents.
6. Be assertive
Be assertive when confronting a difficult parent. Concealing positive or negative feedback from parents about a student will bring much harm to the student, in terms of personality development and success in education. As an educator, it is your primary responsibility to assess a child and report it to the parents. Be confident when talking to a difficult parent. Do your duty, and be sure that you do not ignore your student just because his/her parents fall into a difficult parent category.
7. Do not take it personally
Taking an insult from a difficult parent personally is not the way of dealing with it. Of course, the arrogance or insult from a parent is not because you are a bad teacher, but the parent is a difficult parent. Do not let the insults result in depression. Always adhere to personal and professional ethics. According to researches, a high number of teachers experience such depression.
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8. Be a good listener
It is advised to be a good listener with a difficult parent. Keep the arguments away. Always discuss matters, face-to-face. Direct conversations have greater chances of working out miracles. Listen to their opinions and tell them what you want to say and convince them as much as possible. If ever you feel like the conversation is turning into an argument outbreak, bring in another topic of less intensity and talk about something you both agree upon.
9. Build trust
Building parent-teacher trust is the most effective way of dealing with difficult parents. As a first step, let parents know all the good things happening in the classroom. Most of the teachers do not care about appreciating small things or conversing with parents on tiny achievements. Always remember, even negligible achievements of their children are great for parents; thus let them know it. Build rapport with the parents. Create a positive perception.
10. Let them know that you care
Every parent, whether difficult parent or supportive parent, loves to see that a teacher truly cares for their kids. Give importance to the needs of your students, try to help them with even trivial things. Be pleasant and make them confident enough to converse with you. Turn your classroom into a fear-free zone. When you create an atmosphere of love, caring and sharing, even the most difficult parent may tend to turn into a supportive parent; making your life much easier and your profession, a successful one.