Parent-Teacher Conflicts

I'm going to work in a minute- I'm late, but I just have to jot this little tidbit down. I'm once again a lousy parent (at least in the eyes of a couple teachers) & I'm SOOOOO sick of this. It's been a while since I had a run-in with one of Barbara's teachers, and this time it is a couple teachers anyway and they teach both the girls. I must say that I will be glad for graduation and not having to deal with her teachers anymore. She's had a few that hated her & hated me, or at least let it be known there was a strong dislike and disdain. I've been told by a few teachers that I am "the worst parent they've known" or other such things.

I'm sick of teachers who make judgements about parents based on the part they see and who don't even take the time to get to know their children's parents let alone take time to "walk a mile in their shoes." I see this at work too, and it just brings me down. It never solves problems to just blame the home and parents- even when sometimes the issues we have or things we see may be true. There are reasons parents do what they do, and who are we to judge? I guess I just think what parent says, "Today, I want to stink at being a mom/dad? I want to royally mess up my kids' futures and their education and opportunities and life, so I'm going to make these choices to screw them up?" I don't think so. I think that like all of us, parents do what they know to do with what they have in the circumstances they find themselves in life. They often weren't dealt a good hand as a child either and may or may not have had any good role models to know any differently. They may have their own issues that prevent them from doing better even though they love their kids. They may be held back by former decisions and choices and don't know how to get out of their situation.

I'm not making excuses for myself or any of the other "bad parents." I am just saying to all the perfect, wonderful teachers out there, cut the rest of us parents some slack. The world only has a few slots for you perfect people. Someone has to suck. Leave us alone and let us do it.