Just arrived in my inbox

have heard that joke before.. it always makes me laugh!

Oh how lovely!
When my youngest daughter, then aged about 18, was working as a receptionist she often came home crying at the way some clients talked to her over the phone - of course she was not allowed to retaliate in kind on pain of losing her job. I taught her a very rude Yiddish phrase and told her to say it in her sweetest voice when concluding a call from one of these people. She did this ever afterwards!

As a teacher I always wanted to be able to be more straightforward with those parents who believed their children were always
right
perfect
a genius
always the victim

when in fact they were usually delightful but ordinary and mischievous children who sometimes behaved badly &/or did not have the skills the parents wanted them to have!

But you always had to bite your tongue and phrase everything very thoughtfully so
He's a little bugger who hits anyone who gets in his way= At this stage in his development he has not yet learned to inhibit his first response and often upsets other children.

nanaej one of DS3's teachers apologised to me for thinking my child was arrogant. I didn't know what she was talking about as he hadn't told me what happened. She went on to say how lovely he was and that she had mistaken his confidence for arrogance. She was really sorry and quite upset about it. She ended up become Principal.

Most parents are very realistic about their kids but some! They cannot believe their child could ever be in the wrong or tell a fib!

I once had to deal with a situation of a child who regularly accused supply teachers of hitting him. Of course you have to take the accusation seriously ...but the time it wastes.. and his mum was firmly of the belief he would never lie. When it happened a third time (3 different supply teachers) I did manage to persuade her it was odd that it was always her child that was allegedly hit! Funnily enough once she doubted him he never made another accusation.

i remember a parents evening when i was about 14. the teacher approached my mother nervously and admitted that she sometimes did not know how to deal with me. Not wanting to say that i behaved badly.

My mother - a down to earth Yorkshire woman replied. I don't know what to do with her either! After that they had a long talk about me. I wish more parents were realistic. It did me no harm that my mother didn't stick up for me as I knew the teacher was right. I had been enjoying being rude to everybody.

Love that airport joke!

And your tactful remark to parents of difficult child nanaej.

It can be hard on the other side of the parents' evening desk too - how many teachers told me that one of my DDs was "very quiet"? - I lost count. She was perfectly happy both at home and at school, but just a very self-contained person - as indeed she still is. I used to tell the teacher that I appreciated his/her concern but that we were not worried about it and that she should not be either.

That's interesting, I remember at a parents' evening, Mr Geography telling us that DD needed to contribute more in lessons, she was very quiet. Then Mr History telling us that she was very assertive and had decided opinions and to progress even further she needed to be absolutely sure of her evidence base.
Now where could that have come from, I wonder?

DD changed schools at the age of 9, like every good parent I attended parent's evening and talked to her teachers. In her second year at the school I was aware of some constraint when teachers spoke to me but could never get past it. I had no illusions about DD. I knew should could be a problem, not deliberately, but just in possession of an over fertile imagination and an overactive voice. We suffered from these at home as well, despite our efforts to control these tendencies.

In her final report her teacher wrote: 'After a year of difficult and awkward behaviour in the last 6 weeks she has shown us just how well behaved she can be when she feels like it'. Why she couldn't have said something to me I do not know. I am not sure DD would have responded to anything I would have said to her but I an sure the teacher would have felt better and I could possibly handed over a few hints and tips.

I love the way this thread has lost itself, especially without anyone having a go at anyone else.

Like most parents we had mixed experiences with teachers, one loved DS1 and spoilt him then hated DS2 and seemed to pick on him. Another was great and we felt able to tell her that the Artic ocean on her map was miss-spelled.

When a child who has done well at school suddenly comes half way down the class at the end of the year and then next year comes top, is it the child at fault or the teacher? Or is it simply the chemistry?

I think it is chemistry. I was always very good at English until we had a new teacher who was a 'Miss Brodie' like person. Many of my friends liked her and she was a good teacher, but her sarcasm 'froze' me and my work deteriorated.

The net year I moved back into a class with my previous English teacher who took me through O and A level English and, once again, I was one of the front runners.

Yes, Flick you have reminded me of a biology teacher I had forgotten about.

" He's a little bugger who hits anyone who gets in his way= At this stage in his development he has not yet learned to inhibit his first response and often upsets other children "
Loved this one nanaej ...reminded me of an old favourite:
He is very creative = does anything other than what you've asked him to do