It has been a difficult week/work issues
By Sissy15
@sissy15 (12356)
United States
September 21, 2023 7:48pm CST
I've mentioned before how hard my job can be and this week has been one of the worst weeks which says a lot because they've all been pretty difficult lately. I work with second graders and have been with this same group since kindergarten and by now I would have hoped they'd get better but if anything they've gotten worse. We have had some difficult kids move in.
We are currently working with our kids on how to line up in a line and walk in the hallway, these kids are about to be 8 and even a lot of them are about to be 9 because they are repeats. I just don't understand how they can't do the very basics.
We struggle so much with behaviors but also academics. There are a lot of kids who don't know how to count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. I remember doing that by the end of kindergarten or early 1st grade. They score super low in almost all areas. I know COVID plays a large part in this because they didn't get the social aspect of life during some of their most crucial times but a lot of this is also poor parenting.
We have two types of parents currently the kind that are completely hands off and the kids are doing everything completely alone with no real rules or structure or we have the kind who are over involved and think their child can do no wrong. They expect us to cater to their kids not realizing how many other students we have.
These parents have no clue how much they are hurting their own children. These kids have no clue how to problem solve. They come to me over every little thing. "So and so says they won't be my friend" or " They won't play a game with me" or "They won't let me be the character in the game that I want". They don't know the difference between asking a question or making a statement let alone the difference between telling something important and tattling.
It's just so bad and it has gotten to the point they are just having us refer all bad behaviors to the office so there are ten to twelve kids in the office at any given time for bad behavior. They are so tired of it but there's no real way to make progress without help from the parents. The parents either don't care or think their child didn't do whatever they are being accused of.
I can understand a parent wanting to get a full story and asking us questions but to just assume their child needs all of this attention drives me nuts. We have a parent who messages nearly every single day telling us their concerns over the work being too hard or how their child has someone "terrorizing" them even though the kid they have issues with was only annoying them by rolling his pencil on the desk. When I told the child to try and talk to the person causing the issues and expressing their feelings before coming to me she informed me "My mom told me not to do that and go directly to an adult she wouldn't like me doing that". That's what I get to deal with on a regular basis. These kids have no clue how to handle situations on their own and it's going to be a major problem later on. I understand we shouldn't allow bullying and we have even informed them exactly what bullying is but they think every little thing is bullying.
I told them to report physical violence right away and that that isn't tattling and I told them to ignore some behaviors that didn't directly hurt them like a child that is making annoying sounds or not doing anything directly to them that could hurt them but they don't seem to know what to report to me so I get a bunch of stuff thrown at me.
Yesterday on the playground was driving me nuts. I had kids calling my name from every direction while the recess monitors just sat there on the bench in complete ignorance of everything going on. I was putting out fires left and right because kids don't know how to handle situations on their own. I was informed social groups are going to be put together soon so they can try and learn some problem solving skills but knowing this group none of it will stick. Everything always goes in one ear and out the other.
They are some of the sweetest kids and I really do love them but they have to get it together. Their behaviors are out of control. I am so darn tired at the end of the day. The buddy I work with isn't even a real issue. He just needs help academically but he is starting to feed off of some of the other classroom behaviors and that's becoming a small problem. He isn't terrible but he is getting where he is overstimulated and picking up some of the smaller behaviors.
I laugh a lot because if I didn't laugh I'd probably cry. I just smile through it all but it is so bad. It's just so many difficult kids in one room and then the parents don't really help. We have a few parents who seem to be decent like my buddy's mom but a lot of them either accuse and shove their nose in where it doesn't belong or don't care at all. We only have so much support to give and we need parents who understand that their child makes mistakes and that they tell tales and we need parents who help with homework and work with them on their behavior at home. I worked my butt off with my son trying to make sure he had the help he needed and to be present without being overly difficult. I asked questions when necessary and then tried to back off. I never wanted to be one of those parents who gave teachers a difficult time and I did my best to be supportive but I am sure I did or said things that may have been frustrating at the time but I tried not to be like that.
I also always tried to show my appreciation for everything the teachers did to make sure they knew that I appreciated them listening to my concerns and respected any advice they gave me. I get they had other students and tried not to shove myself on them all the time. There were definitely teachers that heard from me more than others for various reasons but I didn't accuse them of anything and was just trying to figure out what was going on with my son.
I think it's time parents do some actual parenting. Some need to step up and some need to back off but there is a middle ground out there somewhere.
5 people like this
5 responses
@kaylachan (77487)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22 Sep 23
I swear the way you talk, these parents need to go to the school of hard knocks, where the name of the game is f around and find out. I get kids need to be protected in school, but they also need to learn how to take care of themselves, too. I have multiple disabilities and my parents might have sheltered me, but I was never developmentally delayed as a result.
3 people like this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
23 Sep 23
I agree, it's tough nowadays to work at a school because the behaviors are so bad. There have always been bad parents but it takes on a whole new definition of bad because of parents. My parents knew we weren't perfect but they didn't have a ton of issues with us because we knew better than to act the way some of these kids act. I was a pretty chill kid and didn't give anyone a lot of problems but I always had a good idea of right and wrong. I HATED being in trouble as a child so I can't imagine doing half of the things these kids do. The kids hate being in trouble but they don't stop doing the things they know will get them in trouble. It's insane to me. If parents would just parent life would be easier for everyone.
1 person likes this
@kaylachan (77487)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
23 Sep 23
@sissy15 The problem is, they're not. Television, video games, smart phones and so on often become the babysitters. The debate of discipline continues. And, there seems to be no 'right way' to go about it. Kids are taught deflection, that it's someone else's problem. And so much more. I too felt regret and remorse when I got in trouble. I hated it too. Kids today see it as a game because there's no follow through.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
23 Sep 23
@kaylachan The thing is there IS consequences at school which the parents hate and can't stand their little "angel" is in trouble. The kids get so upset when we get after them but it doesn't stop them from continuing said behavior because there is no follow through at home. They hate whatever they have to go through at school but it doesn't change their behavior. As a kid, if I got in trouble I would try not to repeat that behavior because I didn't want to go through it again. Losing recess was like torture as a kid. We have kids that lose partial recess every single day and teachers hate taking it because they need it to get some of their energy out but there's only so much they can do. We are all losing our minds trying to figure out what to do about it. The school is sick of the behavior and they have gotten to the point where they aren't putting up with it anymore and parents are so upset that we dare to actually do something about it. It's like if you did something about it at home we wouldn't have to at school. The thing is I really do love these kids. They really are super sweet kids and they do show some remorse when they're in trouble but they have no control over themselves. I've never seen such a big group of kids with no impulse control. Most of the parents get so mad when we dare to correct their children's behavior but something has to be done and clearly, they aren't doing much to help the situation. I almost never got in trouble in school and when I did I felt terrible and half of the time what I got in trouble for was a misunderstanding. I remember losing recess because I misheard the homework page I was supposed to do. I lost recess once because I thought I was being spoken to and they were talking to someone behind me and I lost five minutes for "talking out of turn". I lost recess for a lot of stupid small things but these kids get away with way more and now that we are trying to correct the behaviors parents are angry.
1 person likes this


@AmbiePam (97950)
• United States
22 Sep 23
Parents these days seem to expect teachers to parent their own children in every way, but discipline. And, given that you teach at a public school, you can't discipline children the way private schools can. Parents and children are overly sensitive, and anything is construed as harming the child if he or she is upset. Guess what, people? You'll never make it through life if you expect everything to go your way, you are absolutely right.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
23 Sep 23
I agree, they want us to deal with the behaviors but not actually do anything about them. The teacher currently has me doing a behavior log where I write down all of the behaviors and we are logging them and tallying how many times they do certain behaviors. It's insane because almost all of the kids have something going on except maybe two or three kids. I feel bad for the kids who are actually well-behaved. There is a kid I can understand more because he's going through a lot. We have a few I get why they are acting out but a lot of them it's just them needing to actually be disciplined for a change. One of the kids drives me bonkers because he's rude and thinks he's funny. He will correct every other child's behavior and fail to realize he's as bad if not worse. He argues when I correct him and claims he didn't do anything and then will mock adults and other kids thinking he's funny. He's just obnoxious and I can't with him. He isn't even the one exhibiting some of the worst behaviors but his behaviors are probably the most annoying because it's like it doesn't sink in that he's behaving badly. A lot of our kids seem to have impulse control issues where they know what they did is wrong but don't know how to stop it. He just never thinks he does anything wrong which drives me nuts.
These kids are all going to have a wake-up call when they are adults and no one will put up with their behavior. Their parents are setting them up for failure and that breaks my heart for them because they are all so incredibly sweet but have no clue how to manage day to day life skills. You should know how to have control of your body and know how to follow directions and know how to solve your own problems without always having help. As an adult, we don't just easily get adult guidance on how to handle a jerk. They need to learn these skills and their parents are constantly hindering it. I wish we could tell parents how it was without getting a lot of backlash.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (174082)
• Boise, Idaho
22 Sep 23
I think parents and what they expect by their children have a lot to do with this problem. From a very early age children should be taught certain behaviors. Nowadays it seems that kids aren't getting much at home. Parents seem to have children, they are cute when small and when they get to school age it's left up to the schools to raise kids.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
23 Sep 23
I agree, parents never know how to handle their kids. A lot of it is they think their child does no wrong or even if they know how they are they want to send us all of their child's issues and expect us not to do anything about it. We had a parent go off on the school today because their child was disciplined yesterday. They said he just needed a little help. It was like look lady he doesn't just need "a little help" he needs A LOT of help. He needs constantly redirected and is incredibly disruptive. He is literally the sweetest little boy and he gets upset that he behaved badly but he KNOWS he did and he feels bad about it and I feel like if she'd just back off and let us take care of the issues at school he'd get further but this kid is new and has been to three different schools in a year and I wouldn't be surprised if we no longer see him. He is never at any school long enough to get the help he needs which is probably part of the problem. Every time a school has tried to help he gets pulled out. He has had a rough life and he's so young.
I just can't with these parents. I'm not even the teacher but I deal with all of the behaviors as much if not more sometimes than the teachers. I have been helping keep a behavior log for the teacher and it is insane how many kids have issues.
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
26 Sep 23
@celticeagle It's tough but you learn to live with it. The kid wasn't there today either making me think he isn't coming back and all because the school dared to tell her that her son was behaving badly. He's such a sweet kid and I'm sad he isn't getting what he needs because of his mom.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (174082)
• Boise, Idaho
25 Sep 23
@sissy15 .......I think many people in this world today have become so selfish and self-serving. Such a screwy situation you have there. These parents take no responsibility until there is a problem and then they put the blame anywhere but where it should be. I'm sorry you have to go through such things.
1 person likes this

@RasmaSandra (84712)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
23 Sep 23
Sounds like the parents need a course in parenting and then need to start referring to parenting books before their kids get all messed up,
1 person likes this
@sissy15 (12356)
• United States
24 Sep 23
Parents don't want to parent so I doubt they'd go out of their way to learn how to parent. That said though parenting books are contradictory a lot of the time. I learned a lot from taking Early Childhood Education and from what to do and not to do from my own parents and a lot of it comes instinctively but that said I make a lot of mistakes but I own them and try to do what is in my son's best interest even when it's hard. I just wish parents would care more.
1 person likes this
