Nit-Picky Parents

The hardest part of my job, sometimes, is dealing with overly demanding or unreasonable parents.

I do have several involved parents this year which I love! Only 2 of them are a bit high maintenance but they are nice about it and only have their kids best interests at heart. As a parent myself, I understand and appreciate their involvement.

Something interesting happened yesterday as I walked the kids to buses and parents waiting at the front of the school.

A fellow teacher is having a difficult time getting her kids where they need to be on time so I am walking my students as well as her parent pick up students and daycare bus students. I walk around to the front of the school with my students and this other teacher's students as an adult comes up to introduce herself to me. She says she is there to pick up one of the other teachers students and will each day so she wanted to meet me. That's great. I should know who is taking these kids each day. She then proceeds to ask me why it took so long. I tell her we are on the other side of the school and have to walk around. She asks again why we have to walk around. At this point, I'm done. I've walked the kids, I'm on my way to daycare drop off, it's Friday, and I have answered her question already. So, I tell her we walk the kids to buses first and then to the front for parent pick up. I'm starting to turn and walk away and she continues! She asks why we can't go through the building. I tell her, AGAIN, we walk to buses and then around to the front. Now I'm REALLY done. She's not though. She asks, AGAIN, why we can't walk through the hallway. I tell her because the other kids in the building are going out and we'd be going "against" the flow. She continues by saying that they are not, they are already outside. Well, I just can't take it anymore! I have given her WAY more than she needed and this is not even my student! So... I throw my arms in the air and tell her, "I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you should go inside and make that suggestion to someone." UGH!!!! I'm usually so calm and collected and rational. She definitely pushed me to the point of frustration. I do NOT like being at that point. It's so hard to control my responses when I'm frustrated!

Hopefully this woman went home and reflected on her actions as I did on mine. I certainly do not want to have any conversations with her.