KNOWING WHEN TO GO AND "BAT" FOR YOU CHILD AND WHEN NOT TO .....
If I ever felt that one of my children needed me to go in to ‘bat’ for them with a school I would do it in a ‘blink of an eye’. I would not hesitate to give my kids a helping hand. But, depending on the situation this was not always my first course of action!
From my perspective it pays off to be sensible and to take time to think about whether jumping in is the right path to take. It is easy to fix your child’s problem, but on the other hand what does this teach your child?
Do you want a child who relies on mum or dad for a fix it! Do we want our kids to become that reliant on us! Personally I always tried to guide my kids to self-reliance and independence.
I think that as parents we walk a fine line when it comes to doing the right thing by our kids.
We want them to work out their own problems but we are essentially needed to chat to schools when there is an axe to grind. For example, how long can you stand by watching a child try to win an academic award, a sport’s award or a 100% attendance award and know that he/she will never get one. Or perhaps when your child is getting a tough time from a classmate. Can you stand by and watch your child’s self-esteem and self-worth continually being crushed?
Yep, I reckon there are good reasons to talk to a school! If you don’t stand up for your child who does?
You just have to know when you do and when you do not! If you are unsure talk to a good friend or a trusted educator at school. The essential thing is to stay observant and know what is going on. Keep talking to your child.
Cheers
Have a happy day everyone wherever you happen to be.
[This post was published on my Blog - https://educatingparents.org on 16 October 2017)
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nice shorts there. hey yes, you have to be disciplined and resist the temptation to go and rescue the kid if they are having a hard time, it may be better for them to work through it themselves depending what the situation is.
Very true janton and it depends on their age too. It was very challenging for parents when they sat in front of my desk with their teenager who was being expelled from a school. One of my jobs was to work with the family after the decision was made. It was very upsetting for the parents.
oh man! that couldn't have been a cake walk for you either! were there things that you could advise them about?
My work with them was about placing the student into another school, moving on, dealing with emotions and so on. I did not have the power to change the decision. Once a student does something very wrong then it is a case of exclusion. There is nothing a parent can usually do, they can try appealing but this is not normally successful.
good Friday to you angiemitchell! that had to be hard to deal with at times for all of you, did other schools just accept the troublesome kids or were they special schools set up for those kids?