Fun, init Hetty?
I still remember in my 2nd year of teaching we were taking a yr 4 class on school camp. A mum came up to me a said she was so pleased we were finally getting around to teaching table manners........no kidding!!!!!
When we got back she was quite disappointed her son still ate with his hands a lot of the time!
Another mum with a kid in the same class totally lost her rag with me......ranting about how irresponsible teachers were etc because her daughter had lost her jumper. I suggested she look in lost property. This was a bad idea as the jumper didn't have a name tag on it apparently and I should have kept track of it better.
In the end it was found in the bag of one of her daughters friends that was the same as her daughters bag..........no apology from mum.
School is such a hard journey. There needs to be care for kids but teachers just can't be expected to be "parent-like". Part of the journey is about children developing skills and independence.
Interestingly when I was at school and the teacher had a problem with my behaviour she told my parents and they made my life miserable due to this. Once I remember the teacher got it wrong. I still got in trouble. I survived. I learnt.
I remember once sitting on the front step at home crying "I don't want to go to school today. Everybody is so mean and it's hard work!!!"
Mum handed me my bag and lunch and said, "You have to go you're the teacher!"