Hey, does anyone else get a little sloppy sometimes re: complaints of frequent flyers? I find myself going on auto-pilot more and more when being faced with my 99th "I feel like I'm gonna throw up." (Conveniently timed for math class of course)
Sometimes I worry about minimizing the complaints of these snowflakes too much and missing the real deal if it ever happens. Worse, I'm worried about the laissez-faire attitude slipping over to the other kids who may not come often but present with similar chief complaints.
This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing. I have parents annoyed when I call about every little thing and other parents that freak out if Snowflake came in for a temp check (no temp, no symptoms, nata).. I'm learning the parents that need that extra TLC and those that don't want to be bothered! I agree that an apology goes a long, long way for the parents that are upset nobody called.
My administrators like me to call for just about all "injuries" real or imagined.. which really is impossible, especially when half of the numbers in our database are disconnected and it can take a while to track down a teacher or family member who has a good number!
One of the things that became regular the last few months of school is kids pushing and hitting each other. They child pushed or hit would get sent to me to "clear" and then I'd be instructed to call the parent and notify of the incident. Of course the parents want to know what happened (I'm never present and only have one version of what happened) and want to know if the other child is being punished and if so, what punishment.. none of which I can answer...
I feel like that should be up to the administration to call and answer questions... but I just do as I'm told. :/
This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing. I have parents annoyed when I call about every little thing and other parents that freak out if Snowflake came in for a temp check (no temp, no symptoms, nata).. I'm learning the parents that need that extra TLC and those that don't want to be bothered! I agree that an apology goes a long, long way for the parents that are upset nobody called.
My administrators like me to call for just about all "injuries" real or imagined.. which really is impossible, especially when half of the numbers in our database are disconnected and it can take a while to track down a teacher or family member who has a good number!
One of the things that became regular the last few months of school is kids pushing and hitting each other. They child pushed or hit would get sent to me to "clear" and then I'd be instructed to call the parent and notify of the incident. Of course the parents want to know what happened (I'm never present and only have one version of what happened) and want to know if the other child is being punished and if so, what punishment.. none of which I can answer...
I feel like that should be up to the administration to call and answer questions... but I just do as I'm told. :/
Ugh.
This is where I am glad I have an awesome Dean of Students. I assess something that was reported as being part of discipline issue, I take care of the kid and call the Dean. I tell him what I found and if it is serious enough for me to have to call the parent at that very second. If it is, I let him know I will refer the parent back to him for the discipline issue. If it isn't serious, I treat and give him my assessment and he wraps that info into his discipline call home.
lifelearningrn, BSN, RN
2,622 Posts
This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing. I have parents annoyed when I call about every little thing and other parents that freak out if Snowflake came in for a temp check (no temp, no symptoms, nata).. I'm learning the parents that need that extra TLC and those that don't want to be bothered! I agree that an apology goes a long, long way for the parents that are upset nobody called.
My administrators like me to call for just about all "injuries" real or imagined.. which really is impossible, especially when half of the numbers in our database are disconnected and it can take a while to track down a teacher or family member who has a good number!
One of the things that became regular the last few months of school is kids pushing and hitting each other. They child pushed or hit would get sent to me to "clear" and then I'd be instructed to call the parent and notify of the incident. Of course the parents want to know what happened (I'm never present and only have one version of what happened) and want to know if the other child is being punished and if so, what punishment.. none of which I can answer...
I feel like that should be up to the administration to call and answer questions... but I just do as I'm told. :/