Teacher Blames Parents For Raising Kids Who Get 'Whatever They Want' & Think They 'Run Our Classrooms'
SeventyFour | Shutterstock Teachers are reporting that students’ bad behavior has become a bigger problem than ever before, with many even leaving the profession over the frustration it causes.
There’s plenty that this crisis could be attributed to, from the unstable learning environment created by the pandemic to increased exposure to questionable influences on social media. Some educators think they have discovered an even bigger contributing factor through their interactions with students’ parents.
One teacher argued that the reason kids are so poorly behaved is that their parents aren’t disciplining them effectively.
The teacher shared his perspective in a Reddit post and received quite a bit of support. “No, your kids aren’t just stubborn,” he insisted. “You’re raising a child with no boundaries. They get whatever they want and they know if they just whine, cry, and hold out [you’ll] give it to them.”
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He feels like parents aren’t really doing their job at home, which forces teachers to do more than their job description calls for. “We the teachers are dealing with your spoiled kids who don’t want to do any work because you don’t put any demands on them at home,” he continued. “You’re letting your children run your life and now they think they [can] run our classrooms. Thanks parents!”
It may seem unfair to place all of the blame on parents for their kids’ behavior when children are unpredictable and rambunctious by nature, but it is parents’ responsibility to set a good example for their children and teach them what is acceptable.
Many other teachers agreed that the parents are to blame for student behavior.
One left a comment on the post that read, “When I have kids that have big behavior issues, I can more often than not work out where they stemmed from by meeting the family.”
Another Reddit user shared, “It’s because parents never want to have their kids feel any type of shame, remorse, guilt, etc. I try to tell parents that these are all normal feelings that we all experienced growing up.”
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Other teachers felt like school administrative officials made the problem much worse by refusing to stand up to parents and students who were being unreasonable, or that the phenomenon of gentle parenting had gone way too far.
Another teacher seemed to prove these points with a story that took the cake for being the most bizarre. “I work in early years (2-to-4-year-olds) and a couple of weeks ago a parent said to my face, ‘Well, I don’t tell him no at home because I don’t like to see my child cry,’” they recounted. “Was not a surprise to me this child never heard ‘no’ at home, but the way mom said it as if it was a totally reasonable stance did take me aback.”
Parents do seem to be partially responsible for the way their kids are acting, but they aren’t the only reason.
According to nonprofit education news outlet The Hechinger Report, some teachers have said that they blame their students' misbehavior on the way they’ve become so-called “iPad kids.” The increasing child poverty rate is another possible culprit.
Still, some experts think this is all a result of gentle parenting, which parenting coach Danielle Sullivan defined as “a style of parenting where parents do not compel children to behave by means of punishment or control, but rather use connection, communication, and other democratic methods to make decisions together as a family.”
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Some might think gentle parenting sounds unserious, but it can work in some families and create a stronger bond between parents and children. However, critics say there isn’t enough discipline involved, which seems to be what the teacher from Reddit is suggesting.
Parents don’t have to be harsh with their children, but it is important for them to enforce appropriate consequences when needed and teach them how to function in the real world. Teachers can’t be expected to pick up the slack for them between teaching reading and math.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
