Mothers and Road Blocks

Last week was the theme of mothers. Delayed, dramatic, divorced, divas, delivers of life came stormed into the resource room week. They were relentless, wanting to know information about other students, teachers, school politics, or other juicy information about everyone else besides their own child.  I have several stories but they are sensitive for the public internet. 

 However, one story deals with the opposite, the mother of denial....

I want so badly to have her understand her son's school performance but she just seems to ignore, suppress, or deny everything about her son.  This week, I have really encountered feeling like I can't provide the best service for a child.  I know that a Least Restrictive Environment is not the best education, but when I'm providing my best and it feels like the parent is doing everything to disrupt their own child's progress, I just want to shake them through a strongly worded email! I would rather have thoughts and emotions expressed than not returning emails after you asked for my"professional" opinion. 

ANGST! lots of it. 

But everything will be okay. I need to learn how to deal with it now because I know I will just run into this more and more.  Parents seem to be a blessing or a curse to work with. I have been told warned about the potential frustrations when working with parents, but now I have been able to experience it first hand. 

I think the most unfortunate aspect of it is the disappointment and frustration I feel when I don't think parents are doing enough for their child.  These are capable parents with means and they just don't understand.  No matter how many times we communicate or how many different specialists/people tell how their child is functioning and the parents deny everything.  I feel like I can be more understanding with families who do not have the resources or parents who have cooperated but nothing seems to work or even the parents who are completely apathetic to their child's education.  The parents who act like they want to help but once the truth gets tough, they say we're wrong or ignore any type of communication.  What a huge road block to the potential of a child's education. 

Dissatisfaction.