Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Uh-Oh!: Dealing With High-Maintenance Infant Parents


A perfect definition of a high-maintenance parent is that parent who brings 100 changes of clothes, an assortment of creams for their child's face and bottom and demands that they be fed only certain foods even though they have nary an allergy. They may even call or e-mail several times a day to "keep in touch".

Parents of infants are some of the most difficult, picky parents you will ever meet. Most often they are first time parents who need to feel as pampered and cared for as their children. They are very demanding and may even provide step-by-step instructions on how their child should be cared for.

Below you will find a list of ways that will help you cope with these highly-stressful and challenging parents and their often adorable and sweet offspring.

  1. Make sure to talk about their child in a respectful and light-heartened tone. Choose and praise simple choice or activities the child performed during the day such as: "Raleigh designed a beautiful block structure today" or "Liam's fine motor skills are really improving!, He is now beginning to hold his cup more easily." 
  2. Supply the parents with pictures and notes of their child's progress. Many schools now offer electronic portfolios/daily sheets that perform this function. If your school does not have this form of technology, you can create files for each of your students using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and place them within a class folder. You could even attach the photos or notes to a daily e-mail to the parents. 
  3. Design a Parent Board for your classroom. Items to place on this board may include a weekly menu, class newsletter, and lesson plan. Make sure the display is neat, bold, crisp and attractive. Die-cut letters, boarders and bulletin board paper purchased from a teacher or dollar store will add a look of professionalism to your display. 
  4. Show interest in both the child's and parents' lives. Ask how their recent vacation went, how was their weekend, did they have a nice Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas? etc. Creating a more personal parent-teacher relationship will define how well you school year will go. Make sure to make a good first impression and continue to tweak and redefine your communication techniques based on your parent's personalities. 
  5. Maintain open lines of communication. Make sure parents feel that they can stop by on a daily basis in order to see their child or call or e-mail at any time. 
  6. Try to remain flexible, but set some boundaries. Most of your infant parent's needs will be fairly straight forward such as "please place this cream on during diaper changes" or "feed them ABC brand baby food during lunch", but sometimes they are trickier and more complex. For these demands, be sure to ask your daycare director if she/he feels the demand is able to be met.

I hope this list helps you on your educational journey with infants and their lovely, but sometimes high-maintenance 'rents. 


It's your turn: How do you deal with high-maintenance parents at your daycare/school? Please comment below!

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