At work there is a parent who keeps trying to blame both assistant and associate teacher for her son getting hurt. She came in for 2 days and said he was hurt and that she did not receive an ouch report and wanted to speak to me about it. For example she said he had a scratch on his chest and I lifted up his shirt to see what she was talking about and there was no scratch. I told her we would keep a good eye on him and that I would make sure to watch him through out the day.
The next morning she made the same accusation again towards the staff, in fact she was loud about it. I asked her to follow me to the office, to sit down and I told her I'd be documenting down what she was stating. I listened to what she had to say. I let her know that we have excellent staff and have been working together for 4 years and I have had no complaints like this. I also let her know we could use volunteers and what was the process to volunteer. I let her know of the open door policy and that she would be welcomed to volunteer.
Hello Tinka,
ReplyDeleteThis is such a hard part of our job. We want to make sure the families are comfortable in our care and can come to us with problems as they arise however at times it is difficult to know when there is an issue or not. Documentation has been my best friend over the years I document everything this way a running record can be created when occurances like this arise and I can protect my staff as well as myself. Great post thanks for sharing.
Tinka,
ReplyDeleteDon't you just LOVE these type of parents 🤣 We too have had our fair share of accusatory parents. However, like you, I have found ways to diffuse the situation and then put the spotlight on them! Sometimes a person tries to pick a battle with another person as a way of being a bully, Like this parent, she was falsely accusing you and your team. However, in reality, someone could be doing to her what she is doing to you, and since she can not (for whatever reason) stand up to that person, she has created an issue and picked your staff as the victims.
I tell my team ALL THE TIME, document, document, document. Creating that "paper trail" is huge! Just a few weeks ago, a representative from the Department of Children and Families, phoned inquiring about student that had not been in our care since last October. However, because we keep amazing notes, (along with photos when necessary) we were able to help her. Great post. I really enjoyed reading it.