Teachers are the biggest unsung heroes. From ever-changing academic and curriculum guidelines, inflexible teaching schedules to bottomless workload, unlike popular misconceptions, teachers do not exactly have an easy life. Imagine dealing with tiny humans, who aren’t exactly potty-trained or willing to eat their lunch on time.

However, the worst aspect of being an educator is when you bend over backwards for your students, parents still have plenty of accusations to hurl your way. Sadly, with rapidly changing teacher-parent dynamics, instructors are often made out to be the enemy and don’t get a lot of props for their efforts. Hence, unless and until you don’t want to miff the favourite teacher of your ward, we suggest not doing the following things:

Plenty of parents flock in the parents-teacher meeting and demand to know why exactly their kid isn’t scoring straight As. Most of them have a hard time accepting that their child can do anything wrong, misbehave with anyone or isn’t studying enough. They believe that it is completely the instructor’s inability to recognise their child’s potential. So before you hurl accusations, it is important to understand that a teacher has to take care of an average of 20 students per class, which is not exactly an easy feat. Our advice? Tone down the blame-game and the defensive attitude. Try to understand what the educator is trying to say and be open to constructive criticism about your little one.

Another important point to remember is that if you ask a teacher for help, advice or suggestion during a parent-teacher conference, do not ignore it. It is extremely frustrating if you don’t follow it through and again come back with the same problem. It is not only lazy parenting but it also looks like you do not value the opinion of the teachers.

You cannot possibly leave everything on the teacher and expect your child to sail through in life. As a parent, it is important that you take out some time to sit with your kid and see what he/she has done at school. Do not expect your child to do well in exams and class tests, if they do not spend some time studying at home.

A lot of parents barge in with the attitude that a teacher is nothing more than an expensive babysitter. Remember, they are not here to deal with your mood swings after they are done teaching an entire class. So, tone down that attitude and mellow down. A little respect and kindness go a long way.

A common pet peeve teachers have is when parents feel that “so and so child has a bad influence on their kid.” Remember for the teacher, all her children are really special and you cannot go just complaining and insulting them for whatever reasons. Even if you have any problem with a particular student, it is best to approach the same in a more factual manner.