I am lucky when it comes to parent-teacher conferences. We hardly ever have anything to discuss. My kids have been doing quite well in school. Of course, my oldest is in first grade and my youngest is in preschool. So, my guess is, no one really has tough parent teacher conferences at these ages. And yet, I still come away worrying about things. My oldest struggles with his handwriting, verbal instruction, and math has even been a bit challenging for him lately (he usually does very well). It is completely insane to think there will be zero that challenges my son, but I still find myself thinking that should be the case. I get these unrealistic visions of me tutoring him all summer so his 2nd grade reports should not even have a slightly below perfect tone. And then I realize I am just being ridiculous.
As for my pre-schooler, how in the world can we already be worrying? And yet, I am! His teacher (whom was also my first Born's teacher) told us we may very well have an introvert on our hands. WHAT? My offspring an introvert? I could almost hear my mother in law laughing. I find introverts to be among the most challenging personalities as a giant extrovert myself. I mean, should I just shut up? Should I engage them and try and make them feel more comfortable by talking more? Seriously, it just baffles me. And my little boy just got his first-of what promises to be many-labels as an introvert. The world is just full of labels isn't it?
Once again, I have this rainbows and sunshine belief that I should personally be able to fix the world for my children. It should be absolutely perfect for them. And I know that is just stupid, but I still agonize over it.
This brings me back to teacher-parent conferences. I know they are useful, but really, they just seem like a giant exercise in a parent's insecurity. But maybe it's just me.
As a former teacher, I can confirm that they're useless :)
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As a parent of 2 grown kids (almost) and 1 who is done with elementry this year. I also say, WORTHLESS! I've never learned anything at a parent teacher concerence that I didn't already know. We always had "friday" folders and that *gasp* thing called a phone. If ever I needed to know something that's where I got it. I think they have those to appease the parents who are not involved much with school. The parents probably want to see the teachers at least once. But maybe not. You like me are always in the classroom and helping. Some parents just can't or won't do it.
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