Pushy parents at the school gate

my Gawd - I want to smack the poster of this thread in the face!!
I mean:

" I only hope I can rise above the petty point scoring at the school gate...."

puke puke puke

Tell me this love, How do you know what theyre talking about at the schoolgate unless you have been involved? They could be talking about Tracey letting the postman stick one up her this morning for all you know. But no, you know because you are probably the ChairWitch for this particular hideous coven of bragging hags before they all speed off in their Ess-You-Vees to yoga class where they can fantasise about having an orgasm one day..........

I REALLY hope your daughter fails her 11plus - I mean you're not bothered are you? Like b0llox ! Only someone who IS desperate for everyone to know that child has not inherited their parents retarded genes would post a post like this...."...she is considered bright, and tipped for Grammar...."
What kind of imbecile contradicts themself like this?
Why don''t you just be honest and admit that your child cannot make up for your own academic failures?
Why don't you let us know what school YOU went to and how far you got?

Parents who are too pushy are usually (but not always) trying to compensate for their own failures in life. While I am sure that most are trying to give their children as many opportunities in life as early as possible the one thing we must not forget is the child's happiness. That is all that matters.

They just want to know if their little urchin is up to standard. They're planning on him becoming an executive you know - 9-5 job in an office and a company car! Well Whoopee for your child!

I am a teacher of violin and have parents regularly ring me up to start their 2-5 year olds off which I advise against. I am amazed as a fellow parent that I have to be so assertive with these folk!
Non-musical and people with no experience have told me that I am 'out of order' for not taking on their children because they are more intelligent/musical than my own!
My experience counts for nothing with these pushy people. I only work during school hours and have had complete strangers telling me that I really must teach their child after school and they will even childmind for me. Parents are sometimes very rude and aggressive when I can't offer them what they want.
What they don't know is that they are only going to get short term benefits from starting too early.
These parents are ruthless and cause a lot of anxiety to all - Headteachers, Classteachers other parents and children. Unfortunately they are often trying to compensate for their own (musical) shortcomings through their children
I have been dubbed a ''rubbish'' teacher because children have not acheived grade 1 or even 8 by 8 years of age. The fact that a child started at 7, doesn't practice and isn't particularly gifted makes no difference to these parents in denial.
Thank goodness for the majority of genuinelly supportive parents whose children play because they love music.

Sorry, I should add that I did not mean to boast about my thriftyness or cake making skills etc etc.in the manner of said pushy parents. The cakes are crap but fun. :.)) I was trying to say that it is the amateurishness enthusiasim of the whole thing that the kids seem to like, so you should do what's comfortable for you and not worry about other people.

I am pretty well off, and I live in a wealthy area with *serious* party competition, but I have found you don't have to join in. I put a fair bit of planning in, but I spend as little as possible on birthday parties - value basics cakes from Tesco, pass the parcel type games and so on. I only let my kids ask a maximum of about 8 friends, but I insist on it being a family event, and all the parents and siblings coming along too, so I'm not managing alone. I can bake and do proper icing, but these days I am busy, so I assemble the cake out of shop bought stuff from the Co-op enthusiastically slathered with Betty Crocker chocolate icing and masses of sweets. candles, etc. Kids love all that stuff. I get all the parents to come along and I feed them a bit of a cream tea or a simple bbq and give them a glass of wine (I ask one of the other dads to flip burgers or whatever). Sometimes we get adventurous and do appallingly bad face painting, balloon modelling or daft magic tricks. The kids all love coming to our parties and our children are considered cool, apparently, so we can't be doing too badly. I do let them have going home bags and the cheapest helium balloons though because I always liked those myself as a kid, but you can even get around that by buying little sticks to hold the balloons with that give the same effect. Three fun size bars and a handful of jelly babies is more than enough for the party bag - they never play with the toys anyway. Basically it's the love you put in and the joy you show on the day that matters, and money isn't a substitute. I know lots of kids who don't get that joy, but who do get all the money spent on them, and it makes me so sad. It's better to give the money to charity, frankly.

No, it is all true I am afraid, pushy parents do actually exist and if they don't wake up to the potential damage they are doing to their child they will be sorry one day.

They'll be sorry and by then it will be to late to mend the damage.

God this is such a pet topic with me! Well I just have a real giggle at those silly parents who seem to live their lives through their inevitably untalented kids!Icringe at every parents evening! stand rigid with total boredom at the school gate! and try very hard not to fall asleep at the school play! Don't ever feel inadequate, Justjo, these pushy parents are idiots and should be objects of amusement.

So so true, I felt so inadequate not being able to keep up with other parents (and still do for even letting myself get roped into it at all. Thankfully I realised that he was a person not a point scoring accessory before I became monster parent.

Parents can be really mean sometimes. I understand completely where you are coming from. There;s no need for all the bragging.