You would think something like that would come out of the mouth of an elementary school aged student or maybe even a middle school student. Usually I would react to a comment like that as if it was never made.
The other day I had to constantly tell one of my students to turn around, be quiet, etc. I have already moved him once. He was trying to be a class clown, but the entire class was ignoring him. He was backtalking, and when I would ask him to do something, he would argue that he was innocent. All this, during exams!
His mom is one of those moms who works the system. She pushed and pushed for him to be placed in ESE when he wasn't ESE. He was failing because of his behavior, but she felt he didn't understand the work and misbehaved. She had him ride the handicapped bus because he was suspended off the regular bus for trying to start a fight with another student. Her excuse was that everyone picks on him for being in ESE. SHE PUT HIM THERE!
Now, in high school. he is worse, but mom thinks he's an angel. She is at our school all the time, complaining. She complained because I moved him closer to me. She said that I "called him out" in front of the room, BUT the entire class was moved on the same day to new seats.
Anyways, the other day during exams he was totally acting up. After taking it from him for over an hour, I finally sent him out. On the way out the door he said "I'm gonna tell my mom, she will take care of you". Boy did that make me steam. I felt like saying "Bring her on", but once again chose to keep quiet and ignore his remark.
how many times have you heared a student threaten to tell their mom, and what do you do to nip it in the bud?
I teach 1st grade, but when any of them say, "I'm going to tell my Mom," I respond with "Go ahead. I'd be happy to tell your Mom what you are doing right now." I don't have these problems with my class usually. It's mostly kids at dismissal who are in different classrooms. One time a student was being a downright brat in the dismissal line. I told him I was taking away his recess for the following day, and of course he responded with, "I'm going to tell my mom." I took out my cell phone and asked if he wanted to call her and tell on me right now and then I could also tell her he wasn't listening. When he heard that, he started to cry.
I simply say, "Great, that will be a good conversation starter for when she calls me so I can tell her all the things you have been doing." or sometimes I say, "Shall we call her now so you can tell her how disrespectful you have been today?" as I grab the phone.
Had one of her jr high students pull this and she whipped her cell phone out of her pocket and said what is her number and we will take care of this right now.
You should have seen the student back peddling then!
I LOVE to have the psych come in and observe a student. She just sits there in the corner for an entire hour and writes down the student's behavior by minute. Don't introduce the psych or even mention that she is in the room. Usually, the really bad kids are out of practice and can't behave for that long. They start showing their true colors. It's interesting to see what the sneaky kids do when you aren't looking.
Then, I LOVE having the parent come to observe. The parent can write notes. Then you have a meeting with the psych and mom to compare notes.
I've only heard it one time, and it was when I was subbing. I had a fourth grade girl ask me if she could go to the bathroom. I told her that she couldn't go until the next break because we'd JUST come back from break and instead of using the restroom, she was in the bathroom at the sink throwing water on other girls.
She looked me dead in the eye and said, "If you don't let me go to the bathroom I'll pee my pants and my mom will have your job."
I didn't let her go. She didn't pee her pants, and her mom didn't have my job . . . although at that moment I would have been glad to have let her have it!
The best part is that when the girl was in 7th grade, I had her for English class. I'm not sure she EVER asked me to go to the bathroom!
I generally hand them the class phone and tell them to dial. I would love to talk to their parent. The kids usually don't dial by that time because they realize that they have made the mistake.
5th grader tell me that last year. I said, "really, let's do it" with a huge grin. I got the number and called his mom, told her that her son had something to tell her. He got on the phone and said that he called to tell her that I moved his seat to the corner for the day and he didn't like it. She was screaming at the top of her lungs at him, she wanted to know what he had done for me to move him, I could hear her with out needing the phone. When I got back on the phone with her she apologized profusely and told me that if I were allowed she would give me permission to take him in my storage closet and beat him. No one has said it since, my kiddos this year heard the story last year and they don't want to try it.
I bet mommy will solve his problems forever. I have had this happen and my stock response is: "Let's go make that call shall we?" Never had anyone take me up on it.
I had a preschooler once who was worth about five kids. I had to pick her up and bodily remove her from a program once because she was being so disruptive. On the way out she said, "I'm going to tell my Grandma!" I just said, "I think that's a very good idea. I think you SHOULD tell Grandma all about this!"
I still wonder about that statement from her. She was from a secure, 2-parent home and Grandma was a part of her close, extended family but not a regular caregiver. I suspect that Grandma was the one in the family that indulged her the most and the one she figured she could extract the most sympathy from!
I was taking my 4th graders on a field trip. One of the girls had a cell phone with her, against school policy, because parent threw a fit about her child being able to get in touch with her in the event of an emergency. (This was shortly after 9/11.)
As we were filing onto the bus, I noticed that the child was trying to squeeze herself as the third person in a 2-seater. I told her to sit across the aisle from her friends rather than sitting on top of them, which wasn't safe.
She pulled out the cell phone and texted her mother, then handed me the phone and said, "My mother wants to speak to you."
I said, "Tell your mother I am supervising a field trip."
I'm so glad she had the cell phone for that "emergency"!
I have a boy this year, real behavior problem, that said to me on the day his mother was coming for a conference, "I'm glad my mother's coming here to talk to you!" He thought he was threatening me. So I just replied, "I'm glad too, I have so much to talk to her about" He stopped and thought about it for a moment and then he stopped. I made sure I let mom know about his little comment when she came that night. And what did he do? Toughy started crying.
I have one student tell me he is going to have is mother come in and kick my a#*# on a regular basis...I have yet to see her come in and do this....I call and let her know this on a regular basis too... same old response...I will talk to him, he won't say it again....yes, admin has dealt with it too...now I just ignore him...not worth it....
I think instead it's time to call you dad....at work. I did have to follow thru with this once and the dad was irritated with my call but the student apologized to me the next day and asked me never to call his dad at work again. I said only his choices made it necessary!
I taught preschool last year in a day care setting. I had one child who basically counted as about eight. He never took a nap and usually saw it as his priority to make sure no one else did too. Although I did my best to move the kids that needed to nap away from him and ignore his behaviors as much as possible, there were a few occasions where "I'm going to have to talk to mom and dad after school," would come out. When those did he would say, "I'm going to tell YOUR dad!" On those occasions I would whip my phone right out and call my dad and explain to him that one of my students wanted to tell on me. I would offer the child the phone and THEN he wouldn't take it BUT I had about ten minutes of quiet! )
but I do have kids play the "My mom wants me to..." card. I usually tell the kids they need to mind their parents, but I'm in charge at school and I'll talk to the parent about it. Most kids who do this are just trying to "play the system." In your case, it seems like he's following his mom's example!!
> 
01-14-2010, 07:47 AM
when they try to pull that stuff.
)
