We’ve All Been There: When Conversations With Parents Feel Tricky
The majority of the Grow Your Mind team were once teachers. We all loved our time in the classroom. Are there things we would do differently? Ah yes. A lot. I still squirm thinking about some of my behaviour management techniques.
Another regret is how personally I used to take tense emails and conversations with parents.
As Cher says so eloquently, “If I could turn back time.” Well, if I could, I would shower my dysregulated 29-year-old self with an abundance of self-compassion. And guess what? I would extend that compassion to the parents, too.
Because here’s the thing. We are all trying to do the best we can with what we have.
Every teacher has had that moment. The tense email. The unexpected complaint. The parent who wants to talk right now. I wish I had known that difficult conversations with parents are not always a sign that something is going wrong. They are simply part of working in schools.
That is exactly why we created Dealing with Tricky Moments with Parents, a FREE 7-minute professional learning session for teachers and school staff. It is a short, practical workshop designed to help educators stay calm in challenging conversations, refocus discussions on shared goals for the child and protect their own wellbeing.
What often makes these moments feel so hard is not a lack of skill. It is stress.
When a conversation feels heated or confronting, the body quickly shifts into a stress response. Your heart rate rises, your thoughts speed up, and your brain prepares for fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
In just 7 minutes, Julia Delaney (our Head of Curriculum) will share practical strategies, including:
- emotional regulation techniques that are not annoying or boring, but actually work
- communication tools for speaking with clarity and confidence
- tips for what to do after the stress of a difficult interaction
At Grow Your Mind, we are passionate about building a whole-school wellbeing culture. Not just one lesson a week, but small everyday moments that shape how a school feels. The way staff speak to each other matters. The way adults handle difficult moments matters. Students notice it all.
It is hard to build a positive school culture if teachers are quietly bracing themselves for the next tricky conversation. Teachers regularly navigate emotionally charged moments with students, parents, colleagues and the wider community. Without the skills and support to buffer against stress, those moments pile up, and suddenly, one slightly spicy email can feel like the final straw.
That was very much my reality. I could spend the entire day pouring my energy into helping students feel connected to their learning and proud of the classroom culture we were building, only to be completely undone by criticism. I wish I had known the skills in this PD back then. Learning how to regulate, communicate clearly and recover after stressful interactions may have kept me in the job longer. However, the skills in this PD are helping me today in my role at Grow Your Mind.
That is why we are offering this 7-minute workshop for free. It is our small contribution toward helping schools create a culture where staff feel supported, conversations stay constructive, and everyone works toward the same goal.
Sometimes, the most important wellbeing lesson in a school happens between adults.
