We must admit - being a teacher is a very tough job. You not only have to deal with your students but with their parents as well.
The Reddit user u/Luka-the-Pooka is the perfect example of this. Recently, she went to Reddit to share a photo of her classroom destroyed by a child’s tantrum, adding that the child’s parents deny any possible behavior problems.
More info: Reddit
Teaching involves not only dealing with children but with parents, who can be very stubborn, too
Image credits: Pavel Danilyuk (not the actual photo)
Teacher turned to Reddit to complain about a child who destroyed her whole classroom by themselves
Image credits: u/Luka-the-Pooka
A preschool teacher went to the r/mildlyinfuriating community to share an image that angered her to her core. In it you can see the toy corner of a classroom in disarray. Under the photo was a brief comment, which stated that the cause of this mess was the tantrum of a 3.5-year-old. Apparently, the tantrum was caused by a girl not wanting to take a nap.
Some people in comments wondered why the teacher did not simply pick up the child and move her somewhere else. After all, that’s just a 3-year-old child. And the answer to that was simple - teachers are not allowed to physically restrict children.
Others suspected that the girl might be autistic. But the OP said that while she cannot be 100% sure, it seems unlikely to her. She has a few children in the classroom who are neurodivergent, and they don’t act like this girl. She is manipulative, unlike her classmates on the spectrum. Also, the OP herself has autism, and she always makes sure that there is a corner in the classroom where children can go to cool down.
If you don’t have any children in your circle, you might wonder how common behavioral problems are in them. Well, Bored Panda is here to enlighten you.
In 2019, it was reported that 6% of children were having serious behavioral or even emotional difficulties.
The most notable statistic in the group of children who were having behavior problems was that the biggest chunk were children living with a guardian or relative who was not a parent. This was followed by children living with a single mother, and then living with two parents. The last type were children living with a single father.
You might ask what parents should do to acknowledge their children’s problems so they won’t end up like the parents from the Reddit story. There are a few simple things they can do:
- Observe the world around you and your biases towards mental health;
- Educate yourself on mental health - and what it looks like, how it feels, what it means;
- Listen to your child when they share their feelings;
- Support your child when they are in a bad emotional state;
- Try to update your child's care with health care professionals - psychologists, psychiatrists, and so on.
Coming back to the Reddit story, let’s check what the commentators had to say. Well, they almost unanimously agreed that the child did not have a simple tantrum - it was a piece of a bigger picture of a behavior problem. A few were shocked at how a simple child could cause so much mess. Others did not do much wondering about the situation itself and just shared their experiences with troubled kids.
So, if the child does have some behavioral problems that cause such terrific tantrums, the parents should stop denying it and help the kid. Denial in such situations never helps. They can start their journey by using simple guidelines, just like the ones we listed.
People online were united - it is more than likely that the child has a behavioral problem
Image credits: Ksenia Chernaya (not the actual photo)
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
