Nursery World - Positive Relationships: Behaviour

What do you do when a parent blames nursery staff for a child's difficult behaviour? Sue Chambers advises.

We have a very difficult mother in our nursery and the problem is made all the worse as we have quite a few difficulties with her son's behaviour. He's big for his age (three years) and has been seen hitting other children. His mother will have none of it. She is convinced that other children are at fault and that the staff are picking on her child. Her attitude is making it very difficult to bond with the child. What can we do?

It is a sad fact of life that in every nursery there is always a parent whom staff find difficult to like. Normally we do our best to avoid conflict, tell ourselves that we're professionals, that we're here first and foremost for the children and get on with it. Sometimes, though, we find it very difficult when we have to endure a barrage of complaints that imply we're not doing our jobs properly. It is especially problematic if the child is displaying challenging behaviour. When the point is reached when our relationships with the child are affected we must act fast to address the problem.

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