More Parent Problems

I get a call today from Mr. M. He says a parent called the community center to report her child cried after class on Saturday and wouldn't tell her why. I actually saw that this little girl was upset, and trying not to cry just as class got out. She's in the 1st and 2nd grade class and is the only new student this term. On the last worksheet on phonics she got some of them completed, but she didn't get them all done by the end of class. And I could tell this frustrated her. Well, her mother wanted to make sure that the boys weren't being cruel or anything traumatic didn't happen in class. I can appreciate that. I told Mr. M. that "No, nothing traumatic happened", she's just frustrated. The other kids are pretty laid back about that sort of thing, but it obviously bothered said girl. But after 20 minutes I got Mr. M to understand (conversations over the phone with him are always such hard work). He said that the mother wanted to attend the class with the daughter and help her. I put my foot down. I said she could observe once, but that the other children would be shy around a parent and that she could not come to every class. Later I got an email from him concerning the same thing. I reiterated that I think after a few more lessons she will be fine. She's plenty bright and has good spoken word skills, she just needs some more practice with phonics. I made it pretty plain that making a big deal out of this was not going to help her. But, we'll see......