When will I ever?

I just got lambasted by the parents of a kid who refused to hand in his homework. As a matter of fact, they took turn to run me down.

The child had a piece of homework which was long overdue. Day after day, he said he would hand it in the next day but never. I had asked him to inform his parents a few times that he would stay back after school but he never did.

So today, I got my monitor to bring him down to me after the last period and I made him stay behind to complete his homework.

As he handed in the homework to me, he left me a message saying that his mother would like me to call.

As it turned out, the mother questioned me over things irrelevant to the situation.

She did not believe that he would lie about homework submission because 'he is a very good boy at home'.

She said that it could be 'something you did to him in class' that made him behave like that.

When I highlighted to her that the Maths teacher had similar complaints about the child, she questioned why I was the only one who called her.

She questioned me why I could not call her on her handphone. I had called the home number and the uncle picked up the call. I was assured that the mother would be informed immediately. The fact is, I was using my handphone (since another colleague was using the workplace line) and did not want the parents to keep my number. I've had the unpleasant experiences of parents calling me at 6am in the morning. I am a firm believer of educators not being at the beck and call of parents and so I refuse to give my number to any parents, unless it is a very special case or I am certain the parent is not a potential nuisance.

Then the father took over.

He questioned me why I did not inform them in writing as all children have a handbook in which I got them to use as homework recording book.

I was flabbergasted at the parents' irresponsible stand on this matter and turning the table on me who was trying to help.

I figured that they were just interested in finding fault with me when it was not my fault at all and they were crazy over protecting their precious son. So I said that I was busy and I needed to get back to my work and so THANK YOU AND BYE!

Now I have to worry that they would complain to the bosses for poor customer service rendered.

When will I ever learn not to bother about the children's homework submission or weak results?

When?!!!

When will I learn to just let them rot in hell rather than getting myself into hot soup over worthless scumbags?

When?!!!

When will I learn not to be idealistic and think that all parents want their children to do well in school?

When?!!!

When will I stop being so stubbornly naive and plain stupid?!!!

When will I acknowledge that some parents simply do not bother about their children's academics and are more concerned about how their teachers would giftwrap the children in a beautiful tinted paper?

Perhaps I am really not cut out for this line. Ten years on, and the disillusion continues ...