Dealing With Difficult Parents: How to Get Parents Off Your Back and on Your Side

Communicating with parents is one of the most challenging and potentially stressful tasks that educators face daily. Whether trying to resolve a heated argument or delivering bad news, it is essential to know how to handle difficult situations and establish positive relationships with your students’ parents. In this updated third edition of the bestselling book Dealing with Difficult Parents, award-winning educators Todd Whitaker and Douglas J. Fiore help you develop a repertoire of tools and skills for comfortable and effective interaction with parents.

The book’s features include:

• how to get parents off our backs and on our sides,
• why and how today’s parents are different yet the same,
• how the political environment make our jobs more challenging,
• numerous additional examples of specific ways, language, and approaches to effectively work with parents,
• tools to help you understand parents’ motivations and how to work with them rather than against them,
• detailed scripts for dealing with even the most stubborn and volatile parents, and
• strategies for initiating contact with parents to build positive credibility.

This must-read book will equip you with the skills you need to expertly navigate even the most challenging encounters with parents and walk away feeling that you have made a positive and meaningful impact.

Todd Whitaker (@toddwhitaker) is a leading presenter in the field of education and has written 65 books, including the bestseller What Great Teachers Do Differently. He is a former teacher, coach, principal, and is currently a Research Professor at the University of Missouri.

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Douglas J. Fiore is Dean of the College of Education at the University of Central Missouri and is author of numerous books, including the popular textbook School-Community Relations, Sixth Edition.