Work advice: As a teacher, how should I deal with parents who want to blame everything on me?

Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here . (It’s anonymous!)

Dear Good Job,

I teach second grade, and I dread parent-teacher conferences. When I explain to parents that their child is having difficulty and/or acting out in class, they always have the same response.

their first (and usually only) response is to place the blame squarely on me!

I cannot tell you how many times I have dealt with kids who have no compunction about cursing at me and being disrespectful, and then when I meet the parents, it is easy to see where the child learned it from. So attempting to address it goes nowhere. Likewise, if I ask parents to put in some extra effort to help their child in areas where they are str