Relating to Your Students' Parents
Mike Kupferer wrote some great tips for preserving relationship with parents of your students. It’s posted on YouthMinBlog.com. Click here to read the entire post. Here’s a small clip of what he wrote:
Parental Relationship Sabotage
3. Tell them they are doing a terrible job.
When you see a parent being to harsh on their sophomore or letting their senior have too much freedom, it is your job as a youth minister to tell the parents what a horrible parents they are. You might be the only one who sees that they are ruining their child’s life and relationship with God by treating them the way they are. If you ever start thinking this… STOP! It is not your job to critique the parental skills of another person without their permission. You can have your own opinions, thoughts and ideas – but until that parent says “hey, Mrs. Youth Minister, how do you think I’m doing as a parent?” you should keep all of your thoughts to yourself.
Dennis,
Thanks for the kind words. Working with parents is one of the most important things a youth worker does and some just ruin that relationship without thinking. I know I have in the past.