I haven't had a parent tell me that — yet — but, as a new teacher, it's bound to happen.
The Education Undergraduate Society (http://uletheus.weebly.com/) hosted this afternoon a workshop on: Working with Grumpy Parents and Other Adults: Strategies for Win-Win Resolutions of Conflict. After some instruction and role-playing, I feel a lot more confident about managing situations involving verbally aggressive adults, such as parents and other adults I encounter in and out of the classroom. I even know how to now handle that parent who says that I am too inexperienced to teach his or her child.
I also feel a lot more confident about the support system around me as I enter this profession. We started the workshop by listing our biggest fears. Not one of the fears listed on the whiteboard was unique to a single individual in the room. We were all afraid of having a parent tell us that we are too young or in to experienced to be teaching their child. We were all afraid of losing our cool when someone is being verbally abusive toward us. We were all afraid of freezing up and having nothing to say when an angry parent marches into our classrooms. These are all scary scenarios on their own, but knowing that we share the same fears is strangely comforting. We also helped each other face those fears through role-playing as the "angry adult" and "new teacher," and offering support and suggestions to professionally handle these situations. We are all beginning teachers, but we are all working to be better teachers than we were yesterday (even if it means giving up a Saturday afternoon).