Parents

One of the biggest challenges I face in my daily job is having to deal with parents.  There are few parents in my line of work, that are 'normal'.  As Dolgin suggests, a lot of the issues that students deal with often stem from the family units.  Not often is it that I have a normally functioning family.  Typically, there are bitter divorces, absent fathers, siblings in prison, parent drug use, parent mental health issues or a combination of all of them. The apple doesn't fall far, sadly.  One needs to keep this in mind when trying to reach out to the family for support for their child.  Please don't get me wrong, there are some families who want nothing but the best for their child, however, there are those few that simply don't.  The parents I am referring to are those who get high with their kids, steal their medication for their own use, allow abuse by outsiders, or those who are just too busy to pay any attention.  I hope against hope you won't have to run into these kinds of parents; but I bet you will.  If you do, here's what I suggest:
1.  Keep calling the parent.  You never know what they are dealing with.
2.  As a mandated report, it is your obligation to contact the appropriate authorities when it is necessary.  That's a hard call to make but you must do it if it is in the best interest of the child.
3.  Remember, you're not the bad guy.  Hopefully you will have a supportive administration that will back your decisions.
4.  Find your own positive outlets.  Our job is not an easy one and we are constantly bombarded with issues that we, as children, may never have faced.  It's imperative that you maintain your own sanity.
5.  Don't give up.