How do I politely stop advice from the peanut gallery, during lessons?

Another thing to remember is that you are a riding instructor and from the way you speak, I’m going to assume you are not educated in child development or the development of children with special needs.

I know my child’s triggers, I can get the attention and response from my child better than anyone on the planet. I am often the voice needed.
Relax your ego and please educate yourself of children with special needs.

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I have two special needs children myself. As you no doubt already know, it can be terribly confusing to them to have more then one “teacher” at the same time. For their safety and well being, I have to have them trust me completely, and if their hear their parents s giving advice during a lesson, they will always choose to listen to them.

This has nothing to do with ego, and everything to do with the fact that their safety is my #1 priority. As stated above, I did speak with the parents, and all is well now.

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Yeah there is no way I could tell any of my parents to leave, nor would I want to. I appreciate and ask for their input, before and after the lessons, just not during one.

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This gives me flashbacks to being a kid and my mom yelling heels down at me, it was mortifying! As I got older I told her to shut it but for years I was just turn purple with embarrassment and annoyance.

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With a smile (or at least an attempt at a smile) I say call out to the parents, “I got this, thanks!”

If that doesn’t work, an email saying that while I appreciate parent enthusiasm, I need the rider to keep 100% attention to the instructor and I’ll need the parent to save the comments till after the lesson.

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I think Freebird has the situation under control per her latest updates.

I am sort of perplexed though. I’m an educator, masters in math education, and there is a pretty big difference between a kid that has an IEP and a kid that is nonverbal and spends most of the day with a 1-1 aid in a life-skills type program. I am generalizing very broadly here, as there are so many different situations that can happen. But if your child is one of the latter type, wouldn’t you find a therapeutic or special needs type riding program to ensure the instructor has specific training? I don’t think I would just find the closest or most convenient place.

And my mom totally dropped me off for riding lessons when I was a kid. I always hoped she would be late to pick me up, because then I got to hang around the barn and help. I know people don’t want feral children hanging around their barns, but depending on the age of the kid, it’s not the end of the world if mom isn’t there exactly at the lesson end time to pick the kid up. Hand the kid a pitchfork or a scrub brush and dirty water bucket. I’m sure the kid will be delighted.

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And others have no options because every community doesn’t have a therapeutic riding center.

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Right. We have several good ones near me, and when I have kids who I cannot appropriately teach - say, if they are in a wheelchair, or need sidewalkers - then I send them to those centers. But they are not cheap, and many parents just can afford it, but are desperate for something. I’m not sure how that makes a mother Munchausen?

I did actually try to become PATH Certified, and passed the tests - which were beyond easy - but I am just not able to get the hours that they require to become certified. I just don’t have the time.

I didn’t set out to teach nontypical kids, but those are exactly who I’ve gotten, and as a mother of two very nontypical kids, I prefer them.

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Tell your trainer you’d like private lessons without others around and commenting. Try a different time when the barn has less going on if you can.

Ah, ok, when I have over zealous parents typical or non typical I move to the other end of the arena, if they follow I move back and so on. I find my non typical parents are much more invested in trying to help their kiddos and I understand that. Sometimes I simply have a convo with them and say, look, I love your child and also want the best for them so if you have any advice for me let’s talk before or after the lesson, not during the lesson as I’m trying to build rapport and trust with your child. Most love to hear this and just want to know that you hear them. Parents of non typical students have learned that they MUST be advocates for their children from a very young age. Try to understand where they are coming from with kind words and a sympathetic ear. :heart:

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OP, I didn’t read thru all of the responses. But you could always put up a cheap camera in the arena and give it to the parents to watch what’s going on if you did have to ask someone to sit in the car (or who wanted to do that) the yi cameras are like $35 a piece (I use them in my stalls) and are easy to install. That way you could always have a way for parents to tune in even if you had to ask them to step away.

Nest is more expensive but they do have the benefit of a link instead of needing to download the app and give everyone authorization. Just an idea

I know there are some parents who live vicariously thru their kids, but I think genuinely most think they’re helping. Letting them know they’re not will probably do the trick :slight_smile:

Edit to add: everything the above poster said is perfect