The Stress of Responding to Parents at the end of the day

Teacher stress is high. And while children running down the hall, new curriculum, and observations are all triggers for stress, there is one that can be equally stressful… the parent at the end of the day, who asks: “Was it a good day? Or a bad day?” while their child is standing there looking up for the answer. This is complicated – perhaps on one hand this child may have solved a difficult puzzle or helped another child who was sad, but then, at the end of the day, they ran ahead of the whole class and almost ran out the door and you had to chase him – so what do you say? You really don’t have the time or energy to get into the chase right now. You also can’t run down everything that went well. But here they are asking, so you say something vague or not helpful, "Not so good! We’re working on staying with the class.” or you don’t even want to start this...