Are WhatsApp Parent Groups for Schools More Trouble Than They’re Worth?

Over the past decade, as parents have become more connected, WhatsApp groups for parents of students have emerged as a useful tool for direct communication with teachers about school organization. “It’s really handy for reminding us of important events like school trips, parent-teacher conferences, orientation meetings, and test dates… especially for those of us who don’t constantly check EcoleDirecte or our email,” shares Sophie, a mother of two teenagers.

These messages can be life-savers for parents like Anna, who might have forgotten her child’s swimming gear if it weren’t for a morning reminder from another mom in the group. The same goes for reminders about a book exchange or what color outfit to wear for the next day’s choir performance. It’s worth noting that it’s usually the mothers who are active in these groups, taking on this additional mental load. “Sometimes, I’m really glad someone can send me a picture of the homework assignments because my son was absent or distracted during class,” Anna tells us. Cécile agrees: “It’s great for keeping track of homework your child forgot to write down.” Jonathan, one of the few active fathers in the group, finds it helpful for “easing tensions. Whenever there’s an issue with another student, we immediately get in touch with the parents to understand what happened and quickly find a solution.”

However, not everyone sees the practicality of these WhatsApp groups. “All the essential information is shared by the school as it comes,” says Amélie, who has left the parent group, as has Esther, who relies solely on messages from Pronote. “Generally, there was never any interesting information, just a lot of chatter, and too many parents discussing their own child’s specific issues which doesn’t interest other parents,” adds Esther. Plus, the stressful messages announcing lice or stomach virus outbreaks… “There goes my weekend!” Anna remarks.

For this mother of two, the worst are the parents who ask for homework every night, those who respond with “I don’t know” or “not me” rather than simply remaining silent, or those who react with an emoji, resulting in “my WhatsApp suddenly showing 36 unread notifications, all equally useless.”

Then there’s “the parent (always the same one) who cries foul over the math teacher who graded their son unfairly on the last test“, “the one who complains at 10:45 PM about the non-healthy school lunch menu, the parent who demands that the child who first pulled out a phone in class to record be reported because there’s a collective punishment (and of course, their child is innocent), or the parents who argue over the curriculum being too much or not enough… Ultimately, it often becomes a space where everyone just vents whatever is on their mind, at any hour of the day or night, which can quickly become overwhelming,” Sophie explains, having eventually decided to mute the WhatsApp group.

Not to mention the numerous questions for which an answer was already given earlier in the thread, the pointless comments and reactions… “It’s more often a waste of time and energy scrolling to catch up on what I might have missed, only to realize that I haven’t missed anything at all. There are also far too many complainers and grumblers,” observes the mother. “We do a lot of educating about the use of discussion groups among children, but it might be needed among parents as well” she concludes. What about you, do you find parent groups in schools useful or unnecessary?

*Names have been changed