Posted by:
ThinkingOutLoud
(
)
Date: November 25, 2014 09:55AM
It is. It assumes and presumes a lot. You can of course do as you like.
I would not allow a church official or a teacher, neighbor or friend, to sign the parent line of any form or card relating to my child. Not without my knowledge and approval and not without advanced notice to me as to why, when and how it was being done.
The problem isn't you not recognizing their authority over you, it's that they don't recognize YOUR authority over your own child, it seems. As a parent, that would be a HUGE problem for me. Religious in tone, or related to religion or church, or not.
If my good friend did this, or my sister, without even telling me up front or first, even if her intentions after the fact appeared not to be malicious according to her or not negative, according to others, I'd still feel the need to bring it up to her. I'd say, hey, I see you signed off on this card for my child, that I've never seen before, here on the parent line. What's up with that? What's it mean? Was I supposed to see this and agree to something and sign there, instead?
At the very least I'd get it across to them that this was a one-off, one time thing as any form or card requiring a parental signature would, in future, be signed by me.
It need not be a negative or angry confrontation, or accusatory in tone.
Kudos to your kid, for noticing and informing you of it, and seeing the need to check in with you about it. It seemed "off" or wrong to them, so they sought your ok and approval before continuing. Good for them. And you. You raised a smart, good kid.