Ok I am sure we have probably all seen this at one point or another. We have a pushy parent. Let me start this off with saying we are a competitive team who lost its lease on our facility this year so we are stuck in a school gym 1 night a week. We have several different classes happening at once and the gym tends to get kind of loud. We in our handbook say that parents are to remain in the waiting area. However we now have no waiting area. So they have been coming into the gym. We are experiencing a parent who will continuously correct her child during class as well as try to tell our coaching staff what to do. example - She told the coach the other night that we need to be doing a different event at a competition as well as telling her that her routine is not complete. She is making us crazy. She is attacking the staff and the support staff of our group. How can we tackfully tell her she needs to back off without causing a major scene at our practices. She is the type that even if we call she will continue the conversation either at practice or start a conversation with the outher parents about what was said to her of course twisting it to her advantage. Her daughters are very good and we would hate to lose them but if this continues....

Any advice would greatly be appreciated!!!

Maybe one day after practice, you and the other coaches could sit down with her and kindly tell her that it is the coaches' job to correct the team and choose what events to do. I guess you might have to make an ultimatum...something to the effect of "If you can't let us do our job, then we will have to ask you to wait outside" kinda thing. That's a tough situation and I've seen it many times in the figure skating world. Whatever you do though, don't confront her in front of the other parents or team members. Take her into an office or somewhere secluded so she doesn't feel like she's being attacked.

Good Luck with that one!