I need the expertise from all of you wonderful music educators!

A few of my students’ parents sit in during lessons.  Most of these parents present no problem.  However, a couple of them constantly are offering input, chastising their kids, etc.  I know I need to somehow address the problem, and that couldn’t be more obvious to me now after what happened yesterday.

I worked on a piece with a beginner student during lesson.  At the end of the lesson, I needed to run to another room to find a certain paper for this student.  I told her to keep playing the piece while I was in the other room and I would be listening.  When I came back, her parent was hovering over her, playing the piece for her!  She was in tears!  I didn’t know how to fix her tears and there wasn’t even any time because the next student was already there for lessons.  It was an awful way to end a lesson.

I also know that some of the parents hover over their students during practice time at home, which is another problem I know I need to address.

Now, here is where I need your help.  I am having a recital this Saturday.  I thought I could hand out some sort of form addressing studio business and include some rules on parents sitting in during lessons and practice time.  Do you have any fabulous suggestions for how I could word this so that offending parents won’t feel like they are being singled out and non-offending parents won’t feel like they are doing something wrong?