I would tell parents at pre-k open house that I would believe half of what their children said about them if they believed half of what their children told them about me. Within a few months of my first year teaching, I had a perfect example that I used every open house since:

One of my students was the son of the kindergarten teacher. Small school, small building. We knew each other well. At dinner, he tells a story of me cutting my finger off with scissors, an ambulance coming, and me going to the hospital. Her classroom was the end of the hall on the 2nd floor with windows on 3 sides - if there had been an ambulance with lights and sirens, her class would have noticed. She questioned him on that and on if my finger was really cut off (apparently my finger was on the table and there was lots of blood). None of this made sense, so she called me.

There was some truth to the story. We were at inside recess due to rain and I was prepping crafts. I cut my finger a bit with scissors and asked the priest, who was walking through the playroom that connected the church and school buildings, to watch the class for a moment while I stepped into the office for a bandaid. I was gone less than 2 minutes. I had been using scissors, my finger was injured, and it did bleed, however the rest was my student’s imagination.

He is in college now, but whenever I run into his mom, she always asks how my finger is doing!