When newly trained special education teachers begin working with infants and young children in early intervention programs, they find themselves also having to work extensively with parents. Teachers may expect all parents to become partners with them in teaching their children, and teachers often become upset or frustrated when parents fail to perform according to the teachers' expectations. Teachers frequently blame themselves or the parents for failing in their duties. To reduce this stressful situation, teachers need to consider the amount and kinds of pressures and problems that individual parents face and to design programs that will meet parents' needs. For parents experiencing a great deal of stress, it may be necessary to provide more activities geared to parental support needs, such as field trips, as well as educational programs geared toward their children. Once a variety of program activities geared to parental support and involvement in children's education are offered, parents can select the activities in which they are interested and in which they feel ready to participate. Neither teachers nor parents need to feel any failure if parents participate only in support activities. Rather, both teachers and parents can feel successful. The feeling of success results in stress reduction, which benefits the children involved. (MDM)