In order to successfully teach all students teachers need to handle challenging relations to/ with students. This paper aims to use teachers’ stories to find important clues to how teachers think about such challenges. Six teachers’ seemingly contradictory answers to two questions in a questionnaire in which they identified the same student as a source of trouble and joy were analyzed as stories. Four perspectives into teacher-student relationships were identified: problems, contradictions, closeness and improvement. Teachers’ stories about relationships provide important clues to the everyday creation of relationships that help students succeed.