being a teacher and a parent - kid overload?

[Anonymous]

Elementary teacher here.

I love my own kids. I enjoy teaching a lot. However, doing both is just about killing me.

I read a book by Stanley Greenspan that basically said that if you have challenging children (which I do), to survive you have to be willing to get a "B" in work and let some stuff go. I feel like this is what I'm doing now to survive, and I hate that I can't be that ambitious teacher I used to be, but I can't.

Funny, I went into this field thinking it would be a great match with having children. Schedule wise, it's great. Done early. Summers off. But I'm looking into switching into a non-classroom job to preserve my mental health.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

I'm an elementary teacher who is new to teacher and I am dead tired most of the time. But I am not the only one so I don't know that the fatigue is specific to moms w/ young kids. I kind of look forward to coming home to just 1 kid after being with a class of 24 all day long. Spring Break is late this year and everyone is dragging. I think teachers need the summers off so they don't go crazy. It is a really demanding job. My drive to and from school is my only downtime except for now when I let my son watch TV while I make dinner.

[Anonymous]

I just started teaching. I like the way it forces me to be organized. DH's mother was a teacher and I really like the way DH turned out. Right now there is a big age difference between my children and my students so that is nice. My feet ache at the end of the day and I don't have as much energy. But as long as i'm not sick, I can get dinner and laundry done. I get sick more often as a teacher than as a SAHM. That part is a drag. I do have more fun activities and tricks for parenting, and being a parent makes me more patient with my own kids. Any career is a trade off. good luck

[Anonymous]

I had an aunt who was a revered second grade teacher in San Francisco. At her funeral I was amazed at how many adults were there who had kept in touch with her since second grade, or were parents of her former students. She married late and never had children, although I think she really wanted them. But she did say more than once that perhaps God had a plan in not giving her children, because she didn't think she would have been able to do both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: and being a parent makes me more patient with my own kids.

I mean, being a parent makes me more patient with my students. sorry. I'm tired.

[Anonymous]

my dd was an only an easy child so we just snuggled , ate , and read. So it balanced out because I had 3 jobs in preschool class, another home watching 3 kids , then doing part time tutoring w/ an autitickid. My middle name is patience.