Reply to Second career ideas? Would teaching be a mistake?

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Second career ideas? Would teaching be a mistake?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How old are your kids? I ask bc I recently made a career change to teaching and it’s really not the family friendly job everyone says. I’m glad I waited until my kids were late teens. Obviously the summers off make it family friendly but that’s it. I’d also strongly recommend focusing on private and Catholic schools. They’re more like how teaching was before job quality tanked in public. Kids are better behaved, parents more involved, you have the ability to discipline. 
If you feel the calling, it’s absolutely rewarding in ways my other jobs weren’t. Im really happy I did it. [/quote]

OP - They are 4 and 1. Family friendly work is very important to me. Is there a grade range better for that? I’m also exploring becoming a school counselor- it would require another MA though. I wonder if that’s more family friendly?[/quote]

There are ways in which teaching is family friendly, and ways in which is isn't.  There is zero flexibility in the school day.  I have a kid with a chronic medical issue and it can be very hard to get in contact with a doctor or pharmacist to do simple things like correct a prescription, or ask for a refill.  Often the office will want to call back, but if I find 5 minutes to call, and they call back in 10 minutes, I'm no longer able to answer.

My kids are older, but when they were little it was hard never to be the parent there for the poetry celebration, or the halloween parade, or the pumpkin patch trip.  Because of the way teacher leave is structured, I could maybe do one of those a year.  Now, some of that is that I had a kid who needed specialist appointments that weren't always possible to put during school breaks, and teacher leave is generally set up that you have to take a minimum of a half day for each kid.

And leaving because you got a call midday for a sick kid at daycare is almost impossible.  Taking leave the next day, when you can plan, is easier.  You'll be up to midnight making sub plans, but it's still more doable.

In addition, your start and end times will mean that you will almost certainly have to pay for both before and after care, unless maybe you teach high school, kids are in elementary school, and your schools are close, and you bring a ton of work home.  But in that case, you will need to start before any before cares are open, so you will need a spouse who can cover the mornings.

On the other hand, you'll get summers if you can afford not to work another job.  You'll get winter break which is kind of glorious.  You might get spring break with your kid if you can afford to live in the district you teach in.  Those are really nice.

Basically, if you and your spouse are 50/50 parents, and they have a different kind of flexibility than you have, it can work quite well.  If you are in a relationship where you're the default parent, or where your spouse brings in the majority of income and expects your job to be the flexible one?  That's a lot harder.

I will also say that Kindergarten was probably the year I needed the absolute most flexibility as a parent, and first year teaching is far and away the hardest. I was a teacher before I became a parent so I didn't deal with those two things at once.  So, if you have a 4 year old, I would carefully about timing.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics