Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 November 2007 19:49:36
Well the public (or more accurately JTL ) have spoken and so today I'm talking about the juggling act which is being a parent and a teacher.
The TES has this interesting article where one teacher with kids talks about the juggling act. I have to say reading through whilst I have some understanding and sympathy for what she writes I think her situation is somewhat extreme. However, what it illustrates is the tension which teachers face (and indeed many other working parents).
It's not the special events that were ever the problem for me, somehow they always tended to work - where I have found the juggling act has been greatest and the moral dilemma at it's worst is when Third Party has been ill. How do I justify taking time off and letting 20+ students down just because my daughter is ill. At the same time how do I justify the fact when she was younger I had to ship her off to whoever I could find to take her or now she's older sending her off to the doctors on her own because I've got work. Now to be fair I have always worked for employers who've taken a family friendly approach, but that doesn't stop the dilemma coming into play.
In the past, on the very odd occassions, I have felt it right to put Third Party first I have to be honest I haven't exactly been the best mum in the world because the guilt about work has kicked in and so the caring aspect of me has been taken over by the stressy element.
If push came to shove I would probably have to say that far too often over the last 6 years or so that work has come first. Teachers with kids tend to live in a world where there will always be some time tomorrow for their own kids, but today others have to come first. That doesn't mean we don't love our kids loads and they aren't the most important people in the world but well work has to be done and we can't let people down, if we don't give 100% the people who suffer are our students and the stretched teams we work with.
I've been on the other side of the equation aswell though, as the daughter of a teacher. I know the way that kids of teachers get jealous and don't understand how much their parents love them, because they can never have what they crave most which is time.
So what's the solution? I don't know, I certainly haven't found it.