Wife and kids are back from their holiday and the house is filled with much noise, laughter and tantrums. And the kids haven’t been too quiet either.
Just this week I passed my Newly Qualified Teaching year making me a fully fledged, tried and tested (very, very tested at times) professional. Or a at least a proper teacher in any case. During the review with my tutor it was noted that only once had I ever mentioned the kids with regards to a problem (I had been two minutes late to school one morning). Funnily enough I had been two minutes late on my first day during the summer although my wife had gone into labour, which I was confident would last the rest of the day, and so this seemed reasonable. Anyway, I guess the question was how do you cope as a new teacher with all of the planning, marking, assessments and general jumping through hoops that accompanies this year in addition having done the same during my PGCE year?! I suppose to answer this I will refer to what I have done and accomplished this week whilst they were away.
Nothing.
Or at least very little.
How could I have a free week and not manage to get much done. Two reasons:
1) When you sit on your own with your own thoughts and a very quiet house it can be very draining, not to mention demotivating. Just like to point out that I am aware that I have in fact mentioned demotivating despite it being something “not to mention” and think that as a phrase/idiom/colloquialism it really is rubbish. Anyways, the contrast from full to empty house can be disconcerting.
2) The main reason I get less done when they aren’t around is because for so long now, whether through finishing Uni of PGCE or this year, my family has been my primary motivation. I get things done because in the long run doing things well now will enable me to provide for them all the more in the future. Me on my own is simple; I don’t need much to keep me happy and am fairly contented with just drifting through. But that doesn’t put clothes on your kids’ ever growing backs or food in their hungry little bellies. And it doesn’t give them the chance and upbringing I had, which surely they deserve as a minimum.
In conclusion: I have not had a good couple of years in spite of having a family but because of them.
(I’ll still tell my wife she’s a pain in the butt though and that the break was nice!)
It sounds like you had a well deserved break so occasionally it is okay to accomplish absolutely nothing because in doing so, you are! Confuse ya yet teach? btw...you really do write pretty!
ReplyDeleteWell thank-ye ma'am. Yeh it was good to have a mini-holiday of my own. I suppose I should be grateful that in a coupe of weeks I get 7 whole weeks off. Normally it's six but this year it is seven for some unknown reason! Mind you what with uni and PGCE and having kids around the same time two years in a row I guess this will be my first real holiday for a few years.
ReplyDeleteRNM