Secret Motivations of Teacher Moms: The real reason moms become educators by Pamela Francis

Gotta say, I’ve been getting quite the chuckle out of all the articles and blog posts from beleaguered, pinch-hitter homeschoolers in the wake of the Corona-mandated shut down of our nation’s schools. I don’t know… Maybe it’s still too tender to take a jab in the ribs of ANYthing Corona-related, least of all the plight of our newly under-schooled little munchkins and their mamas, but eff it. I’m going in.

So now that the cat is out of the bag on so many things pertaining to schooling your little demons… like, how excruciating it is. And… how much un-compensated work is involved… and… how “challenging” your little sugared-up, You-tubing, FortNite-playing smarty-mouths can be… day in and day out… from 7am sometimes to 7pm – (when I was the after school teacher, too…), I figured, why not let it all hang out…? Why not tell.it.all?

I once had a fellow teacher ask me how is it that a mom of two could stand to be around other peoples’ kids all day for a living? Aside from knowing exactly who I was dealing with in this moment – a woman in her forties, with no children, who had sadly NOT been apprised of the existence of the constituency of our fair publication and was, therefore, slogging through life as a tight-lipped school marm, crushed under the false belief that it was all over for her when it came to ever being a mom someday, and was therefore taking on the valence of kid-hater…, while volunteering to spend eight hours a day in their employ — I thought, well, that’s a really good question, “Ms. Calvez” (all names have been changed to protect… my Self!).

How can a mom of two stand to be around other peoples’ kids all day for a living, indeed…

I recall the way I looked at her, the ghost of a smile on my face, wheels turning in my head, dissecting the barb, pulling out the stinger…, deliberating over whether or not to even answer what could very well be either a mean-spirited rhetorical question, or an admiring inquiry… And I wondered why her query had gotten under my skin so bad. Why was I interpreting her incredulous curiosity as code for “You, my dear, must have something wrong with you.”

She simply doesn’t know, Miss Pam. She simply doesn’t know.

Maybe a lot of people don’t know. So here goes…

The Real reason(s) moms become educators

#1. The Schedule
If you pride yourself on being “a morning person”, the school day has a scintillating 7am start time that you will absolutely adore. And if making it to the bank before it closes for the day is high on your list of errands, the school day’s 3pm dismissal time has got you covered.

#2. The Coffee
Everybody drinks it there. Everybody. We just love the stuff.

#3. The vacays
Let’s see… We’ve got Labor Day…, Rosh Hashanah…, Yom Kippur…, Columbus Day…, Veteran’s Day…, Thanksgiving…, Christmas…, New Year’s…, MLK…, President’s Day…, Winter Break…, Spring Break…, Easter…, Memorial Day…, not to mention all those Teacher Development days where we get to Drink Coffee among our peers withOUT your kids in attendance! And then there’s the granddaddy of them all… SUMMER!

#4. The paycheck distribution system
Who doesn’t love the way that Direct Deposit just sneaks up on you in the middle of the night every other Thursday into Friday. Even in the Summer, if you’ve played your cards right! Never gets old.

#5. The access to your own munchkins
Perhaps the most compelling reason of all. We love kids. OUR kids. We want to be there when they leave the house in the morning. We want to be there when they return after school. We want to be there when they’re home for the myriad holidays… And nothing short of stay-at-home mothering gives us that opportunity quite like being a teacher.
Oh, and 1 more thing, “Ms. Calvez”…
We love kids.

Tags: #best kept secret, #teacher moms