Finding the balance: looking after YOU and YOUR FAMILY!
If you are a busy teacher and a parent you will appreciate what it’s like to juggle your teaching career and a family, particularly when your own children also have a busy school and social schedule. I always tell my industry connections that being a full-time teacher is a bit like have having 4 jobs: the classroom teacher, the office manager, housekeeper and parent. During term time you are pretty much operating like a superhero with so many things to remember, things to do and places to be! FREE Downloadable PDFs for your fridge accessible from the links below.
The biggest challenge is managing your time most efficiently to take care of all the people you have responsibility for AND most importantly, taking care of yourself. This means looking after your own mental and physical health. It is difficult to look after others when you are feeling low yourself. My Advice on teacher/parent survival is to PLAN, PREPARE, DELIVER & MAKE TIME TO REST UP! Also … don’t be too hard on yourself. Over my seventeen years as a full-time teacher, I honestly don’t think I ever fully cleared my desk. There will always be something to do!
Despite all the modern technologies with Calendar APPS I still like to put reminders on my FRIDGE. As the reminders flip up on my mobile, I have a tendency to swipe them all too quickly. As a parent your visits to the fridge are probably quite regular if you’re tending to the family 2 or 3 times a day. The fridge reminders are to help us to remember that we have a life outside of work and our biggest priority is to LOOK AFTER OURSELVES AND OUR FAMILY. Among the craziness of what you have to remember, it is worth planning some events to make your hard work worth it and give everyone something to celebrate and look forward to. This can be simple things like a drive to the beach, a day trip, a walk, trip the cinema or play a family board game. I guess it is about making time, even when we can easily fill it up with school work.
I hope you have a fantastic year at school – remember you are a SUPERHERO! Take time out to breathe every now again, and make a purpose to create and be present in a life outside of school.
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