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I’m a primary-school teacher and also a parent. It always amuses me to think about all the similarities between the two, and the differences as well. So I thought I’d just, completely pointlessly, summarise them for you in a little comparison between teaching and parenting 🙂
Similarities between teaching and parenting:
- You get whinged at all day.
- You barely find time to have a wee.
- Very rarely do you get to drink a hot cup of tea or coffee.
- You feel like you’re never doing enough and could always be doing more or doing better.
- You juggle a million things in your head at once.
- You don’t often get thanked or appreciated for your hard work.
- You feel super proud when a child achieves something and you know you enabled it to happen.
- It’s bloody hard work but can be bloody amazing.
Differences:
| TEACHING | PARENTING |
| You might occasionally actually manage a lunch break in peace. | You will share your lunch with your children, who have probably refused to eat their own. |
| When you lose patience, you might be a bit annoyed but it’s mostly just pretend to get the kids to behave. | When you lose patience with your own kids, you feel the wrath of a thousand volcanoes and absolutely lose your shiz. |
| You can hand over the kids to someone else at the end of the day. | You can never escape. |
| With a raft of behaviour management strategies up your sleeve, you might actually have some element of control with a class of 30 children. | You will have zero control with your own kids. Zero. |
| You can’t go on holiday in termtime because of other people’s kids. | You can’t go on holiday in termtime because of your own kids. |
| You have to be polite to other people’s children when they whinge about a hurty finger. | You can tell your own children to stop being so bloody ridiculous, some people have real problems (ahem, if you want to, that is…) |
| You might feel a bit bad if you make a poor decision or haven’t spent as much time on preparation etc. | ALL. THE. GUILT. FOR. EVERYTHING. |
| You have a boss to defer to if the sh*t hits the fan. | You are the boss. You have to make the decisions. |
| You get good holidays. | You get no holidays. |
| If by some miracle you do find time for a wee, you will be able to go by yourself. | You will never wee unaccompanied or uninterrupted EVER. |
So there you go! Hope you enjoyed my little comparison between teaching and parenting 😀 Let me know if I missed anything!
Thanks for reading! Til next time,
Hannah xx
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6 Comments
That’s so funny and I recognise it completely!
Haha glad you enjoyed
Well I’m a full time teacher and parent to an 18 month old and I completely agree with both sides of this daily
Hahaha fab
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