The Real Life of a Teacher-Mom: The Double Job Nobody Talks About

Let’s be honest being a teacher is already a full-time job and a half. But being a teacher AND a mom? That’s a whole lifestyle. That’s waking up, parenting your own child, then going to work and parenting 120 more. That’s emotional labor, physical labor, and spiritual labor all in one.

People love to say, “But you get summers off!” Girl, please. I use my summers to catch up on sleep I lost in 2018.

As a teacher-mom, you learn quickly that your patience is a renewable resource, but your energy is not. You’re grading essays while a toddler wipes applesauce on your leg. You’re breaking up arguments at 10 AM and explaining why we “don’t hit” at 10 PM. You’re basically living two timelines at once the school schedule and the mom schedule — and neither one respects the other.

But here’s the thing: being a teacher-mom also means I understand kids deeply. I can read a student’s whole vibe from one slump of their shoulders. I can decode my son’s moods like I’m analyzing a primary source document. I can run a classroom and a household because I learned that structure is survival.

This life is not easy, but it is powerful. And if nobody told you today: you’re doing better than you think, sis.