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A day in the life of a teacher and mother

Lianne Francis and family at the Socialism 2014 event, photo by Senan   (Click to enlarge)

Lianne Francis, Cardiff teacher

In this job, organisation is everything. Without meticulous attention to detail and a lot of forward planning, you can pretty much guarantee you'll be at meltdown stage before the term is out.

Unfortunately, educators now spend less time sharing ideas about how to engage pupils with quadratic equations or Shakespeare and more time discussing 'coping strategies' that will help us avoid having to take time off for stress.

I get up at 6.15am and my head is swimming with thoughts of work by 6.16am. I go over my lesson plans in my head while I shower, having a quiet panic about all the things I haven't yet managed to do this week.

My little girl gets woken up at 7am and her dad gets her dressed while she protests at having to leave her warm bed (I'm with her 100% on that one). We hurry out of the door while it's still dark and I try to squash my rising stress levels as she takes her time walking to the car, asking about the moon or telling me about a cat she saw.

Making the most

I try hard to make the most of my time with her on those journeys, determined to be the best mother I can be in the brief pockets of time where we are together during the week.

I drop her off at the childminder at 8am, some mornings having to peel her off me because she wants me to stay and play with her (if only she knew how much I want to do just that).

I spend the rest of the day juggling meetings, data analysis, lesson planning, reports, exam entries, intervention strategies, training and departmental improvement plans. Sometimes, I even manage to do a bit of teaching.

I try to escape on time but fail most days, cursing myself for failing as a mother because I've allowed myself to get cornered by yet another colleague or line manager who wants to add another task to my endless to-do list.

Exhausted

By the time I get my daughter home, we are both exhausted and grumpy but I make sure I never, ever work while she's awake. We play, talk, laugh and read books and I am grateful for that daily, delightful diversion from the job that often feels like it sucks the life right out of you.

But my decision to dedicate time to my family every day comes at a price: if I am to survive as a teacher, I have to resume working as soon as my toddler goes to sleep at 7.30pm.

Most days, I try to wrap things up by 10pm but, in reality, my mind is whirring with work-related anxieties for hours after I put down my red (or purple, or blue, or green) pen.

I often sleep fitfully, waking at regular intervals and relying on various strategies to push thoughts of work out of my mind and drift back off to sleep. If I have a lesson observation the next day, sleep is a no-go, so I just read instead and try to rest.

And then I blink for a moment, and it's 6.15am again.

In this issue

Socialist Party news and analysis

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Davos summit: a broken capitalist system

Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax

Red doors and wristbands scandal

Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs

Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts

Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'

Them & Us

Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive

Teachers under attack

Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing

Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle

A day in the life of a teacher and mother

International socialist news and analysis

New wave of protests in Tunisia

India: student death exposes caste oppression

What we think

Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties

Council cuts and the fight in Labour

Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts

Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'

Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!

The dark arts of Labour's right

Councillors must fight to defend our services

'People's budgets' and local democracy

Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!

Workplace news and analysis

"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker

Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action

Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack

24-hour tube strike suspended

Care services under threat in Haringey

Workplace news in brief

Readers' comment

The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain

Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016

Letters

Socialist Party reports and campaigns

Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E

Coventry children's services closure protest

New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity

Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism

Socialist Students bake-off

Home   |   The Socialist 27 January 2016   |   Join the Socialist Party

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