I spend a lot of my time on this blog talking about my children – or the interesting aspects of being a dad. What I don’t spend anywhere near enough time on is appreciating my wife – mother of my children, light of my life.
For those of you that don’t know, my wife is a secondary school teacher. She’s actually an Assistant Head, but let’s not get mired in semantics – she’s a teacher of 10+ years, and she’s a bloody good one at that.
There are a lot of advantages and benefits to being married to a teacher – and I suspect most of them are pretty universal. So, with Mother’s Day fast approaching, and with the knowledge that I need to appreciate my wife more in public, I present to you my 10 Reasons why it’s Awesome being married to a teacher – especially when you have kids.
- They get lovely long holidays. Forget the small issue of their holidays corresponding with the most expensive times of the year to go away, the fact that their holidays roughly coincide with your children can save you a tonne of money on childcare during the holidays.
- They’re (usually) great with kids. I know that sounds a bit silly, but having a parent who is already pre-disposed to get along well with children can be a real advantage in life. For the same reason, they also make great aunts and uncles!
- They don’t take any crap from kids. See above – when you’re surrounded by crafty, sneaky kids all day, you learn their tricks and what makes them tick. This can be a real life-saver when your own children get older – though I suspect the children might tell you different!
- They can do their job virtually anywhere. Obviously there’s a few limitations to that statement – they usually need to be near a classroom, of course. But teachers are teachers all around the country/world, so if you find yourself having to relocate for work, your partner shouldn’t find it too hard to relocate their own job, if you decide that this is the way to go.
- They’re smart. They also make great proof-readers if you happen to write a blog, and they’re usually pretty well-trained in most types of technology to boot.
- They really make a difference. Unless you work for a charity or in some sort of care role (EDITED TO ADD: Or one of the many other jobs that make a difference – see some of the comments below for examples *sigh*), the chances are your job doesn’t seem like it makes a huge positive difference in the world. Teachers on the other hand – they do (what I think is) one of the most important jobs in the world. Feel proud, and live vicariously through them!
- They love laminating stuff. You might think this sounds like a weird benefit, but unless you’ve felt the joy of doing a perfect lamination, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. Just try it and see!
- They tell the best stories. If you think the gossip at your workplace is good, you should HEAR the stories a teacher will come home with. Not only have they got the antics of their fellow teachers to tell you about, they’ve also got hundreds of kids doing bonkers stuff that they’ll tell you about.
- You always get control of the remote control. Because teachers spend large swatches of their evenings doing marking, preparing lessons or doing other horrendous admin. Sure, it might be stressful for them, but you’ll certainly end up appreciating your own free time when you get it!
- They make you PROUD. Let’s face it, they do a fantastic job and you can feel immensely proud of them all the bloody time. Give the teacher in your life a big hug – they rock!
So there we have it – that’s my list, what did I miss? Sure, there are a few disadvantages too – not least of all the incredible hard work they do, which more often than not means my wife will have fallen asleep on the sofa by 9pm – but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Thanks for the nice things from this teacher. I hope my wife could add a few more to the list – like they are handsome as evidenced by my husband. Maybe not.
This is all SO true. My wife was a 5th grade teacher for 5 years, and this year she’s homeschooling our kids instead, and it’s still true. Except the laminating part…we don’t have one at home, sadly.
I’m a teacher, Henry. I’ll have to ask my wife if I’m all this. I do enjoy a nicely done lamination.
“Unless you work for a charity or in some sort of care role, the chances
are your job doesn’t make a huge positive difference in the world.”
This has got to be the most elitist and dismissive remark I’ve read in a while. There are countless career opportunities for people to make a positive impact in the world.
Firefighters
Police Officers
(numerous scientific fields) Researcher
UN Peace Keepers
Safety Inspectors
Interpreters
Athletes
Farmers
Plumbers
The list goes on and on.
Whilst I appreciate that I didn’t list all the people you mention, surely you have to understand that my comment was well-intentioned and positive? Your remarks read like I was trying to insult people, which I think most people will see I wasn’t…
No, a positive and well-intentioned remark isn’t highly insulting and demeaning to most people who read it…..many of whom would be spending their life making “huge positive differences” on the scale of the glorious teachers. Your comment is ludicrous and misguided and your excuse above is pathetic.
Chill out and let the guy compliment and be proud of his wife. The tone and intent of his blog are clearly positive. Why be so sensitive and angry? Your chosen names “Get Over Yourself” and “What a crock” speak volumes regarding your negative outlooks on life. No need to rain on everyone else.
Henry, “Get Over Yourself” needs to do just that. Your response was much more positive than I would have been. I’m a teacher and I’m married to one too. Couldn’t agree more! Great post!
And let’s not forget IT support. Without sysadmins or IT crew to keep the backend systems running and equipment maintained such as PC’s, tablets and the like, how is the school…to run?
We should never ignore the people who don’t see much, if any time in the limelight. You don’t have to be the face of the company to get all the credit.
With just a few simple edits, your statement could have sounded great to anyone. So instead of:
“Unless you work for a charity or in some sort of care role, the chances
are your job doesn’t make a huge positive difference in the world.”
Try: “We all make positive differences in the world, even if it’s in little ways. Here’s what my wife does”.
Sounds like you could have uhhh…asked her to proofread your article there, before you hit that send button :P
Errr, Henry rained on everyone else but his chosen few…..whereas crock’s comment was just criticising Henry…..and recognising that many more people do highly positive work (ie being positive about the wider beneficial contribution of many people, not raining on everyone like Henry was with his narrow and misguided statement)….might want to think about your logic there…..it’s easy to compliment someone and show your pride in them without criticising most of humanity.
Haha!!! No his response was not positive at all, simply a poor excuse for a deeply ignorant statement. Gee, you and your partner are both teachers and you couldn’t agree more?!?!??! What a surprise!!!!! Thanks for being one of the only people who make a positive difference in the world…..enjoy the unjustified self-validation.
Whether you TRIED to insult people or not is completely beside the point. It was insulting and you should admit that and rectify it.
You really did miss the point of this post, didn’t you? Clearly my blog is not for you.
What a git…..just admit that the statement in your blog post makes you come across as a total ass. Stop hiding behind that ridiculous goatee.
Hi Henry, You love and appreciate your spouse. That’s great! You shared your thoughts of appreciation with the world and probably felt good about it as you pressed published. Then Blam! You’re misunderstood. It happens. Don’t worry about it.
Clearly, all jobs have the potential of making a positive impact on someone, but we all use superlatives to make our points. When I say that my daughter, for instance, is the best, am I demeaning all other daughters? Of course not.
You can’t possibly anticipate how every word in your posts will be interpreted by your readers, and that’s what makes blogging interesting. If we all saw everything the same way, there’d be no point to blogging.
For me, the fact that you’re even thinking about Mother’s Day two month’s in advance speaks volumes of your appreciation. Good for both of you.
Deep breath in…..”criticizing most of humanity”……no exaggeration there now, is there? Your literal interpretations and complete disregard for an author’s intent are not the most logical, in my humble opinion. Calling others narrow, misguided, and illogical makes you the one with critical intent, not Henry.
Thank goodness for people like you, Ray. There are just too many nasty-minded, negative people out there ready to attack any perceived possibility of a threat to their ways of thinking. They are the reason that I keep my own blog private and likely always will. I do, however, appreciate the courage of bloggers like Henry to keep going and even *sigh* edit their posts to appease the sensitive, yet abrasive ones.
If you think IT is vital to teachers making a difference, you do not understand teaching.
Almost every person in every job can make a difference. But it is all about the human element and going above and beyond your job description to genuinely make a difference in someone’s life. If you are an IT person, for example, and help a colleague rescue precious photos or videos of their wedding or a child from a damaged computer, you are going above and beyond and making a difference. There are opportunities in almost every job.
Henry is proud of his wife for being one of those people who makes a difference, and it’s true, it’s easier in her job than some others. He may not have phrased it in the most sensitive way, but lets review: this article is about 10 reasons to marry a teacher. Instead of attacking him maybe you might think about ways to make a difference in your own job.
…and how would you know anything about what I do, or don’t do at my job? Just because I don’t agree with the article? I could just as easily question you and why you’re here, too(shouldn’t you be working harder and, as you say, make a difference at *your* workplace)?
Let’s take a step back and refrain from attacking each other in a forum comments section and get back to our lives, where you know…we make a difference in our own special little ways.
You really don’t want to take constructive feedback, do you? Clearly my comment didn’t sound the way you wanted it to.
Here’s a another tip for you. Not everyone is going to agree with you or your assertions. But you know what? They don’t need to. You take the good with the bad, and Thank the people who care to respond and try to help you present yourself the very best that you can(even though they’re your critics).
They wouldn’t write in, if they didn’t in some small way care and respect what you are and what you do.
Really athletes made that list?
I should probably listen to this :)
x
Thanks for the lovely vote of confidence. Boooooo to the posts who took your comments about making a difference as an insult. -Secondary ELA/HSS Teacher