One teacher can just be a teacher and nothing else, but many teachers have responsibilities such as being a coach, being a tutor after school, and being there for their students when they are struggling. With all that on their plate, some teachers also have a family to balance on top of that. Being a parent can contribute how quickly you can get things done as a teacher due to activities and time you want to spend with your kids.

One teacher that knows this struggle very well, is that of Mrs. Lord. Mrs. Lord has a great family with a loving husband and a five year old son, Logan. Her teaching style as well as the way she handles her responsibilities as a teacher has changed tremendously from when she wasn’t a parent. She states, “…I’m lucky to have a significant other, who can take 50% or more of childcare needs”. She feels that the uprising for a kid is very important as the kid grows from the knowledge that is taught from the role models in the kids’ life. In fact, Mrs. Lord is able to bring Logan in occasionally (at least once a year). Mrs. Lord feels that when Logan is here, the students are able to serve as a model for what he’ll do in the future. She loves that he can learn the facets of school life. She used to stay up till midnight grading papers, but as she handles being a parent; she stays at school till about 4:30-5 mostly. She states that the time she gets with her family is a good amount, but not enough.

We have another teacher on campus who tries to balance the hardships of parenthood and teacher life, Mrs. Campbell. She has one four and half year old boy as well as a three year old girl. She states that it is a lot of late nights doing work when they are asleep, and she also gets work done when they are napping. She stays at school till 4-4:30, and heads home to try and get time with her husband and two kids. She gets about two hours a day on week days to spend with her kids. Most of the time, Mrs. Campbell’s kids are in daycare or getting nannied by their Grandma. Her TA from second period helps her a lot by grading papers, but she wishes that it would be fair for a student to grade tests as well.

The last teacher I’d like to talk about is the teacher, coach, and father and that is Mr. Belloso. With this year’s season of women’s basketball ending, Mr. Belloso’s schedule has cleared up a lot more. He and his wife have a happy family with a three year old boy and a one year old girl. Starting his morning at 4 and staying at school till 5, there are constant things coming up in his teaching schedule. He is lucky enough to have a stay at home wife to take care of the kids. Mr Belloso describes it as a constant balance. Mr Belloso would like to spend more time with them as the only free time he has is Friday nights and most of Saturday mornings.

Teachers are here for us students and are able to help, it always a constant balance when it comes to how much they are able to provide; not only as a teacher, but as a parent. Their time is limited as they have many responsibilities that students may not fully understand. Having a family can be described as a major blessing, but some teachers might find it difficult to be in their kid’s lives as much as they would like to. Maybe its time we stop taking teachers for granted and realize they have lives outside of us.