{"id":17155,"date":"2023-08-25T06:05:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17155"},"modified":"2023-08-25T06:05:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T11:05:57","slug":"5-things-i-would-never-do-with-my-own-kids-after-working-as-a-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17155","title":{"rendered":"5 Things I Would Never Do With My Own Kids After Working As A Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parents who are also teachers have a unique viewpoint when it comes to raising kids. The years spent in the classroom, working with students, while also interacting with their parents, help inform the choices they make with their own families.
We asked teachers what they personally avoid doing with their own kids based on what they\u2019ve witnessed or experienced on the job. Here\u2019s what they told us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. I won\u2019t be a helicopter parent.
    Katie Niemczyk, a former high school English teacher in Minnesota, called helicopter parenting \u2014 when caregivers are overly protective and overly involved in their kids\u2019 lives \u2014 one of the most stressful things teachers deal with. Not to mention it\u2019s detrimental to kids in the long run, too, she told HuffPost.
    \u201cOf course, when kids are little, they need more parental involvement, but the goal is for parents \u2014 and teachers \u2014 to release more and more responsibility to students as they get older so they are mastering important life skills like organization, time management and accountability,\u201c said Niemczyk, a mother of two currently working as a freelance curriculum developer.
    \u201cWhen I taught high school, I saw so many parents flat-out refuse to let their children struggle: They would constantly be contacting me directly to micromanage their child\u2019s grade, swooping in to make excuses for their child\u2019s poor choices, and even sometimes \u2018helping\u2019 their child with assignments to the point that the student was not actually learning anything,\u201d she said.
    \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to watch your child make mistakes and deal with consequences, but it\u2019s also necessary for them to be ready to leave the nest and succeed as young adults.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I won\u2019t make promises to my kids that I can\u2019t keep.
    Katie Brunelle is a mother of two who taught fifth grade in Maine for more than a decade. Seeing how excited students would get when their parents told them something was going to happen \u2014 like a trip or a visit with the parent they don\u2019t live with full-time \u2014 and then seeing how hurt they\u2019d be when mom or dad dropped the ball taught her an important lesson.
    \u201cI know that life happens, things out of our control, but I understood quickly, before I had kids of my own, that my students knew the difference between a parent following through and an unexpected scenario putting a damper on things,\u201d Brunelle, co-host of the \u201cRedefining the Rainbow\u201d podcast, told HuffPost.
    A kid being disappointed that plans fell through is one thing. A kid who\u2019s resigned themself to the fact their parent just can\u2019t get it together is another, she said.
    \u201cIt created a palpable distrust in the parents and their promises. I swore to keep the promises I made to my children, even if it meant not making promises because I wasn\u2019t sure I could follow through.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. I won\u2019t automatically blame the teacher without having a conversation with them first.
    There were many times Niemczyk felt a parent or guardian made a snap judgment about her teaching decisions \u201cwithout taking the time to get my perspective,\u201d she said.
    Sometimes these judgments from parents came in the form of curt emails \u201cdemanding to know why a student\u2019s grade was low,\u201d she said. Other times, \u201cit was an accusatory question in a parent-teacher conference along the lines of, \u2018Why are you teaching my kid that?\u2019\u201d Niemczyk said.
    And then there were situations in which the parent went straight to the principal with a complaint \u201cthat could easily have been resolved through direct communication with me,\u201d she said.
    \u201cThe vast majority of the time, once a parent or guardian actually spoke to me, they realized they might not be getting the whole story at home and, most importantly, that I wasn\u2019t a monster out to get their kid!\u201d she said.
    Similarly, Tyrelle Lee \u2014 a middle school social studies teacher in North Carolina \u2014 told HuffPost he refuses to be the type of parent who always sides with his kid, no matter what, and assumes the teacher must be at fault.
    \u201cDue to the fact that kids tend to fabricate stories, I have to trust the teacher as the professional that they are doing what\u2019s best for my kid,\u201d he said.
    It\u2019s worth going into any problem at school with the assumption that the educator has positive intentions, Niemczyk said. But remember that they\u2019re just people, too, fallible like the rest of us.
    \u201cSome teachers are mean or unfair, and all of them have bad days and make mistakes just like anyone else,\u201d Niemczyk said. \u201cBut get all the information before jumping to conclusions and attacking someone who is probably doing their best in one of the most stressful professions there is. As a former colleague of mine likes to say, \u2018Teachers are doing the Lord\u2019s work for shepherd\u2019s pay.\u2019 Cut them some slack whenever you can. Thank them for their hard work.\u201d
    4. I won\u2019t believe they\u2019re incapable of succeeding academically.
    Jos\u00e9 Vilson, the executive director and co-founder of EduColor, is a former New York City middle school math teacher. As a father, he would never sell his child short when it comes to their academic potential, he told HuffPost. Just because a parent had a hard time with a particular subject or didn\u2019t do well in school in general doesn\u2019t mean the same outcome is inevitable for their child.
    \u201cToo much of what happens with students in under-resourced environments is that we say things like, \u2018Well, they\u2019re just not a math person\u2019 or \u2018We weren\u2019t any good at this so we don\u2019t expect you to be either,\u2019 rather than, \u2018How can we get it so you can do better than we did?\u2019 or something like that,\u201d Vilson said.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. I won\u2019t skip a family trip \u2015 even if it means missing a few days of school.
    Brunelle would not miss an opportunity to take her kids on vacation just because they\u2019d be out of school for a couple of days, she said.
    When she was teaching, \u201cparents and students would be so worried about making up work or missing too much by being out for a few days,\u201d she said. \u201cI would always tell them that anything that happens during those days can be explained afterward. The experience and time with family is much more important.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    huffpost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Parents who are also teachers have a unique viewpoint when it comes to raising kids. The years spent in the classroom, working with students, while also interacting with their parents, help inform the choices they make with their own families.We asked teachers what they personally avoid doing with their own kids based on what they\u2019ve witnessed or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[21935,2484,21070],"class_list":["post-17155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-be-a-teacher","tag-boy","tag-never"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17157,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17155\/revisions\/17157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}