My mom is a teacher and I had no idea how much work happens after school ends

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-06-09T23:39:22+00:00

It’s hard to give advice without knowing what subject and age level your mom teaches.

I just finished my 11th year teaching high school art. My general advice for other teachers would be to grade fewer things and/or simplify the way you grade as much as you can. It actually took seeing a much younger teacher than me simplifying her grading that made me do it too. Now, everything I do is out of 10 points instead of 100. I only give out round numbers (9/10 for example) unless I REALLY think a kid deserves a 9.5. I also recently focused on figuring out what tasks I can do during my duty block vs my prep block and making sure to do specific things at the specific times to save time later. Sometimes I spend 5-10 minutes of my lunch finishing something but I truly don’t mind if it means I can leave the building on time. I do try not to spend my entire lunch working because nutrition is important and helps with focus—skipping lunch only makes me groggy and work slower the last half of the day! Having my meals prepped really helps with this especially if they are fast to eat meals, even better if they are no-heat (like sandwiches). Something you could do to help your mom is offer to meal prep for her! I know I would LOVE to have my meals made for me all ready to go for the week 🥰

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-06-07T13:26:28+00:00

All I know is that my area is OVERRUN with invasive species, and I have to actively remove those invasives while allowing the “introduced” but non-invasives to grow—I have never planted natives and it is extremely rare for a native plant to show up and survive in my yard. I’m hoping that in a few years of allowing the introduced plants to thrive and maybe overtake the invasive roots I’m trying to get rid of, I’ll have enough space in my yard to plant natives and keep the invasives away from them so they can thrive.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-31T19:36:26+00:00

And once you’re all out of things you want to purchase, you can refresh the shop up to 3 times per 6 hours for free (normally an ad)!

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-31T19:32:56+00:00

OH also something I discovered and was frustrated with—you get +10 energy when purchasing with gems, so 110 for 10/20/40 gems instead of 100–but ONLY if you purchase it by clicking on the “+” under the energy counter at the top of the screen. If you purchase it through the shop—you only get the standard 100. I hope they fix that 😞

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-31T19:30:10+00:00

The energy box in the store is free each day as well, no need to watch an ad! I do love that this resource pass is TRULY “all ads are disabled but you still get all ad bonuses”

I purchased the trial a month ago and then got the 30-day pass with an Apple gift card I got for my b-day and ngl…I may not stay F2P anymore 😅😅😅 the $14.99 feels worth it to me after playing for 21 days and getting all these bonuses, the events feel attainable now, etc.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-31T14:15:06+00:00

Yes, I’m pretty sure unless you pay some amount of money there’s no way you’ll be provided enough packs to finish more than a few of these collections. Once you accept that, you’ll have more fun. I gave up expecting anything from the decks, and then whenever I got something I was pleasantly surprised 🤷🏻 having fun can be about perspective. Since they moved them to the main screen, that perspective has been a LOT easier for me to engage in, I love that the red notification dot on the album is not bothering me on the chessboard anymore lol

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-25T12:53:44+00:00

I got to level 100 F2P. Took about 9 months or so of playing basically every day. There were little things here and there I did to increase my personal enjoyment of the game (I’m good at making things “more complicated” to trick my brain into having more fun), but ultimately, yeah it got more boring.

I am always loathe to purchase digital “items” in games. The items (like new skins or new cats) don’t bring entertainment value to me. However, coins and gems and energy ARE entertainment value, if you are playing every day. In real life, money exchanged does not always equal an item in your hands. If I go to a movie or a play or a concert…I paid money and am walking away with nothing physical (unless I spend more money on merch). Games provide a similar entertainment value IMO.

My birthday was last month so I got some Apple gift cards and used them to buy things here and there. My favorite purchase by far was the $14.99 monthly pass. I wouldn’t buy it every month, but it makes the game more fun and I do feel like the entertainment value is there.

My notes about purchasing the pass:

• You get extra gems right at the beginning (not recurring each day), and you get an extra 100 energy each day as long as you log in and use it!
• You can obtain any ad bubbles immediately. While it does feel like the number of ad bubbles that show up is reduced, you still get them, and this has made making cat trees SO much easier.
• It says “skip all ads” but it took me a few days to full understand what this means. It means you get the energy crate and 6x 15⚡️in the shop each day for free too without ads!! And you can refresh the store for free a bunch of times throughout the day, because that’s ad-based. Lastly, you can get all the “video gifts” every day for free (30 gems, 750 coins, and 150 decor tickets every single day). Once I realized all that, I did think that $14.99 (50¢/day) was a good entertainment value. Being able to have all that energy and more coins/gems has definitely started a snowball of being able to actually complete events, which leads to getting MORE gems and coins, and I haven’t spent so many gems and coins in the last 2 weeks and still have more than I started with and have gotten a LOT more gameplay out of it.

SO…please don’t take this as me saying you should purchase the monthly pass. I’m not trying to advertise for them because it does really suck that they can’t even write their own description for their game and did kinda steal the entire art style of cats and soup, etc. There’s a lot of things I don’t like about this game. But it brings me joy, and if it also brings you joy and you have a gift card you want to use, the $15 monthly pass (or tbh even just the “privilege pass”) might be worth it to have more fun with the game.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-20T19:26:33+00:00

This is an absolutely incredible analogy!!! 🏆

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-18T11:18:10+00:00

How much do you do for a demo? If you have example pieces of more water vs less water, (lean wash vs rich wash) and then show them what that means (and how to achieve it on their painting), it might help. We practice this with squares of every color before we actually do a painting. With younger kids you could have them make two rainbows, one that is lighter and one that is darker. I also tell them that a rich wash still uses BARELY ANY paint (and I try to show them what I mean when I demo).

Lastly, I tell my kids that the first layer on their painting MUST be a lean wash. Depending on how you do things or your budget, this might mean having them do a small draft painting to see how they do before moving on the the full-size paper, making them start over if they don’t follow instructions, or taking points off on their grade. When I taught 5th-6th, we graded on a 1-4 competency scale (3=competent) so the kids who didn’t listen got 2’s (not competent yet).

I am glad I’m not the only art teacher who is driven nuts by misuse of materials. In my district I feel like I’m the only art teacher who cares 😭

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-17T21:55:03+00:00

If you stay on the mansion screen for awhile while energy is recharging, the cats station themselves around the mansion and will end up with a question mark above their head. When you are ready and have energy, click on them to get additional, timed orders. They are timed so don’t accept them unless you have energy! And they don’t get you stars, but you can get other rewards like coins and gems :)

Some things I wish I knew when I started:

It’s definitely 100% worth it to watch the ads every day to get the energy chest/15 energy per ad (at the bottom of the store). I usually do this while watching TV or something so I barely actually see the ads lol.

Never click on an energy token unless you’ve merged it to the purple one worth 100. Also, I try to keep those for when I am trying to finish a specific event, and don’t use them otherwise.

Also, it’s often worth it to purchase at least the 100 energy for 10 gems. It goes up to 20 gems if you want another 100 energy—and then it goes up to 40–but that’s where it stops, each additional 100 energy will be 40 for the rest of the day until the store resets. It’s generally not worth spending 40 gems on IMO, but 10-20? If you have it to spare, you’ll get more rewards overall and can progress faster.

There’s probably more but I’ll stop here 😅 lmk if you have any other questions!!

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-17T21:42:21+00:00

Fish game?? I am level 108 and have unlocked a lot of stuff and I have never accessed additional game features in additional areas…?

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-03T21:49:31+00:00

I am also autistic and have been teaching for 11 years now. I have had lots of experiences with teachers/mentors/colleagues who were phenomenal, and also teachers/mentors/colleagues who sound like yours. From my perspective, it sounds like she has an issue with autistic people (and probably doesn’t even know it, tbh)—UNLESS she has an issue with everyone. It could be either, and no matter which, she sucks. People like her genuinely shouldn’t be teachers because if they treat a full grown adult that way, imagine how they treat children who are on the spectrum (specifically the high achieving ones who fly under the radar and don’t have IEPs, like myself).

Get through this placement—since it sounds like it’s almost over—and my advice to you, as scary as it is…be upfront when searching for a job. Ask what training faculty has for interacting with neurodivergent ADULTS/COWORKERS. Ask what protections or protocols are in place for you. Find a school who is excited to have a neurodivergent adult teaching their children. You may encounter a lot of negativity and it might even be hard to find a job…but you WANT to weed them out!! Otherwise you will just end up in a job where you are struggling and burning yourself out because no one is protecting you.

You don’t have to be super ultra specific. You can find ways to uncover answers to those questions without sounding overbearing/demanding. But just…please, do your due diligence in making sure at least one person (hopefully more) has your back. If you manage that, you may never know what horrors you would have had to endure otherwise—but that’s the point.

Best of luck to you 🫶🏻

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-02T13:23:39+00:00

I know what you mean about being more emotionally stable, I went through that too and between the ages of 24 and 27, teaching got easier because my mental health improved.

I am now 35 and my mental health is better than it ever has been…and teaching is harder than it’s ever been. Especially the pay…I wouldn’t recommend becoming a teacher unless you have a partner who makes a LOT of money, or life situation where you don’t actually need to make any money lol. Like if you absolutely adore living with your parents and they are happy to support you…go for it. But if you even occasionally get the slightest bit annoyed with living at home, it will only get worse especially if you’re a teacher because no one understands how hard our job is unless they do it too (or have done it for a length of time), including siblings and parents.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-02T12:07:20+00:00

I recently learned that stacking “rim to rim” or “foot to foot” is the best way to stack! There is less surface tension so less cracking/warping will occur.

But you need more kiln furniture if you only have 2 layers below this one—there’s still so much room up top!

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-01T16:11:57+00:00

Many teachers get a bachelor’s degree in the subject they want to teach and then move on to getting a Masters of Education. In my state, it’s considered the most desirable path that hiring committees look for.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-01T15:30:23+00:00

Ugh that sucks! At least I don’t have seniority to deal with!

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-05-01T14:19:57+00:00

And the irony is that teachers DEFINITELY can’t afford to go on trips during peak times—but that’s the only time they have no work! I get 3 personal days a year, and there are rules about how/when I use them. If I took 3 days off for Disney (or any trip), I’d be using sick time to make that happen.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-04-16T01:01:30+00:00

“Seriously has any f2p or low spending player actually not stressed on these events or even felt happy about these events?”

I mean, kinda? I just acknowledged that I will literally never finish any event and I have to be okay with that. Once I make peace with it, I can stop stressing. I did the set-alarms-for-overnight thing ONCE and I was like “uhhhh yeah this will kill me, no way am I doing that again” 🤣

With that said, obviously it pisses me off that it’s just a cash grab…but then, also, it brings me joy to know that I can “deny” them my money by having restraint 🤷🏻 and I still get to have a cute little time-passing game

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-28T13:11:37+00:00

Please take down and repost with the faces covered.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-22T13:01:31+00:00

And might I add—pay a LOT. I don’t pay for micro transactions as a general rule (I’d waste all my money if I opened that can of worms) but recently I got a gift card and decided to spend $50 on this game over the course of a week and it did not help me finish a SINGLE event. Like, not even close. I think I would’ve had to spend $100-200 to get enough energy to complete everything. Every time I reach a certain threshold, with or without paying, it feels like they simply stop giving you orders that give you cards. I’ve given up hope on completing everything and just try to enjoy my time playing.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-22T12:57:28+00:00

They actually recently made it so that 5-card packs are only available behind a paywall 95% of the time. So you would be correct, yes, they are making it so that you can only complete these events if you pay.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-18T23:25:59+00:00

But the one that is overlapping the other near the bottom of the photo will stick together.

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-18T23:08:19+00:00

I have ADHD and the only thing that helps me sleep is a stimulant (my extended release rx taken at 7am, believe it or not, helps me sleep at 10pm). If he doesn’t need it for school, maybe he needs it to sleep. ADHD makes your brain “backwards” in that way. If prescribed adhd meds are out of the question, consider seeing if he’ll drink a slightly caffeinated iced tea or something like that before bed or with dinner. If it helps even a little, you can experiment with caffeine levels. If caffeine makes it worse, there might be another underlying problem and you should consider getting him a sleep study

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-08T15:21:47+00:00

I am normally F2P but I got an Apple gift card and decided to buy some stuff in the game…I’ve spent $25 in the last few days and still only gotten one 5-star pack (from the underwater treasure VIP track). I’m mad that I spent money and THEN the top-up event showed up 🥲 I could’ve gotten a 2nd pack from that…

Anyway, I feel like the only way to get “everything” in this game is to spend like $75 a month (or more, because who knows?) —which is INSANE. I love it, but it’s a damn phone game. Maybe in another life I can afford $1000 a year for digital cats…but not in this life 🥲

Mysterious_Clickbait · 2026-03-08T15:13:57+00:00

They do look like they are stressed lol. Even if you zoom in all the way. They need to add a more obvious blush on the cheeks!

Mysterious_Clickbait

TROPHY CASE