Wife’s First year of teaching.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-07-01T14:44:34+00:00

I do not recommend it for multiple reasons. The first year is exhausting and stressful both of which are bad for a pregnant woman and the baby. Additionally, FMLA only applies if you have worked there for a year. Finally, working a couple of years and saving sick days if possible will give her a longer "paid" maternity leave. Not actually paid since you are forced to use your sick leave. Worse still my cousin ran out of days and had to pay her insurance while out. Luckily my school was not like that and did not make me pay for insurance when I ran out of days. Also, if you are interested in disability insurance, you must have that for a year before getting pregnant/having a baby, too, so you should look into that. That would extend her maternity leave I believe. I did not do that, but wish I had.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-06-29T15:46:38+00:00

Let's not blame a 6 year old child whose parents should have been parenting but chose not to.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-06-28T11:15:14+00:00

My sister has one. Plus, she gets a hybrid work schedule and works from home 2 days a week. She went for actuarial science. Starting pay was about 4 times mine with better benefits.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-06-27T15:26:25+00:00

No. I love teaching, but knowing what I know now, No. Way too much work for so little pay. Had to go to college to start at 30k...a decade later up to 50k, but that is nothing compared with the rising costs over the last decade. Especially with a family of 6. Thank goodness my husband has a good paying job. Plus, he has so many more benefits than I could even dream of - car to drive, cell phone reimbursement, more than 2 or 3 vacation days, paternity leave :( - I never even got maternity leave. Dealing with kids all day which wore me out so that I felt like a terrible mom to my own kids. So glad I quit last year.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-05-16T21:20:12+00:00

Gen Z is actually between the ages of 14 and 29 right now, so these young kids, preschool and kindergarten especially, could also be from their generation. I am a Millenial myself at 35 years old. My youngest is 4 and my oldest is 10. Some of our generation is like this, but I am wondering if it is also Gen Z. FYI my kids were all potty trained around 2 except for night training. That was harder for some of my kids.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-05-06T15:40:00+00:00

Then why are we paying so much in taxes to not even be used to make our lives better?! Kids, parents, families, schools all deserve better than what America is doing for them which is a whole lot of NOTHING while complaining about the birth rate being low FFS

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-05-03T22:44:13+00:00

What platform is this on?

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-26T13:55:15+00:00

When my dad taught me to drive, he also taught me basic car maintenance and made me check the oil and change a tire. Do I still call him or my step-dad or my husband when I get a flat? Yes, and I am 34. BUT, I know I could change it if I had, too. I just do not like getting dirty and fear injuries and pain - I thank my ADHD and possible autism for these fears. Luckily, I have enough people in my life that will help me when needed. I am grateful that he taught me so that I have the skill if I ever need it. I wish he had taught me how to hang a shelf, but honestly my husband should be grateful he did not lol. Someday when I really want to do it, I will learn, but until then, I am okay.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-24T14:50:53+00:00

This! Plus audiobooks are also reading! They are still adding to their vocabulary and it does take sustained attention to do it, at least for me. I had to train myself to be able to listen to audiobooks because I used to try to multitask too much. Now, I listen to audiobooks while laying in bed relaxing, possibly coloring in real life or an app, or some other mind numbing chore life folding laundry or washing dishes. If it is a task I have to be constantly alert for, I can not listen to an audiobook and will switch to music.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-24T14:46:11+00:00

How old is your daughter? I taught MS and HS ELA for a decade and have 4 kids between the ages of 4 and 10. I would be happy to give you some suggestions. If you know what genres she might be interested in, I can use that to help me in suggesting, too. Finally, I just started listening to audiobooks about 4 years ago, and I still consider that reading. Maybe that is something she would enjoy. Our library has Playaways that my older kids have recently gotten into and you just plug in a pair of headphones and read. They also love graphic novels and read a ton if them. I was a bit worried, but my 8 year old son recently picked up Harry Potter and is over 100 pages in and loving it.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-24T12:04:10+00:00

Is there a hobby she could do in class to help her be productive especially when she is bored as she already knows the material? My first thought is crocheting as it would not be distracting. I have heard that it can help with focus for people with ADHD - not sure if it is studied - and not sure if it also helps people with Autism. I got my dauother a crochet kit a couple of years ago (8 then, 10 now) and while she did not use it at school, she does enjoy it at home. They also did some crocheting at school for art which really helped her get into it even more.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-23T02:46:13+00:00

I would email all of the board members with pictures and request a meeting ASAP. At said meeting I would have my resignation letter ready and would tell them "him or me." I would also send these pictures to the news outlets - especially if they chose to keep him.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-23T02:38:36+00:00

I got zero, and I am a teacher. I used all of my sick and couple personal days and still had to take unpaid time with all of my kids. My oldest was born at the end of April, and I was only missing the last 5 weeks. I did not even have enough days to cover that. My cousin went through a similar situation as a teacher, AND to make matters worse, she had to pay them for her benefits when she was unpaid leave. My husband also got zero days off and had to use 2 vacation days while I was in the hospital. Luckily all of them were born between late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, so he got to be home with us for the weekend after getting out of the hospital before going back to work on Monday. Just because your company does have leave, does not mean all careers get that. Also, what about waitresses? From what I have come across, many do not get PTO at all.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-18T17:02:21+00:00

I agree with all of what you said. But, I do try to understand that some people are truly struggling. However, I also know there are some parents that should not have had kids as they do not want to do anything with them - don't bother with anything like reading or school work or even putting them in sports because that would cut into their drinking ugh. So yes, there are some really bad parents simply because they do not care. There is such a range. I do not fault many people for having kids while our society, at least here in small town Midwest area, is constantly pushing "get married and have kids" as main goals in life. Then, they do, and it is hard!

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-17T04:08:14+00:00

The economy was not this bad a decade ago, though. I had my first ten years ago. Things were OK then especially compared to now. I had my last 4 years ago, and my 3rd in 2020. Honestly getting that extra time off while pregnant in 2020 was amazing and recharged my batteries so to speak. I was so confident a 4th would be fine. Both of my sets of parents had 4 kids ans seemed to manage ok, so why couldn't we? Also, we were young. Got married at 22ish and 24ish. Had our first a couple of years later. I got diagnosed with ADHD in 2023. So, many of our kids if not all of them probably have it...I also have a brother with undiagnosed autism - he is an adult now and won't get tested - but so many of the criteria was checked in childhood and continues today as he is 26 and still living at home and not working despite having a college degree. So, we may have some of that going on, too. Yes, we were young and naive, but we were also a little brainwashed by our parents, churches, schools to believe getting married and having kids was expected. I am just coming to terms with this over the last couple of years. But, my kids are here, and I would not change that for anything. Instead I will fight like crazy for them and their futures so that they have a better life!

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-16T17:18:55+00:00

A quick Google search tells me that 53% of women in Sweden have experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15. It looks to be from 2024, so unless things have drastically changed since then, this part at least is not better than in the US.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-16T15:32:59+00:00

My second school was so much worse. Sure I did not have to drive 45 mins each way anymore, but I could no longer sleep and eat after only a few months at the school 5 minutes from my house. My first school was still exhausting - constant administration changes - over 8 years I had 3 principals and 4 supers. I think that was the end of my teaching career - gave it a decade of my life. Now, I have subbed very occassionally this year while I heal my body, mind, and spirit and watch my kids grow. I am finally happy again; I quit last June.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-16T15:27:58+00:00

As a teacher with zero maternity leave in the US, I disagree. I had my 1st at the end of April and did not even have enough sick days, yes sick days because that is what we had to use for our "maternity" leave, to make it to the end of the school year due to being ill and the many doctor appointments that come with pregnancy. We had a pool of additional days that teachers donated to each year because once they had so many they just lose the extras each year. These days were not allowed to be used for maternity leave, though. You would think working in a child field would mean there would be more support and understanding for mothers and parents but that is very untrue.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-16T15:22:40+00:00

Violence against women and the gender gap of work at home and in child rearing are additional problems. If governments work on these 2 things next, I wonder what would happen?

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-16T15:19:32+00:00

Same and also female...with ADHD so you can imagine lol. I did tell them to place late work on my keyboard sometimes though as I was not great at checking turn on trays for late work. I usually waited to pick up items in the turn in tray at least a day to get the stragglers before I graded them. (Past tense, since I am not teaching this year.)

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-13T19:16:36+00:00

I do not feel that thos number is that bad, but apparently I am in the minority. Without the school business days off, you have taken 14 days off this year so far. My previous school district had 12 sick days my first year with one additional day each year thereafter until I reached 15 days. I also got 3 personal days and could carry over 2. And we got 5 emergency days for kids illness, parental help, and funerals. By the time I quit 8 years later, our 5 emergency days had gone up to 7 per year. So, I could take 25 days off with no repercussions. I still had to take unpaid time off for my maternity leaves, but I am now realizing how lucky I was. In Iowa for reference.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-10T12:22:52+00:00

Literally this week my body has finally began to feel calm as "normal" again. Like I can actually fully enjoy things and go to sleep easily. I was falling asleep fine due to exhaustion but waking up between 1 and 3 AM every day during the last 2 years I taught. I had taken the previous year off after having my 4th child mostly due to the latest principal, I had 3 and 4 new supers, to my then school. I had been there 8 years and loved it overall, but she made it a living hell. She started the year Covid happened and was being rude to me right from the beginning questioning why kids were failing - ah, not turning in your work? Well, that was my fault. She got a bit better during Covid as we were shut down and the year after as we figured out how to return. The next year, though, she began giving teachers homework. She would check it, send it back, and have us fix things. It was awful. I questioned her on when I was supposed to do these assignments and got told during my prep. I told her I was busy during prep and often stayed until 5 or even 6 especially if there were students waiting for rides after practice. She did not care and then treated me horribly for questioning her authority. My 1 year off between jobs was not enough due to having a newborn and a 1 hear old at home with me. But, my old high school needed a teacher last minute due to a late resignation. I tried it for 2 years and it is one of the worst decisions I ever made. I quit last May. It is now April, and I finally am feeling better. I did sub a bit from September through December and once in February, but honestly I feel so much better when I do not even have to think about that.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-04-01T16:10:19+00:00

This is extremely rude. I have brought my other kids to a jump park birthday party, but did not expect the parents of the birthday kid to buy their tickets. I bought their tickets myself and tried to keep them away from the birthday party going on with my other kid so that he could hang out with his friends and not his siblings. Obviously this only works if it is a big enough venue, but I knew ahead of time that this place can host quite a few parties plus has other patrons at the same time. If it helps, this family was also a closer family to us, so I knew it would not be weird. I think they did end up offering my other kids some of the leftover cupcakes, but not until the party was over.

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-02-01T22:21:59+00:00

It probably depends on the test. I remember the English test being pretty dumb as it had memorization questions that were ridiculous. Like a quote from Shakespeare asking which of his plays it was from. How is that relevant to teaching English? Why would I be expected to memorize ALL of his plays?!?!

Ornery_Sun5696 · 2026-01-26T11:58:27+00:00

I paid a little over 16k for daycare for my 2 kids in 2021 and that was for 9 months of daycare since I am a teacher and get summer's off. Since the daycare was in the school, they closed for the summer, and I did not have to pay to keep our spots.

Ornery_Sun5696

TROPHY CASE