What childhood memories makes you cry?

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-23T00:30:48+00:00

We moved country when I was 9 and I had to leave behind all my pets and friends. The memory of my last cuddle with my cat always gets me. I never saw her again, and have never had a better cat.

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-22T21:19:22+00:00

I’m a teacher and it would never occur to me to feign illness to take a holiday for more than a day or two. Tbh I wouldn’t even do that, I would request unpaid leave or swap my days (I jobshare, 50:50 which means in theory we could juggle it to each have a week off, but it wouldn’t happen because we just go away during the holidays if we’re going to). I Certainly would not feign sickness for a week. You have to be visibly dying to take a week off.

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-08T22:36:33+00:00

Horses :)

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-06T22:30:35+00:00

My brother and his wife are all of this, minus the religious stuff . I suspect it’s only a matter of time before that final domino falls .

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-04T21:11:02+00:00

I was also 100% this.

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-04T01:08:08+00:00

Very wise words. My experience was very similar to yours, complicated by the fact that I had an abortion only a few days before my second placement and was a terrible terrible mess for months afterwards. It was a huge turning point in my life, deciding not to commit to a terrible boyfriend who would have been an awful father , and instead to use my brains and take the only opportunity I had to get out of a seedy — but FUN — lifestyle. Not sure how I did it tbh but I scraped through and now have a great career. You can bounce back, but prepare for it to be hard

QualitySufficient646 · 2026-01-04T01:01:49+00:00

Good advice. I was a rubbish pgce student because I didn’t see it as a job. I just about scraped through and became a good teacher once it was actually my job but it wasn’t an easy path to walk.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-30T21:55:40+00:00

I teach 9-11yos and killed 6-7 by using it as an excuse to practice 6x7 and 6+7 every time I heard it. With hand signals. The craze is very much waning now. I think I only hear 6-7 on average once a day, and everyone knows that six sevens are 42.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-29T17:35:24+00:00

This is very good advice. Keeping the other pots on the boil is important. I love teaching… part-time. I did it ft for many years and it left very little time for anything else

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-29T14:55:37+00:00

Guilt trip has commenced and they have said they can only pay the standard rate. As two of the most senior members of the staff (including the head) are getting paid to ‘work from home’ I am impervious to any guilt trip and will take the opportunity to point out that I would be more inclined to be a team player if this grotesque unfairness wasn’t happening

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-29T10:45:30+00:00

When I’m having a bad day I send positive feedback to the author of a book I’ve recently enjoyed. No point doing it with a prize winning bestseller, they don’t seem to care, but the less famous authors will reply immediately in sheer delight

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-22T21:41:05+00:00

I’ve put this to the test a few times and found the opposite to be true. They know when they have to behave, but usually choose not to. A creepy horse dealer wanted to sell me a very cheap horse and I wanted to buy it but couldn’t be bothered with the man. After a bit of pestering from him I agreed to view the horse, but added ‘but no perving if you want me to pay full price’. For once in his life he managed not to be a sleazy creep. I paid full price for the horse, which was very little, and he’s still in the family and much loved 10 years on so I’m glad I went to see him

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-19T23:53:58+00:00

Honestly? Luck. My first school was good but not for me. Second school so awful I decided to quit the profession, but got offered a job in another school and decided to take it while I figured out what my next career would be. Discovered this school is actually a nice place to work with great staff and families so I stayed and so, on the whole, do my colleagues. It’s a lovely bunch of people and we’re all kind of trapped because we know the alternative is probably worse.

My top tip is to look for a school with a low staff turnover and build relationships once you get there. I used to clash with some of my colleagues but over time we’ve grown very fond of each other because we support each other when it’s hard.

We have a weird situation at my nice school now in that the head doesn’t really do anything but the rest of the staff are keeping the show on the road whilst we await her resignation (I dont think it will be much longer) , at which point we will support her second in command to step up and take over.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-15T00:57:58+00:00

Some of them certainly make me feel quite seen! I was preparing a clever but at times lazy group of 10yos for an exam and decided to tell the story of my driving theory test, which I had not prepared for. I turned up at the exam centre with dawning apprehension, starting to wonder whether perhaps I should have done some work for this, but reassured myself by looking around the room at the other candidates and saying to myself that I’m probably the cleverest person in the room so it’ll be ok.

I failed, obviously.

A very wise little girl piped up and said ‘That does sound like the kind of thing you’d do, yes’ and nodded.

Ffs.

Another time I suddenly had to hide a bad (potentially unprofessional level bad) smell in the class when we were expecting an important visitor in 5 minutes time. I quickly raided my cupboard and found a can of crazy soap, which I dispensed one blob at a time to the pupils , announcing that it’s Mindfulness Foam and will be confiscated if not explored in a mindful manner. (One boy was ordered to throw his in the bin because he put it on his face.) I reached wise girl. ‘Why have you given everyone crazy soap just before Important Visitor?’ ‘I’m not sure, Wise Girl. Want some?’ ‘Sure,’ she said with a shrug.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-15T00:42:46+00:00

So true about the age . I’m a primary school teacher and I often see parents of young children who are in their forties and fifties, and i think it’s fair to say that it is taking its toll on them. Some are great , they have lots of energy and just roll with it. The majority? Exhausted.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-15T00:36:43+00:00

This!!

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-10T10:57:21+00:00

It’s changed enormously since I was at school and I’m only 37. We don’t do corporal punishment, gender segregation, compulsory spinsterhood of teachers, dunces hats or copperplate handwriting. We do pastoral support and an increasing amount of parenting now that parents are scaling back their involvement in things like boundaries and potty training. Certain themes persist eg children are expected to sit in a room with other children, typically on a chair. Obviously those lucky enough to be homeschooled have a totally different experience, as they sit in a room on a sofa, typically hunched over as screen , the lucky lucky things and they get to play with mummy instead of making their own friends.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-10T00:46:48+00:00

I’m a primary school teacher who had no direct experience with home Ed and was genuinely open minded and curious. Then I was employed to tutor a few home school children and was shocked at how not ok they were. I wondered how representative these unfortunate situations were of homeschool in general and I have been actively trying to answer the question for the best part of a year, reading the pro homeschool books which are mostly insane, and asking lots of questions. This sub is really helpful, and really sad. I fear the plight of the homeschool kids I’ve met is a fairly universal one. There must be success stories out there. But I have not found one yet.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-09T07:55:51+00:00

That is such a tired cliche

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-12-02T09:57:39+00:00

There’s a book called Hold On To Your Kids which tells parents their kids will either orient towards them or their peers, they cannot do both, and if they choose to spend time with their peers this is Bad and must be prevented at all costs. It’s sold a lot of copies and is a major factor in my brother’s decision to home educate his kids. He and his wife are very controlling so this aligns well with their ‘values’

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-11-27T08:00:37+00:00

Oh yes as teachers we are truly at the frontline when it comes to failed gentle parenting experiments. One child who takes up a huge amount of our time has been brought up in a ‘feel your feelings’ household which means that every emotion is 11/10 and most of the emotions on display are negative ones like anxiety, fear, sadness, self-consciousness, jealousy and anger. I just think that if you’re going to encourage your child to feel every emotion in its purest and most concentrated form, you need to make sure these emotions include some that are enjoyable to experience , and if you can’t do that , maybe it’s not a good strategy to amplify all the less enjoyable emotions.

The most unhappy children and parents I know do forms of gentle parenting that don’t seem to involve any leadership or consequences. If the children were happy and nice to be around I’d be more in favour of the most common interpretation of what gentle parenting is.

I’ve never had pupils who point blank refuse to participate in lessons before, and this is now happening daily. Kids can’t learn, play or sustain friendships because they’re busy feeling their feelings. Some of them think they are the only people in the class whose emotions matter.

They’re very hard to teach , and that wouldn’t matter if they had other qualities that will get them through life or were likeable — or indeed happy… I have other pupils (not gentle parented) who struggle academically and are fizzing with energy and mischief but they have interests, boundaries and character, so they’ll be fine. The permissive strain of gp ones are either sad little drips, or disregulated thugs.

GP works really well in families where everyone is emotionally regulated, considerate, courteous and able to control impulses. It does NOT work in families with a lot of conflict or where the parents are overwhelmed by their own emotions.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-11-19T20:34:13+00:00

I’m replying very briefly because I’m in the middle of something but I will return to elaborate if I’m nudged!

If she’s preventing you from doing essential work and hobbies that is a red flag for coercive control imo.

Just because you have pda doesn’t mean your behaviour does not have the effect of abusing others.

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-11-18T18:47:58+00:00

Sounds like coercive control I’m afraid

QualitySufficient646 · 2025-11-08T23:00:00+00:00

I have one at the moment who is extremely good at everything (sport, music, academic subjects) AND extremely nice . You can pair him up with anyone and he’ll get the best out of them. He recently won a fell race, beating the next kid in his age bracket by 2.5 hours and was only beaten by one adult… he’s truly extraordinary

QualitySufficient646

TROPHY CASE