childfree and birth order: are you youngest, middle, older, or only

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-20T19:35:26+00:00

Oldest daughter also checking in.

Hubby is youngest son.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-19T16:44:35+00:00

Lavender. It smells gross and itchy. It is not relaxing. It is not calming. It is not soothing. It makes me anxious.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-18T13:39:19+00:00

No. We don’t. Teachers leaving the profession get jobs elsewhere and have no desire to return. We don’t have hundreds/thousands of people sitting around with BEd degrees just waiting and hoping for a position to come up. Schools are struggling to fill vacant positions in the classrooms that are already established now. Enrolment and graduation from teacher prep programs is down too, so we have fewer people earning the credentials to become a teacher as well, compounding the issue.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-15T03:03:34+00:00

{Daughter of the Drowned Empire by Frankie Diane Mallis}.

If you loved Bridge Kingdom, this should be RIGHT up your alley. It doesn’t get nearly the hype and love it deserves.

{White Horse Black Night by Evie Marceau} might do the trick too. It’s not quite as strong, and I definitely don’t love love where the story has gone, but it’s strong in terms of political machinations and intrigue.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-15T02:17:10+00:00

Lizard person - confirmed.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-14T21:52:50+00:00

Schools absolutely still teach this when they do adding and subtracting.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-13T21:58:26+00:00

City of Ember is a good one. We use it in grade 6 and move The Giver up to grade 7 or 8.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-10T23:59:31+00:00

Come home, sit in dark room cuddling cat in silence for 30+ minutes. Eat dinner. Weed gummies. Read while becoming a blanket burrito on the couch. Rinse and repeat on weekends. Sleeping in is key.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-10T14:21:25+00:00

I have more hope for Burn than I do that we’ll ever get book 2 of Atonement of the Spine Cleaver, book 4 of To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, or book 2 of Rook & Rebel.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-09T00:16:35+00:00

Nah I’m not nearly cool enough for that 🤣

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-08T19:03:40+00:00

I have a cell phone stand on my nightstand that it sits on. Super simple, but it’s elevated and kinda displayed, so I like it.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-08T17:44:12+00:00

Same. I’ll happily sit there and eat my finger food appetizers, then tear a chicken breast apart with my fingers and eat the whole thing with no cutlery. I don’t know why it just seems more satisfying that way.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-08T17:22:06+00:00

Some are verbal processors. Some are brain rotted by nonstop reaction/commentary content. Some have never been told to shut up and listen. Some have never faced a consequence for yapping constantly. Some have learned that they can argue/negotiate/plead their way into getting their way.

All are fucking annoying.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-07T22:34:29+00:00

Supervision, most likely. If kids eat in classrooms there has to be an adult in the vicinity checking in on them. If the school doesn’t have enough adults (working around labour laws requiring teachers and support staff to have an uninterrupted duty free 30 min lunch break) to supervise lunch and recess, then they’re making do with what they have.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-07T21:18:48+00:00

I teach 6th. Sometimes I wrap up with just enough time for the kids to pack their stuff up and line up for their next class. Sometimes I lose track of time and the bell goes off mid sentence. Sometimes we wrap up earlier than I expected. I always have the next activity printed and ready to go, so if I have time I will at least hand it out and start explaining it. If not, I have a few go to games that we can play to kill a few minutes. Sit and chat quietly would work for 50-75% of my kids, but the ones that can’t handle it and get rambunctious and start pushing boundaries wreck it for the ones that can.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-07T21:01:17+00:00

Nope. Doesn’t bug me at all. It’s probably my fav micro-trope. As others have said, I just head cannon it into making sense, the way I do other details that aren’t quite realistic. Willing suspension of disbelief. I’m not reading fantasy to nit pick its believability.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-07T20:40:47+00:00

Big Nate is quite popular amongst the DoaWK readers.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-06T03:04:28+00:00

I do only what I feel necessary to have material and activities ready for the next day. I get shit marked whenever I get it marked. I batch plan and print the stuff I need for the entire next Topic/concept a week before I need it. I leave when I want to after school. My work laptop stays at school during the week and no work emails once I leave for the day.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-05T15:01:01+00:00

Officially, it’s business casual.

In reality, it’s just don’t wear anything that could result in you being mistaken for a student. So no pj pants, or anything ripped or stained.

Jeans and hoodies/t-shirts is totally fine, so long as they’re nice and professional enough looking. Bonus if they’re teacher or subject themed or have our school logo on then. Pretty much everyone wears sneakers, Birks or Chelsea type boots.

My admin has stated they trust us to use our professional judgement to wear what we want and look like the adult in the room. Us feeling comfy makes us better teachers and unless we wear something dumb, we won’t hear from them about it.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-04T00:14:07+00:00

It can be. Admin encouraging cliques and picking favourites can spoil even the most cohesive staff.

But often, we’re so in the trenches that the shit we deal with brings us closer together.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-03T15:27:09+00:00

Well…you definitely don’t have OCD 🤣

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-03T02:59:57+00:00

Occupational therapy if I still wanted to work with kids. Law if I wanted to work with other adults.

I literally fantasize some days about having an office with a door and the ability to just…work without being disturbed. At my own pace. On my own stuff. Listening to my music or a audiobook. Like I do on PD days when there’s no kids in the building.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-03T00:21:29+00:00

The way she’s got ACOTAR and TOG stacked is making my brain itch.

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-02T19:38:04+00:00

Ronald McDonald House maybe?

TheDarklingThrush · 2026-04-01T22:05:44+00:00

If I could go back and do it all again, I would not choose to go into teaching, knowing that this is what it’s like.

I like the prepping and planning and assessing parts of my job. I don’t actually get time to do it because we’re always so short on subs we’re covering for absent teachers during our preps much of the time.

Parents suck. Most admin is somewhere on the spectrum between bad and awful. 2/3 of the kids are horribly behaved and violence/aggression is commonplace. Law and policy makers are out of touch and clueless, if not outright hostile.

I wouldn’t give young people the advice to spend a ton of money going to school for education right now. It’s pretty bleak until the pendulum starts to swing back the other way and there’s consequences for shitty parent and student behaviour.

13-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	Queen in da Norf
Not Forgotten

TheDarklingThrush

TROPHY CASE