Teacher Fears

I feel like teaching is an extremely stressful career. I have so many things to worry about every single day.

-Did I unknowingly leave someone out at recess/at the bathroom/etc.?

-Did all of my students get on the correct bus when going home?

-Did my students actually give me all of the very important notes that their parents sent in from home or am I going to let Johnny get on the wrong bus because he turned his mom's note into a paper airplane?

-Are the directions on the homework that I sent home clear or are parents going to send me angry emails because their child doesn't know what to do (even though we have been doing the EXACT same problems in class for a week)?

-Was it inappropriate when I said, "Stop running around like a chicken with your head cut off!"

-Was I too hard on a student when he started to cry after I discussed with him why it was not appropriate for him to run screaming down the hallway (so loudly that ALL of the other teachers shut their doors).

-Does that homemade birthday treat have peanuts in them even though I can't actually see or smell any peanuts, and is my allergic kid going to swell up like a blow-fish?

-What if one of the students that I would not let get an emotional icepack from the nurse was really injured? (Really though, if I sent down every kid that asked to go to the nurse, child services would be in here investigating. One asked to get an icepack today for a non bleeding paper-cut.)

These are just a few examples of the worries that are running through my mind every single second of every single day when I'm teaching. When you're a teacher you are responsible for LIVES--but not rational adult lives. Teachers are responsible for:

-Children who escape from the playground during recess and try to walk home because, "I missed my mommy."

-Children who try to put an entire hamburger in their mouths at once because, "I wanted to see if I could."

-Children who pull the fire alarm because, "I wanted to see what would happen."

-Children who get lost between the classroom and the lunch room and have emotional breakdowns in the hallway.


Teachers are also held responsible by parents--for everything. Kids tell there parents EVERYTHING. This means that every word that comes out of my mouth and every move I make must be appropriate, professional, and rationale.

If I would lose my patience (and my mind) just once and tell a kid to sit his ass down, I would be finding myself a new career. Do you know how many times a day I want to say, "Sit your ass down!"? or "Get away from me!" It's a lot. Let me assure you of that. But instead, I say, "Sweetie, I need for you to sit on your pockets, immediately. Thank you." and "I need you to be a patient waiter and give me two giant steps of personal space."

How terrifying is that my career is in the hands of seven year-olds who eat their boogers?

What about you?? What's the most stressful part of your job?