Anonymous discussion · Need to talk
The reading notebook is still open on the sofa and my corrected worksheets are beside it
The reading notebook is still open on the sofa and my corrected worksheets are beside it. My younger child waited for me to listen tonight, but I was checking notebooks and replying to a school message. Finally they read to my husband. Later, very normally, they said, “Amma is always busy when it is my turn.” I apologised and then felt angry, which is the part I don’t want to say at home. Angry at whom, exactly? The child only asked for the thing I promised. I teach in a school, so I cannot just stop when I reach home. Corrections, messages, small work which somehow takes the whole evening. But this has happened several times now. I say I will finish earlier and then I don’t. Sometimes I wish they would stop asking, just so I can complete the work without feeling like a bad mother. My husband helps with some routines, but I still carry the planning in my head. I don’t know whether to keep a strict cut-off, ask him to take one routine properly, or accept that some things will keep getting missed. Other working parents, especially teachers, how are you managing this without pretending the job is optional? The steel tumbler is still untouched also. I am tired. Anonymous