To already be fed up with teachers/eduaction workers posting about their long holiday!

[Freshlysqueezed]

Facebook is swarming with people saying how much they deserve it and other people patting them on the back. It seems like the world and his wife are in education or SAHM's with 6 glorious weeks ahead of them. Apart from a one week holiday I have a juggling timetable of various childcare arrangements to run to and fro from.

Well, I appreciate my kids teachers.
They work damn hard.
One of my eldest son sons teachers actually sent him a letter to our house in the last week of term praising his work that year, even though he didn't get an award at awards evening she wanted him to know she was proud of him.
She didn't have to do that.
She probably typed it up at home in her own time.
My son was chuffed to bits.
and so was I!!
????

I'm going to be honest about my work life in the hope that it might provide a bit of balance. Firstly, the holidays are a lovely perk. They are unpaid, but I'm grateful for them. I get that time with my dd which I love. Two weeks at Christmas is wonderful. It is especially lovely that both my DH and I are both teachers so we get the time with dd. However, during term time, we often put dd to bed at 7 and then sit together working until about 10ish. I leave school at 4 pm at least twice a week and then work at home so that I can spend time with dd. DH does the same. That is a real perk too, but the cost is that, during the quieter parts of the year, I'm still working in the evenings at least 3 nights per week plus at least 4 hours over the weekend. However, there are busy times where I will work much more than that at the weekends and in the evenings. Christmas is the only holiday where I do not do any work at all except on the last day when I do my prep. I don't go into school though. At half term I do at least three days worth, a week at Easter and two weeks during the summer. During exam times, I work 16 hour days easily. It's very busy. However, I do not believe my job is harder than anyone else's. All I ask is that you do not begrudge me the perks. I do not begrudge anyone else theirs.

Any teacher having to muddle through the curriculuum changes at present with rapidly changing goals, fewer support staff, having to cover more and more as teachers flee the profession, dealing with increasing adolescent mental health issues etc deserves and as mich holiday as they can muster out of the next few weeks.

The kids are bloody knackered too. Its not just the teachers who need a bit of a break.

I'm reading this sat on my balcony on the first day of my looonnng holiday

In fact it's so easy you could become a teacher yourself then you too could gloat :)

I went into teaching because it was a short retraining course, it didn't seem too hard and I could travel in the holidays. The money is also decent.

I still think all those things but the crucial point was I enjoy it and am good at it. If I didn't enjoy it then all the perks in the world wouldn't be enough.

It's been a great career for me as I'm now a single parent and have managed to negotiate my role down to school hours only. It's meant that I haven't got quite the career I had planned but I have holidays with my son, no childcare to worry about and I'm done by 4:30pm. It's been great.

Teaching is brilliant for letting you mould it to what you want or need - you have the choice of state, private, part time, supply, teaching abroad...... Hugely more flexible than lots of jobs. If you find yourself stressed, hating it, or becoming that whinger you always planned to avoid it's easy enough to change things if you really want to.

I agree to an extent there are lots of professions that work really, really bloody hard and don't get any credit for it whatsoever - and only get 22 days leave per year...

Yes, but you go into those professions knowing that you will only get 22 days holiday. The two weeks before we broke up I barely saw my husband. I was out on school activities 8 times and he was out 5. All in the evenings. We were like passing ships. However, I knew that was part of the job when I took it. I can't moan about it. I worked out the other day that putting on a school show means that I do the equivalent to two weeks extra work without any extra pay. Again, that is the job. No way would I moan. Or begrudge other people because they don't have the same challenges.

Id love to become a teacher. I would gladly cope with the stress in exchange for the long holidays. Except if I re train, who will take care of my disabled husband? So I'll carry on working 24/7 with no weekends off, less than £1 an hour pay (based on 37 hour week). Oh I have just returned from a holiday, 7 days in South Wales with my kids and husband. I did the same crap and had the same stresses as at home, just in a caravan in a different location.

Stop gloating, and for fuck's sake stop coming out with the same tired old 'become a teacher then' line. I will swap my life for yours any day of the week

piddle is it just the holidays you want? Because there are 39 weeks where you wouldn't be on holiday....

piddle that sounds really difficult. It must be hard hearing about people getting time off when your life feels like a slog.

In fairness, your life is probably more challenging and relentless than pretty much any job, I don't think that is confined to teaching.

Being pleased that you have time off doesn't equate to gloating though.

LokiBear - Lots of jobs have become much harder. My DP went into a job that used to be 9-5pm, it no longer is. DP works very long hours at home now, and is still not that well paid. But at 51 DP is trained and has the experience for this job.

well the money would be nice too, but the fact that I coulkd do a job where I was appreciated and actually finished or had some time off. Its not so much about any old job but teachers do seem to do more than their fair share of 'I get up half an hour before I go to bed because I had to mark some books'. The teachers in my family all have second holiday homes, and have retired by the age of 56. Nice work if you can get it

I don't know any teachers with second holiday homes, but I do know a few who have had to retire early due to work related health concerns - my father included. The average salary is only around £30,000.

Although the pension now is nowhere near as secure or good as in previous generations, so early retirement is rarely an option.

Piddle... Whilst your life sounds rally really difficult I'm not sure you're being entirely fair. Your difficulties are nothing to do with work and if you had chosen teaching as a profession aged 21 you'd be no better off than you are now. In fact a colleague recently had to give up work in order to care for a disabled spouse. Teachers can and do end up in exactly your position, long holidays don't make us immune to life's ups and downs. Another colleague I can think of has a very poorly daughter, she has almost died at least twice. She can't afford not to work though and I know she's really looking forward to the holidays.

If you work full time and only get 22 days ' annual leave it sounds as though you aren't getting your full legal entitlement.

piddle I think you are resenting teachers unfairly. You don't seem to have a realistic idea of the job.

The same is true of teaching, larant. This year our school has moved from one written report per pupil every year to one written report per pupil per term. The work load on reporting alone has tripled. I have an option though, if I don't like it I could change jobs. It is a vocation though. I love what I do. I'm a head of year as well as a teacher. I love that I am making a difference to young people's lives. I also enjoy the holidays. I don't believe my job is harder than others. I do believe I should be able to enjoy the perks. It isn't gloating. That is as unfair as it would be if I suggested non teachers are jealous.

Sooty My Dh works fulltime and only gets a more than that.

a day more than that sorry.

I think there are professional martyrs in every job role (and none).

We have a friend who DH and I joke has never had a job where his boss hasn't been a wanker. He moans and moans about every job, every bonus, every company car, every boss. Unfrotunately, 'logistics managers are all whingers' doesn't have much of a ring to it does it?

I've met martyr teachers, martyr SAHPs, martyr IT managers and martyr electricians. Likewise, I've met plenty of people in all walks of life who take their jobs for what they are - not perfect but better than the alternative.

Second home dear god my teacher husband is clearly doing something wrong.
I work for half the money and get twenty six days leave plus bank holidays.
Is that ok with you priddle?
Retired by 56 PMSL he can retire at 67.
Jeez is it some sort of misery top trumps where we all have to compete in a downward spiral.
Every job has its ups and downs, mine is less money but lots of flexibility . I hope no one begrudges me that

Mrs- he isn't getting his full legal entitlement then.

I genuinely think that the stress my DDs teachers go through, combined with the passion they pour into their job makes them entitled to 6 weeks off.

I couldn't do their job. I volunteered once in Year 1 on a craft day...I was KNACKERED after 3 hours!

ReadtheSmallPrint - That is very true. You do meet people in all walks of life who think they are incredibly hard done by, in comparison to other jobs.

In terms of stress, it is jobs that have high responsibility, but low levels of control that are the most stressful.

Mrs the statutory entitlement is now 5.6 weeks including bank holidays.