‘Today we wanna build a snowman!’
An open letter to parents:
Do you wanna build a snowman? I know. It wasn’t part of the plan. You have appointments, and laundry, and some of you work, and a snow day just wasn’t penciled in on the calendar. Now you must drop everything, even work, to entertain the kids. I get it. It sucks. I’m sorry. Truly. You’re so busy running your beautiful little family like a welloiled machine and the school district just turned your life into Stress Class 101.
But please, before you take to Facebook to irritably complain about sticky messes, bored children, and inconvenient snow days there is something you should know. Sometimes, even teachers need a snow day. Momming is hard. Like really hard and I respect your grit. But please know, school is hard too. The noise, the parent emails, the 326,583 daily questions, the upset stomachs, the need to always seem positive and full of energy, the noise, the packed schedule, the weekend lesson planning, and the flu is going around so there’s that.
Teachers are moms from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. without the honor. There’s snotty noses and forgotten lunches, the kid who’s struggling to make friends, the noise, the tears, field trips, the complaining and downright disrespect, the grading, the freezing cold temps at recess duty when you’re already sick, the messy classrooms, the missing gloves, the monthly fire drills that erase precious class time, the perpetually late buses, and the sweet kid who is struggling to keep up. Did I mention the noise?
Teaching is hard especially during the cold gray winter months. It can also be the most rewarding career if you let it. But teachers get tired. Really...re-ally...tired. And sometimes a bit of snow and ice causes a teacher to jump for joy like a child on Christmas morning. It may be inconvenient and it may be a long day for you as an exhausted parent. Many of you have to take a personal day at work for these things. But to the underpaid overworked teacher, this day is a gift.
It’s nice that you buy extra classroom supplies for us. The brownies you baked for the bake sale were to die for. And your chaperone leadership qualities are on point. But on this, a snow day, you are the hero to an often sick, drained and overwhelmed school staff. To that we say thank you. Thank you for letting us sleep in. For letting us relax in a cozy house. For letting us enjoy our coffee in sweet sweet peace and quiet. Tomorrow we promise to be back at it full force so you can get back to doing life. But today? Today we wanna build a snowman!