Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / 🙏🏼Ask & Answer: Interviewing My Kids 👩‍👧‍👦

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🙏🏼Ask & Answer: Interviewing My Kids 👩‍👧‍👦 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:15
  Hello my love. It is Mel from a London Thriving
• 0:18
  for Teachers and welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:21
  Now today's episode is going to be a little bit different and I
• 0:24
  am super excited about it. I am currently sitting down with
• 0:27
  my beautiful twins to chat about what it's really like having a
• 0:31
  teacher for a mom. So we're gonna get their honest,
• 0:34
  funny, and maybe a little bit cheeky perspective on how school
• 0:38
  life and home life collide, what they love and what they might
• 0:42
  find tricky, and the little things that make our family life
• 0:46
  just unique. So grab yourself a coffee, get
• 0:48
  comfy, and join us for this very special family episode.
• 0:54
  All right, my beautiful loves, how old are we?
• 0:57
  10. We're both 10 now.
• 1:01
  How would you describe me as a mum?
• 1:05
  You can use up to 3 words. What's mum like?
• 1:08
  Lovely, great and fun to play with.
• 1:13
  What about you, darling? Awesome, funny and lovable.
• 1:17
  Aww. You guys are sweet.
• 1:20
  If I wasn't a teacher, what do you think I would be doing
• 1:24
  instead? Probably lots of more podcasts
• 1:31
  more. Podcasts, what about you?
• 1:35
  Working at a daycare. Working at a daycare?
• 1:38
  OK, I've actually already worked at a daycare before.
• 1:40
  You 2 have a one all right. What is it like having a mum who
• 1:45
  is a teacher? Well, it's good at home, but
• 1:50
  when it's also good when you have to take us to school, when
• 1:53
  we get to go to school so we don't have to walk or somebody
• 1:56
  else has to take us so much to be late, we get to go early and
• 1:58
  play our tablets. Yeah.
• 2:02
  How about you? It's good because then we can
• 2:04
  stay later after school and you can take us earlier before
• 2:09
  school. And they'll say you're gonna,
• 2:13
  you're, you're always in at school, you're gonna get
• 2:15
  smarter. So then if you ask you
• 2:17
  questions, you can answer, 'cause you're gonna get smarter.
• 2:20
  Ah, now are there any things that I do at home that remind
• 2:26
  you of school? Doing lots of work.
• 2:33
  Talking to people on your computer and messaging and
• 2:37
  people calling you there and they can't go to school.
• 2:41
  When Mommy has to do the relief, isn't it?
• 2:44
  So how do you feel when I talk about my work at home?
• 2:52
  You know you don't know I hate you.
• 2:57
  Well, I don't understand any of it, but then when you recommend
• 3:00
  people at school what their names are, I just go like, are
• 3:04
  they not going to school today? Oh yeah, when the teachers call
• 3:07
  in sick. That's right.
• 3:09
  Now, what is one thing about me being a teacher that you really
• 3:14
  like? That if we're sad at school, we
• 3:18
  can go to you and we can tell you and then you can give us a
• 3:21
  hug or a kiss and you say you're going to have a great, great day
• 3:24
  now and don't think about that thing.
• 3:27
  If we're hurt, we can go to you. Yeah, at school.
• 3:31
  What about when I wasn't working at the same school as you?
• 3:35
  We could like after school, we could tell you and then you
• 3:38
  might give us a big hug and say, well, you might have a better
• 3:43
  day tomorrow. Yeah, cool.
• 3:46
  What is one thing that is tricky or funny about having a teacher
• 3:51
  for a mum? Don't really know you.
• 3:56
  Know something that's hard about having a teacher for a mum
• 4:00
  sometimes? Yeah.
• 4:02
  We always have to wake up. Early to get ready and go to
• 4:05
  school. Yes, I guess that is a bit
• 4:08
  tricky. And we always bet we.
• 4:15
  Oh, I forgot. I don't really know, it's hard
• 4:17
  to explain. That's OK, You might think of
• 4:20
  something later. Have you ever learned something
• 4:23
  from me that you didn't learn at school?
• 4:26
  Like I said, Something that I've taught you that you didn't learn
• 4:30
  from your classroom teacher. What do you mean like?
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  Like is there something that mummy has taught you being mum
• 4:42
  or because I'm a teacher I knew how to do this and so I taught
• 4:45
  you how to do it, but then you went to school and then your
• 4:48
  teacher taught you later or something like that.
• 4:52
  He kind of taught us a little bit about math when he wasn't at
• 4:56
  school. Like when we're like at the
• 4:58
  start of the year, he say at school this year you're going to
• 5:02
  be learning about fractions and I might tell you a bit.
• 5:05
  And then at school we're going to learn a bit.
• 5:07
  We but learn a bit more, but we already know what they are.
• 5:10
  Yeah. I think the same.
• 5:12
  Yeah, OK. Do you ever feel like I know too
• 5:17
  much sometimes? No.
• 5:22
  Not really, because you always forget stuff or like or you
• 5:27
  always don't know one thing. You don't always know too much.
• 5:31
  You always know like the same like as everyone else.
• 5:35
  OK, Yep. So maybe mum's not that smart.
• 5:39
  You are smart, but you are smart but you're not like a scientist
• 5:44
  like they can like do so many maths like that.
• 5:49
  Yeah, OK. If you could give me a tip on
• 5:53
  being a better teacher, what do you think it would be?
• 5:57
  To actually teach class, not just being AST to.
• 6:03
  Teach like music library or actual class, not just second in
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  charge or staying in your office.
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  I want you to teach like a a whole class for like a whole
• 6:16
  year and then you can stuff if you don't like it.
• 6:20
  You want me to be on class full time?
• 6:22
  You don't want to be in leadership anymore.
• 6:24
  No, I want to be in there. I want you to teach a class.
• 6:27
  Why do you want me to teach a class again?
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  Because then we can tell you if my friends are being mean
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  straight away. So then maybe you don't go out
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  of the class. Or if like you can see if I, if
• 6:41
  I get angry, you know what to do because you're my mum.
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  And if you're in the same class, yeah.
• 6:47
  Anything to add? No.
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  Do you think Mummy hides in her office?
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  No. What's she doing then when she's
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  in her office? Walking around walking.
• 6:59
  Around, yeah. Is that working?
• 7:03
  OK, so you think I just walk around my office and I don't do
• 7:08
  work? Or do I do work in my office?
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  You do work in your office and walk around looking for
• 7:13
  teachers. Like if you need to tell them
• 7:15
  like a question, you just walk out and then you tell a
• 7:18
  question. Then you then if I'm trying to
• 7:20
  find you, like if I need to give you a bag or something, you're
• 7:23
  not in your office. But then sometimes you are, but
• 7:25
  you're on your computer or you're talking to somebody
• 7:28
  enough to say just wait. A second.
• 7:31
  Yeah, that's right. OK, do you?
• 7:35
  I already asked you that one. How do we have fun together
• 7:39
  outside of school? So when I'm not a teacher and
• 7:42
  I'm just mum, how do we have fun?
• 7:44
  We go walk later on the beach or something.
• 7:46
  Yeah. You take us to fun places, like
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  if it's on Friday, sometimes you take us to go get a treat in the
• 7:54
  morning, like a hot chocolate, or in the afternoon you get us a
• 7:56
  cookie or we or we go to the vault.
• 8:00
  Yeah, so we go to a really nice coffee place.
• 8:02
  What is your favourite memory of us spending time together?
• 8:09
  There's a lot of memories, but I think I have way more, but I
• 8:15
  think it's on me go on vacations.
• 8:18
  I like that. So like every time we have lots
• 8:20
  of vacations, like if we go to Hobart or like lawn test and
• 8:24
  like that and we have like a sleep over there.
• 8:26
  I like that because we get to go do fun activities to get like go
• 8:30
  karting, go of all that stuff. When we get to go on family
• 8:38
  vacations. Yeah, we do lots of fun things.
• 8:41
  What about if we were in charge of school for a day?
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  What would we do? Go to the beach for the full
• 8:50
  day. Probably go on a like a school,
• 8:55
  like some classes go to like the beach if they want it and then
• 9:00
  some classes can go to play outside for like for like half a
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  day and then the people from the beach and then they switch and
• 9:09
  then at the end of the day we all get chocolates.
• 9:12
  We all get chocolates. Lovely.
• 9:16
  All right? What is something silly or funny
• 9:20
  that happens because I'm a teacher?
• 9:27
  Like if you have something funny when you're a teacher, sometimes
• 9:30
  in class I sometimes call you mum instead of a teacher name
• 9:35
  and my friends will laugh and I and I go hmm.
• 9:39
  Whoopsies. Yeah, that does happen.
• 9:42
  What about if mummy does anything silly at work and you
• 9:45
  guys see it? Does Mum do do any silly teacher
• 9:48
  things? You forget what you're going to
• 9:51
  say to another teacher. Yeah, I do forget sometimes if
• 9:56
  you could describe what having a mum as a teacher is like in one
• 10:02
  sentence. So if someone was to say to you,
• 10:05
  what's it like having a teacher for a mum, what would we say?
• 10:10
  It's a bit hard when we have to wake up early, but it's also
• 10:13
  easier if we get sad at school. Yeah, what if mummy doesn't work
• 10:18
  at the same school because some teachers that are mums don't
• 10:20
  work at the same school as their kids?
• 10:22
  If we tell you something, you would know how it's like because
• 10:25
  you, if you're out of school, you're out of school.
• 10:28
  So you know how it's like if we get like bullied or that you
• 10:31
  might see people bullying people.
• 10:33
  So you know how it's like to be out of school, people bullying.
• 10:36
  Yeah. I think the same.
• 10:39
  You think the same. OK, what's one thing you would
• 10:43
  want other kids to know about having a teacher as a parent?
• 10:49
  Most the time it's awesome, but several times it's a bit bad
• 10:53
  because you gotta wake up early. I feel like there's a theme here
• 10:58
  that we maybe don't like waking up early to go to school, no?
• 11:02
  6:00 is too early. 6:00 is too early.
• 11:06
  About that saying, I also like sometimes I don't like how I
• 11:11
  wake up early, but then when we get to school, we get there
• 11:14
  early and then mom works. So then we're allowed to play
• 11:18
  our tablets. So then and then when we get
• 11:20
  time for school, we go to school.
• 11:22
  Yeah. So you do get a bit of tech
• 11:24
  time. Is there a question that you
• 11:27
  wish I would ask you? Are there any other questions if
• 11:33
  you? Would work in a class.
• 11:35
  If I want to work on a class, I worked on classes for many, many
• 11:39
  years and mummy's at a point now where I work in leadership, so I
• 11:42
  deal. I still teach classes, but I'm
• 11:45
  not going to be on a class full time like some teachers are
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  because I do other things in my job.
• 11:52
  What about when you're like somebody sick?
• 11:55
  Can't you do? Can't you be sick in there
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  instead of second in charge? Well, sometimes I am, you just
• 12:02
  don't see me because it might not be your class.
• 12:07
  OK, well, is there anything else you would like to add, Miss?
• 12:13
  You don't have any other questions that you wished I
• 12:15
  asked you? No.
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  OK, well, thank you, my children.
• 12:21
  You may be dismissed and go and continue your afternoon.
• 12:25
  Bye, guys. Thank you for coming on the
• 12:28
  podcast. They're very happy to be little
• 12:31
  stars this afternoon. That was their little afternoon
• 12:34
  treat, but there you go. There's a little bit of insight
• 12:38
  into what it is like to have your own kids at school.
• 12:43
  So I've gone through years, as you would have heard from their
• 12:46
  little discussion. Now I'm working at a school
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  where they are. Previously I was not.
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  I've always tried to avoid being at the same school as the kids
• 12:57
  because I didn't want them to be teachers, kids as such.
• 13:01
  I wanted them to have their own personalities, their own
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  friendships, their own way of developing things and I just
• 13:06
  didn't want to be involved. It was enough and I could just
• 13:09
  be a mum rocking up to the parent teacher conferences and
• 13:13
  all of those things. Obviously that hasn't worked out
• 13:16
  for us when we, because we moved locations and when we moved, the
• 13:21
  only way we could sort of get them to school was to take them
• 13:24
  to school with me. You can hear from their
• 13:27
  beautiful little voices that they are not impressed that they
• 13:30
  do have to get up early because unfortunately they can't catch
• 13:34
  the bus from where we are. So they do get up a bit earlier
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  because I love to go to work early and have that window of
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  time of that pocket of peacefulness.
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  And Yep, my kids get their tech time then.
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  It is what works for us. It stops them from basically
• 13:48
  fighting the whole time. So they come to my office, they
• 13:53
  play on their technology for a bit, and then when it's time for
• 13:56
  the other kids to arrive, they go outside and they play with
• 13:58
  their friends. And the beautiful little
• 14:01
  moments, the little Nuggets of wisdom that the kids just
• 14:03
  shared. Then too, about the fact that my
• 14:07
  little boy, he just loves the fact that he gets a hug and a
• 14:09
  kiss and gets told that he's going to have a great day.
• 14:11
  And that is just so precious out of the mouths of babes.
• 14:15
  Like I just literally had those questions sitting there and they
• 14:18
  have answered them so beautifully.
• 14:20
  And so honestly, this may not be the best edited episode because
• 14:25
  we did have to cut a few things here and there out just because
• 14:30
  we got a bit off track or because we got interrupted.
• 14:34
  So we restarted. So if there are some choppy and
• 14:36
  changey bits in there when you're going through, I
• 14:39
  apologise. We've done the absolute best we
• 14:41
  can when you've got 210 year olds that are answering
• 14:44
  questions for you and are happy to do so.
• 14:46
  I just, I jumped on the opportunity.
• 14:48
  I just asked them when we got home.
• 14:50
  Are you keen to come on Mummy's podcast?
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  I'd really like to get your perspective of what it's like
• 14:55
  for you to be a teacher's kid. And they did that and they did
• 14:58
  that so well. If you think back to, I think
• 15:02
  some of my earlier episodes when I shared about myself, I was
• 15:06
  brought up as a teacher's kid. It was the same for my mum, who
• 15:10
  again, still teaching is that I followed where she was.
• 15:14
  So my older brother, he did not. He went to a different school
• 15:19
  because obviously it was a time when mum still had to drop me
• 15:22
  off at to childcare, so he'd be dropped at school or he'd catch
• 15:25
  the bus because that bus came straight from the house when I
• 15:28
  came along. It was easier for mum and Dad to
• 15:32
  coordinate if I just went wherever Mum went because then
• 15:36
  there was 1 less thing to sort of worry worry about because I
• 15:39
  was there too. It worked really well as I got
• 15:41
  older because we moved locations of schools a few times and so I
• 15:47
  think I went to about 6 or 7 and if you know the memes going
• 15:52
  around last year, 6-7 or this year, wherever, I'm up to years
• 15:58
  of schooling like different schools.
• 16:01
  So when I got to high school, I wanted to just stay at 1:00 and
• 16:04
  that worked well because I could catch the bus from that stage.
• 16:07
  And then when I was driving a car and all those things, it
• 16:09
  just got easier. And we've tried to sort of
• 16:12
  reduce that on our kids too. But they have been to a few
• 16:16
  schools and now they're in the same school and it's going to be
• 16:19
  consistent. And then their high school will
• 16:20
  be consistent too. So I think that will work for
• 16:23
  them in the future. But I see lots of posts about
• 16:27
  teachers that are mums that ask these questions.
• 16:30
  How do you go like working in a school with your kids?
• 16:33
  What do you do? Look, you just have to find a
• 16:36
  way to make it work for you. And as, as although, like my
• 16:39
  kids have said, they really want me to be teaching on class,
• 16:43
  that's not where I'm at anymore. I'm, I'm in the leadership
• 16:46
  space. So for me, that's actually
• 16:48
  really good because I'm not constantly teaching or in their
• 16:52
  space. It's separate.
• 16:54
  Whereas if I was on a class, I would be avoiding teaching them
• 16:59
  to the best of my ability. Obviously in small schools that
• 17:02
  becomes very difficult, but in larger schools that's quite easy
• 17:05
  to navigate. But I always made sure that I
• 17:08
  wasn't teaching a class that was close to their age range either.
• 17:13
  So when I was teaching prep, they were in childcare.
• 17:17
  When they started coming to school, I went back up to the
• 17:19
  higher grades because it was really difficult for me to go
• 17:23
  home to tantrums and shoelace tying and snotty noses when I'd
• 17:31
  been dealing with it all day at work.
• 17:32
  So I didn't want to have that. So to change from the prep space
• 17:36
  back up to the 5-6 and high school space when they were
• 17:39
  little, that was a blessing because I was dealing with
• 17:41
  different things at work as to was what I was dealing with at
• 17:45
  home. So I had a little bit more
• 17:46
  patience. That's what worked for me and I
• 17:49
  learned that from my mom and all the experience that she had.
• 17:53
  And the same as trying to avoid being where they were, that was
• 17:56
  advice from my mom that we did as long as we could.
• 17:59
  But even now, with the support of my beautiful parents, they
• 18:02
  pick them up most afternoons, so we have lots of space between
• 18:08
  each other after school. So yes, they're with me in the
• 18:10
  morning, but every afternoon they've got stuff on or they've
• 18:12
  got people picking them up and they're they're leaving the
• 18:14
  school grounds on time, except for like a Friday, as my
• 18:19
  beautiful son said, I get to take them for treats.
• 18:22
  So whether we have hot chocolates in the morning or we
• 18:24
  go out for afternoon tea, we just make these little pockets
• 18:28
  of time matter because I appreciate them.
• 18:32
  And I understand that sometimes that can be really difficult.
• 18:35
  But they're 10, they're in grade 4 here and they are just
• 18:39
  smashing life like they are doing amazing things.
• 18:42
  And I'm so proud of the both of them.
• 18:45
  If you want to do follow up questions around what it's like
• 18:47
  having twins, that's a whole nother department.
• 18:51
  The same as talking to me about putting them in the same class
• 18:53
  and separating them and all of the things.
• 18:55
  So you just get that whole image there.
• 18:58
  There's there's lots of factors that come into play.
• 19:01
  But thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Aligned
• 19:05
  and Thriving. I really do hope that you have
• 19:07
  enjoyed hearing my 2 beautiful children and their perspective
• 19:11
  on what it is actually like to have a teacher for a mom.
• 19:15
  It was more fun for me, I think, to record this and hear their
• 19:19
  honest little voices. But it's just really special.
• 19:23
  I think something that I'll hold on to.
• 19:24
  They are super excited because they are like, oh, we're going
• 19:27
  to be famous. So if you love this episode, I'd
• 19:31
  really appreciate it if you shared it with a friend or a
• 19:33
  fellow parent, just someone who might relate or need to hear
• 19:36
  this message. Just to know that your kids, if
• 19:39
  you are teaching where they are, they love you and they
• 19:42
  appreciate you. It's amazing.
• 19:44
  Please don't forget to subscribe so that you get notifications
• 19:48
  that you never miss an episode. And if you could give me a
• 19:52
  review, if you're on Apple Podcast or Spotify or on
• 19:55
  YouTube, subscribe, give me a five star rating.
• 19:58
  It really does help get my podcast out there so that I can
• 20:02
  influence more people because my aim is to just spread the
• 20:06
  teacher love. We are spread so thin at the
• 20:09
  moment and I see so many teachers leaving the profession
• 20:13
  and being burnt out. And all I want is to help as
• 20:16
  many as I can to send the message out there that it
• 20:18
  doesn't have to be that way and we can still love and do an
• 20:22
  amazing job at what we do. So please make sure you get the
• 20:26
  word out there. Thank you again.
• 20:28
  And I hope that you are like this.
• 20:31
  The next time we'll have more conversations, more
• 20:34
  conversations about alignment, family, and just thriving in
• 20:37
  every part of your life. Just remember, show up
• 20:41
  authentically, love fully in everything in your life, and
• 20:45
  just keep thriving. And the greatest of all messages
• 20:49
  for you is to be grateful because gratitude is the highest
• 20:52
  vibration. So go and think about three
• 20:54
  things you're thankful for. Like right now, I'm so thankful
• 20:57
  for my job, my kids, just my beautiful family, my beautiful
• 21:00
  puppy who's out there. She hasn't actually interrupted
• 21:03
  today's episode. So that's a blessing in itself.
• 21:05
  But I'm just so thankful and I'm thankful for all of you.
• 21:08
  So thank you again for listening and I will talk to you again
• 21:11
  next time. Bye, guys.