You have to take care of yourself. I gave myself away is what the psychiatrist told me..in 1993 I was hearing and seeing things..I got up and started getting Everyone ready for school and well..i don't think i have ever completely recovered from that maybe.Life can be so hard and you want to be this and that..Maybe look at a teaching environment ?

A different type of teaching i meant ( Hugs)

You are doing a very noble thing. I don’t have answers .

I am expecting transitioning out of the classroom soon. I want to be an instructional specialist or department chair. I am very driven to understanding the kids inside and out. My current department chair considers me as her equal because I understand my kids, how to work with the team, and I understand all the psych and other reports that are in the files. I often find things that no one else discovers. It just takes a lot of time outside of work. My classroom position is teaching collaborative English as well so like I said it's just tiring.

You are a super hero but even heroes have a breaking point. You need to find s happy medium. We all feel like we should be doing more but if we aren't taking care of ourselves we are no good to anyone else

Scaredandafraid,
Than you. Yes I need to take of myself. I am trying to make a plan for myself. I have to remember to take one thing at a time.

I'm glad to hear that. Don't overthink it for sure. Just be able to make time for you and your well-being.

I attended a seminar on working with children who have experienced lots of trauma in their lifetime. The encouragement with that course was to avoid compassion fatigue. In order to do that you have to beware of isolation, accept your reactions, working on processing and understand your own traumas, and find ways to keep your perspective. You get to do things that build you up and refill you so that you can keep pouring into your students.

I also heard that if you take a mental break between activities during the day it can help. For example, if you have a stressful meeting regarding the educational plan for a child, take 5 or 10 minutes before you go to the next thing on your schedule and do something completely unrelated to work. Listen to a song you love. Play a game on your computer. Read a short, encouraging passage from a book. Do anything but think about what just happened in the meeting. This is kind of like pushing reset and can be refreshing. You can also do this before leaving work to refocus before you start your time at home with your family. I hope this gives you some ideas on things that would work for you. Hugs! You do have a tough but very important job.

Hey, the work you do is wonderful and I would not worry too much about what you give to your husband and children. Candidly there are more than a few helicopter parents ,

I think you can use time wisely. First, you don't always need to cook, pick up should be fine. Do throw a few compliments to men, we like them. On a weekend, some time together is nice. I think for your child there can be the same. Perhaps tell your daughter about the work you do.

We have a family friend who also teaches the disabled and her children came out well.