I would say at least once a week someone asks me if I miss teaching and coaching. My answer isn’t a yes but it’s also not a no. It’s a sort of…..

I loved being in the classroom. Every day was different. I had 180 students with different back grounds, different stories and different beliefs. I enjoyed what I did, most days. I would say 95% of the time I loved teaching. The other 5% I wanted to be anywhere else but in the classroom. I think we all have those days with every job.

Teaching high school isn’t easy. Kids are more opinionated at that age. But I do miss watching students faces when they learned something new. Some with excitement and some with confusion as if what they thought previously was completely wrong.

I have my days where I miss coaching and then those that I don’t. Being a private coach hired in by the school is way different than being a teacher in the school hired as a sponsor/coach as well. The level of respect is different too. When I coached as a private coach with no affiliation to the school, I had limited parent contact. I communicated with the kids and the sponsor and rarely parents. The sponsor was my middle man. It helped keep me out of any drama and left me to just do my job coaching. I also felt the parents respected me more. When I came into contact with them, they treated me like I was the professional and knew what I was doing. It was different when I was a teacher hired in as a coach. Despite my background as a Big12 cheerleader, Semi pro cheerleader, and Worlds Judge, some parents acted as if so had no idea what I was doing. They would constantly tell me how to do my job or attack me if they felt I was doing something wrong. I was excessively dragged into parent drama. You think teenage girls can cause drama?? You have yet to see a group of middle ages cheer moms! It made my job more difficult and more stressful.

Would I ever go back to coaching? Well….If I ever went back to coaching it would be as a private coach, not a teacher/coach. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I described at every school. And I did have some pretty amazing cheer moms who trusted me to do my job and fully supported me and the team. But often times those negative moms overshadowed the positive and made my job very hard and very stressful. So ultimately private coaching would be my go to choice if I had to.

Would I ever go back to teaching? Maybe! I think I enjoyed it enough that I would. But not in the near future. I like being a stay at home mom. I like not missing a minute of anything my kids do. 💙