Teachers and Summers!

Photograph by Erika Munz

By Erika Munz
-Dedicated to my dear friend Monica Coash; a teacher who never had a summer off and who was my loudest cheerleader in all endeavors. 

     I’ve been a telemarketer, a stage manager/technician, a preschool teacher, an auditory training technician, and a department store cashier.  (Among other jobs my fifty-five year old brain refuses to acknowledge.)  My favorite was the substitute preschool teaching position, even when the two-year olds whined for their Miss Nancy to return.  (Apparently preschoolers have an aversion to walking in single file.)  All experiences I would have missed if I hadn’t become a teacher and had summers off.  As I sat in my third training this summer,

A Working Mother?

     
   
     There is no role with which I have identified more than that of a working mother.  Like most humans, I’ve carried many labels.  I've been a daughter, sister, student, teacher, friend, and wife.  None has ever defined me as much as being a working mother.  Becoming a mother was a huge role that I wholeheartedly dove into and which did become a major part of my identity.  Going back to work, when my sons started school, thrust me into the role of working mother.  I wore that label like a badge of honor.

No Woman Ever Shot a Man While He Was Doing the Dishes

      First, I must explain that I am not a conventional wife.  I don’t feel obligated to clean the kitchen simply because I am the wife in this situation.  My favorite fridge magnet reads, “No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes.” I do, or did it in this case because I know what it’s like to mow the yard in 100-degree heat and today I opted for the kitchen.  So while cleaning up my air-conditioned kitchen this morning, I realized dishes are a huge part of life. With every important event, there will be dishes.  A child is born or christened; there will be food and dishes to clean.  A wedding; there will be many dishes to buy, as well as dishes to clean.  A death; mourners bring food and then someone will have to do the dishes.  A job is lost, you still need to eat and do dishes. In 1789, when referring to this newborn country, Benjamin Franklin should have said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Oh, and someone is going to have to do the dishes.”