Being a teacher’s kid is tough sometimes
Junior Jordan Jenkins and mom and coach Jozette Jenkins chat as they walk down the hall to athletics. Jordan says she lives and breathes basketball, which is a good thing, since her mom is also her coach.
She sat outside the house, waiting to go in. She knew that the moment she walked in her mom would be sitting on the couch and would hound her for not getting a better grade on the test. So for now she would sit and wait, putting off going into the house for as long as she could.
It’s a scenario often repeated daily for teacher kids. Somehow, those parents always seem to know what’s going on at school, whether they are on the same campus or not.
“It’s very stressful being a teacher’s kid,” sophomore Chelsea Harter said. “My mom always checks my grades and makes sure I’m on top of things. Not to mention she tells embarrassing stories about me and my sister to all of her classes.”
Grades isn’t all that teachers kids have to worry about; for the principal’s kid, discipline didn’t wait on making it home.
“When I was in elementary school, you were supposed to get three warnings before you went to the office and got swats,” senior Madison Kennedy said. “But because my dad was the principal, if he heard that I got one warning; no matter how small, I would get swats.”
However, there are some perks to being a teacher’s kid.
“It’s very convenient, having my mom work at the same school as me,” junior Jordan Jenkins said. “Whenever I need anything, I go to her room; whether it be for food, medicine, perfume, she’s got me covered.”
While most students have dealt with their parent-teacher for their entire lives, sometimes parental career changes can turn everything upside down overnight.
“My mom recently has become a teacher, so now she leaves the house earlier than me in the mornings, and I have to make my own breakfast – pop-tarts,” senior Ally Gaskins said. “She really enjoys her job, though, so I’m happy for her.”
Some students stated that having a teacher for a parent makes things in general go smoother.
“It works out for me,” junior Kynlee Driskell said. “My mom is home in the summer time, and still gets paid for it. And if there are any bad weather days, we are on the same schedule so she’s always there when I need her.”
