Most days my mother would come home from work and be on a short fuse. She would be exhausted and complain about how she never gets to sit down and relax.
From my perspective, I got frustrated at my mom. I would not see her all day, and then she would come home and get angry all because I forgot to take the garbage out — such an insignificant thing to dwell on.
Background on who my mother is: Her name is Stephanie and she is the hardest-working woman I know. She is blonde, and has the most beautiful blue eyes. She will do anything for the people she loves.
Most of all, my mom has been a teacher at an elementary school for 24 years, teaching special education.
Recently, I signed up to be a teaching assistant so that I could work alongside her. It would be easy — kids love me.
My first day, I woke up at about 6:30 a.m., exhausted. I did my makeup, hair and ran out to get my necessary morning coffee. By 8:00 a.m., my mom and I were on our way to teach. I was her teaching assistant for the day.
We arrived, and someone had taken her designated parking spot. She was annoyed, understandably. We parked and walked to her classroom door. It was locked, so we had to take the long way and walk around the school to her downstairs classroom.
I checked in, and then my mom gave me my schedule. I was working all day, from 8:30 a.m until 3:45 p.m., with a one-hour break. That is a lot of one-on-one time with children.
We start the day by getting one of her students off the bus. Then, she introduced me to her few other students. She has only a few, but she gives each of them an abundance of individual time.
Since my mother is not a full-time classroom teacher, she has very tight relationships with her students. They all love her and she loves them.
It was my turn to give a lesson to students, so I pulled them aside one at a time and taught them. Sounds easy, right?
I guess something I never considered was that each of my mom’s students learns in different ways. You can not teach them all the ABCs and expect them all to grasp the content. The key to teaching my mom’s students is adapting to their individual learning styles.
This is an art.
Using trial and error to develop learning techniques for each student is a frustrating challenge. Having them continuously misunderstand what you’re teaching them requires an abundance of patience, patience that not many have.
By lunchtime, I was exhausted. I needed at least a 4-hour-long nap. The amount of repetition and patience necessary for the job drains you. But looking back, it is so fulfilling and worth the challenge.
I recognized how pure the students’ hearts were. While they can be difficult, as all children can, they truly are adorable, sweet souls. They appreciate my mom and certainly show her that they do. For the day, they gave me that love, too, making the exhaustion worth it.
I finished out the day strong and drove home with my mom. Ever since, I’ve been reflecting on how I perceive her.
I always knew she was a hardworking, dedicated woman, but teaching alongside her opened up my eyes to a different side of my mom. She is an angel and doing God’s work, along with every teacher in that building. Committing your life to teaching children, especially special education ones, is not an easy task.
Overall, I put myself in my mom’s shoes. By doing so, I gained a deeper understanding of her.
She gets angry when I do not take the trash out. But she already told me to take the trash out three times. And she spends her whole work day repeating herself.
She gets upset when she has to come home and clean the whole house. But she spent the whole day engaging with students on the go. She’s human and she’s drained just like I was.
All these years, I was so quick to fight back with my mother over simple things, and I never put myself in her position. After experiencing her everyday life, I can now completely see where she is coming from.
Not only do I write this to acknowledge the strength and dedication my mother has to helping children, but to encourage you to put yourself in other people’s shoes. You will never fully understand until you see from their eyes.
I admire my mom and all she does. She has an enormous amount of patience and a huge heart, bigger than I even imagined. I strive to create such a positive impact someday, just like my beautiful mama.