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Greg's avatar

The local school district, which happens to be my employer, posted something about self care on their Facebook page last night.

I’m currently laying in bed, engaging in what I call “Dread Care.” 20% of the school’s teaching staff called in sick today. The principal is out as well. This means that today will be yet another day where I’m pulled in every direction yet the direction of doing my actual job. I’m significantly behind on my actual job. I worked a full 8 hours during Monday’s holiday, plus several more hours over the past weekend. I’m not close to being caught up.

I brought these feelings up to my mentor. She suggested self care.

The problem is that between the shitty Facebook post from my employer and the shitty advice from my mentor, the suggestion of self care makes it sound as if I’m the one that’s failing. The issue is that the K-12 education system has so many systemic challenges that land on the individuals within the system to solve.

But screaming self-care means that we can avoid any potential solutions that require any stakeholders other than those doing the work to make any changes.

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Micheline Maynard's avatar

Beyond self-care, women also get bombarded with the message that wine - and alcohol in general - is their refuge. The whole “mommy juice” ethic worries me constantly. (I gave up drinking at Thanksgiving, 2019, so I may notice it more now that I live sober.) Wine doesn’t solve anything; the health effects are canceled out after one occasional glass, and it might even make all that stress worse.

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