It’s parent-teacher interview time.

If you have a school-aged child, you know the drill: You will moan that the times the school are offering you are inconvenient to your work/life/other children.

You will worry that they’re going to tell you that your child has no friends/is being picked on/is picking on someone/still can’t read/called the teacher “fat”. All the nightmare scenarios. You will arrive late, stressing.

But enough about you. What has it taken for that teacher to be sitting there, opposite you with a folder of your child’s work, notes prepared for discussion and something thoughtful to say about each child?

Here’s a reminder, from Sydney mum and former teacher Ali Outhred, whose post on Facebook today perfectly captures what’s behind every single parent-teacher interview:

It reads:

“It’s parent teacher interview season at the girls’ school. They’ve made detailed notes, assessments, portfolios after hours, most likely at home, late into the night.

“They arrive early and leave late so they can talk to parents, missing out on time with their families and precious rest time on weekends, choosing to work instead.

“It’s not an ‘easy’ job. Imagine going into a classroom of 20+ kids, and keeping them engaged, interested in everything from spelling to geography, and under control for a whole day without flipping your lid, dealing​ with everything from forgotten lunches to learning issues, fights between friends, discipline, to vomiting sick children, keeping accurate records of every.single.thing, assess, report, following up on issues with parents, attend staff meetings, professional development days AND maintaining a semblance of a life.”