parent teacher exhaustion

I just completed parent-teacher conferences. I was so tired. And can I just tell you how bad my butt hurt? Oh man...

For 5 hours on Wednesday and 4 on Thursday I sat on the wooden cafeteria benches telling parents how grand and wonderful their children are. It takes a lot of energy to talk that long and (for me) to sit still that long. But a wooden bench? I had to bring a butt pillow for day two.

My dad thought this was funny and told me to have Deg massage my glutes. He laughed even harder at this. But it wasn't the muscles -- it was the bones! I have somewhat of a bony butt and those pelvic bones of mine I'm sure made dents in that wooden bench. Yikes!

Well, besides my tired butt, I had no idea how exhausting parent teacher conferencing could be. Not only did I have to be uber animated and exciting in class, but then I had to do that for several hours for parents! And with little or no candy to keep me busy. It takes a lot. I didn't understand before, but man... I was wiped out. I talked to a former professor of mine at BYU and she also commented that people who have never done it have no idea how exhausting it is. Everyone thought I was being wimpy. Well guess what? I really was tired! Mooo! I slept for like 9 hours the night it was over and was more than grateful for the teacher compensatory day they gave us Friday.

Moral of the story: teaching is harder than anyone who isn't a teacher understands.