Well it’s about that time to say goodbye to summer and head back to school. If you are a teacher, you probably heard someone tell you how lucky you are to have summers off, or that you’re overpaid considering you get this magical 10-week break. But how magical is it really? Is a teacher summer all fun and games? Is it 10 solid weeks of Netflix and comfy socks? Not exactly. See believe it or not, teachers do not simply go into hibernation over the summer… but boy do we wish we could.

1. Summer = Every Appointment You Put Off All Year

As yes, the image of the teacher crawling on hands and knees for the comfort of their bed the minute the final bus has pulled out of the school parking lot. It’s a pleasant thought, and believe me, many of us have tried to do this, but that just isn’t reality. There are just too many things to do. For starters we need to spend at least the first week of summer scheduling appointments for us and our family that the school year simply doesn’t allow for. Doctors, dentists, oil changes and we definitely can’t forget our therapists!

2. Making Up for 10 Months of Neglect

Then there’s our house, those four walls that we barely recognize because it feels like we’re barely there 10 months out of the year. There are floors to mop, counters to clean and a pile of laundry so large it could bury a small village. We are cleaning out closets, posting items for sale on Facebook Marketplace and trying to figure out how we can turn at least one of our hobbies into a side hustle.

3. Parenting Doesn’t Take a Summer Break

For those of us who are teacher parents, the summer is a great opportunity to spend quality time with our own children. And because we’re teachers we have this tendency to want to lesson plan our time off just as hard as we lesson plan the school year. But I don’t know if you know this or not, but children have endless amounts of energy. Adults? Not so much. So one day we’re making plans to visit every park in the state, other days we’re cruising Pintrest looking for sensory bin ideas to keep our kids busy long enough so we can sneak in a 10-minute nap.

Believe me, teacher parents spent this summer walking a tightrope trying to figure out how to fulfill and enrich the lives of their children, while still not burning themselves out even more than they already are. That’s why you see so many of us at various pools, lakes, ponds and beaches. It’s the perfect activity for a family with kids whose motors are in overdrive, and parents who want to soak up some rays, knock something off their summer reading list, and perhaps sip on an ice-cold beverage or two.

4. The Teacher Brain Never Really Shuts Off

It’s easy for people to tell teachers to simply “disconnect, unplug and chill out” once summer hits. But have you ever actually tried doing that? Forget it! A teacher’s brain is constantly collecting ideas like a squirrel preparing for winter. We’re finally reading a book without pictures in it one minute, then we’re making a note about a writing prompt the next. One day we’re listening to a podcast while cleaning the kitchen, the next day we have somehow scribbled down three new lesson ideas. Legend has it there are even some teachers that attend professional development and other training sessions over the summer. I know that sounds bonkers but apparently it’s true!

We can’t help it, we’re teachers! We’re always trying to out-do ourselves from the year before and inspiration is literally all around us, despite how badly we try not to see it. Teacher brain is a blessing and a curse because trust me, we have tried to turn this thing off and it just won’t.

Every year we reach August and take inventory and, to be honest, we all feel like we came up a bit short. No matter much sleeping we eventually get to do, we always feel like we could use just one more good night’s sleep. We can clean every nook and cranny in our house but the funny thing about homes are… they just get dirty again. Beach days are great but there just aren’t enough of them, and there are a million awesome ways to spend time with our own kiddos but we’ll always be wishing there were a million and one.

No matter how we actually spend our summer, they all end basically the same: Wandering aimlessly in the Target school supply aisle, mumbling to ourselves that we need “just a few things” for our classrooms, while we wince at the mere thought of all that professional development that waits for us right around the corner. Soon we’ll all be crawling into bed one last time before we trudge back into school at some ungodly hour, wait to see what new initiatives are going to get shoved down our throats this year, and pray… pray really hard… that we don’t hear the words “OK teachers, it’s time for an icebreaker!”

How teachers spent their summer vacation