The Break-crastinator

I have been an educator for over 25 years now and can say with certainty that the occupation has its ups and downs. One of the ups is definitely taking breaks throughout the year. It was probably the best career choice for me as a working mom. Once the kids were school age and out of daycare, I couldn’t think of a better career that could afford me the luxury of being able to be home with my kids when they were home. Although this is a definite benefit, it can have its drawbacks as well. One, for instance, is that I’m pretty much limited to vacationing during the school mandated break times, which makes taking trips with my non-teacher friends during lower cost airfare months tricky. It also pretty much means that taking advantage of someone’s timeshare during the non-blackout dates won’t happen. Ever.

I’ve gotten accustomed to my regularly scheduled breaks with some rather bad habits. I am becoming a break-crastinator. That is a person who puts off stuff because she knows she can do it during the forthcoming break. I’m that person who puts off shopping, laundry folding, doctor/dentist/hair appointments, reading books, and yes, even correcting papers, because hey, I’ll just do it over break. The problem with that is that when break finally gets here, I’ve left little room for the lying around that most non-educators think we do with our time off.  Christmas break this year was no different. And Christmas break is unique because it occurs in chunks.

1. The before Christmas last minute shopping, wrapping, and cooking chunk.

2. The after Christmas cleaning stuff up and taking stuff back chunk.

3. The Robby’s birthday chunk

4. The chunk that should be the lying around chunk

5. The New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day chunk

6. The I’m going back to school tomorrow and I have to get in my classroom and get ready for the week chunk

This year I had high hopes for doing more reading during the lying around chunk. I don’t do much reading for pleasure during the school year. There’s just too much going on. So when I have a book I want to read, I usually set it aside for the next break. This year, I didn’t get the reading time I had hoped for because I break-crastinated so many other obligations, there wasn’t time left to sit down and power through a whole book, let alone the six I had set aside.  But that’s OK. I’m not worried. I’ll just save them for spring break. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time then.