This is not the thread you might be expecting when you see the title.

But I am a teacher and school librarian. And I'm mildly tired of the obnoxious way parents react to snow days. I'm a teacher and also have kids in a different public school than my own. And our holidays rarely line up. My job is totally inflexible (there are no "flex hours" and no "working from home" and I get only 4 personal days in an entire school year. 4! For all child-related things.) So you can imagine that with all the public school holidays and class parties and shows and first day of school and etc etc....I miss A LOT and I have to rely heavily on a babysitter. Right now we actually have 2 babysitters.

So our whole area called an early dismissal today because it's supposed to snow around 3 pm (right at dismissal) and the last time that happened, the entire NYC metro area was insane and I personally was stuck in my car for 6.5 hours. In some areas, teachers/principals had to stay overnight with their students at school because their parents couldn;t reach the school because so many roads were closed. SO out of an abundance of caution, the schools decided to close early today.

I had to scramble to call both sitters to see who was available to pick up early. I will have to pay extra $$ to have a sitter more hours. That's life. Frustrating, but it is what it is.

My issue is the moms who are FREAKING out on our local mommy group--saying it's because teachers want free paid days (that is not even a thing. snow days have to be made up. Teachers have 0 say in school closures anyway). Basically going on and on.

Since I work in a school I see the other side--we also get angry emails when we DON'T close. I work in a pretty small school. We have less than 400 students. 68 are out today--this happens anytime there's even remotely a chance of bad weather. This is because for every parent who hates school closures, there is another parent who is the anxious type who keeps their kids home for any reason.

Also, schools are funded and rated based on attendance. Don't like it? Write your state reps and get that changed.

I guess I'm more generally tired of the lack of respect teachers get in our society today. Many teachers are also parents. We also have inflexible hours. We also have to scramble for childcare. And the pay kinda sucks (especially in my area. My husband and I both have master's degrees and both went to state colleges. He makes 4 times what I make). Especially in my particular town---it's is extremely expensive to live in. VERY few of the public school employees live in that town. The principal of my daughter's school lives more than an hour's commute away. SO all these employees with kids in their home district out in the suburbs are having the same issues. Seems ridiculous for so many parents in my town where they probably have combined incomes of 200k-500k are blaming these employees who are probably making probably 55k a year (that's what my daughter's teacher makes. I looked her up on the public database and she has 2 kids of her own).

I know people are just venting, but I wish they would educate themselves a little before venting so publicly about an area where they are so ill informed.

Anyone else have a rant to get off your chest today?