A message of love to all teachers.

When I was younger, I tolerated a lot. As I get older, I am becoming far less tolerant. I think it also happened since I had my son. My time is so precious to me. And when I give of my time, I expect that is is valued and respected.

I guess before having my son, I had more time to be more tolerant. Perhaps. I’m not sure. Or perhaps I just didn’t respect myself enough to have clear boundaries in place.

I know that many of you who follow me are teachers. Perhaps you tutor privately yourselves or perhaps you work in schools across the country teaching students.

Whoever you are reading this, this is a message for you.

Truly value yourself because what you do is amazing.

Truly respect yourself because you deserve to be respected.

Truly treat yourself with love and compassion because what you do is not easy.

If you’ve not been a teacher yourself, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about and that’s okay.

I remember one day when I was about 28 so clearly. I had been tutoring two little girls who both went (still go) to a top girls’ school in London. This was when I was still tutoring in person and going to my clients’ homes. I had a lesson with one of the girls at 5pm as I usually did on a Thursday evening. I had worked all day (I worked full time as a teacher) and I hadn’t even had time to have my dinner. I rushed straight to her home (25 minutes away) to teach her. When I arrived, no one opened the door and I was left waiting outside. I waited for 15 minutes. Still nothing. No answer from my client. Then the message came. My client had ‘forgotten’. And her daughter wouldn’t be home until 6:30. I remember just standing in front of her house sobbing. I was so upset. When I said that I would be paid for my time - my client simply told me ‘no’. She wouldn’t pay for a lesson that wasn’t attended.

It’s very upsetting for me to write this.

But sadly things like this happen every day to teachers. I hear it every single day.

Now, I have very clear systems in place and this happens rarely. But it does still happen.

And this is how I see it now.

It is a pure lack of respect for a teacher’s time, efforts and energy.

When you pay for a service, you are very well aware of the terms and conditions. You sign an agreement or whatever. Even if you don’t, let’s all take the time to respect the service that is being provided to us.

I pay monthly for life coaching with the most amazing coach. There have been 4 separate occasions these last 6 months working with her that I’ve not shown up. Once, I didn’t message her (I’d had an emergency with my son) and the other 3, I generally couldn’t meet her at the time arranged and I emailed her to tell her.

Guess what?

I still expect to be fully charged. She took the time out of her busy life to be there for me. She took the time to prepare her session with me. She took her energy and extraordinary talent to be there for me.

I expect to be charged. And I’m happy to be charged.

So if you are a teacher reading this, respect yourself 100% and expect the same from your clients. Love yourself fiercely. Clients will respect you and value you more if you are clear from the start.

And if there is a true emergency or whatever, that’s up to you how you handle it. But have clear boundaries in place. Because in my experience (over 16 years) most of these emergencies are rarely even real.