I’m a primary school teacher & there’s a way parents can easily save a load of money and stress each day but NEVER do it
FROM getting them dressed to eating breakfast, the morning rush can often be a stressful time if you’re a mother of young children.
But according to a primary school teacher named Samantha, there are five things that all parents should send their children to school with that they never do.
First up, she points out just how many children go to school without ever saying “please” or “thank you” or just a “general level or respect.”
In the clip posted to TikTok (@samanthamary1989) she begins: “Please, please teach your children to say please and thank you.
“Manners go a million miles and by the time they get to school and they’re 4 years old, it should just roll off the tongue every time they ask for something, every time they’re given something.
“Please and thank you for me – absolute must.”
Samantha goes to say that the second thing she wishes parents send their kids to school with is uniform with their names in.
“I can’t tell you the number of children that come to school with a brand new jumper and no name in – and I’m just like why?” she asks.
“Number one because it’s such a waste of your money sending a child with a new jumper without a name – it gets lost, it’s never going to get back to you.
“Number two, at school when you’ve got a class of 30 children
and a school of hundreds of children all wearing identical jumpers and cardigans, which they don’t have their name in, the amount of time lost trying to re-home jumpers to the right place.
“It ends up being the sniff test – children literally go around sniffing the jumper, going, ‘is that mine? Yes. Smells like mine!'”
On a more serious note, Samantha urges parents to ensure their children go to school with a healthy lunch.
“I can’t tell you how many times a packed lunch box has been opened, and it’s just full of junk – crisps, chocolate, doughnuts, sweet things,” she says.
“Nothing remotely healthy, nothing substantial to fill them up.
“I do understand as a parent that children can be fussy and it can be quite hard to work out what to put in their lunch box sometimes,
but that’s not fuelling them for the day.
“They need to have some healthy stuff in there.”
The primary school teacher moves on to say another thing to send kids to school with is a “love of learning.”
She continues: “Because when children start school at four-years-old,
they’ve already had four years in this world.
“And believe it or not, it’s not just a school’s job to give children a love of learning before they come to school.
“They’ve had four years at home with you – it’s important teaching them to love books, teaching them to ask questions about things that are going on around them, spending time talking to them, getting them inquisitive about what’s around, about learning new things, how different things work.
“If children come to school already with a love of books,
a love of learning, a love of asking questions, a love of having a discussion, then that is going to just help them so much at school.
“It’s not a school’s job to teach them to love learning.
“It’s a job as a parent to teach that to your child as a part of your everyday life, so that when they come to school, they’re ready to learn, and they’re ready to love learning.”
She goes on to say that it’s then the school’s job to continue with that journey and continue to promote within a child a love of learning.”
And last but not least, Samantha says kids should go to school with some basic skills.
“Children should come to school being able to eat with cutlery
in a basic way,” she explains.
“Again, it’s not a school’s job to be teaching children
how to eat at lunchtime.
“They need to be able to do that for themselves.
“Children should come to school absolutely
potty trained, dry, in pants.
“I do understand that there are sometimes some slight exceptions, obviously if there’s a medical need that’s completely different, but for a child that doesn’t, they should be coming to school being able to just do those basic, simple things.
“100% that should be done at home.”
Samantha captioned the post: “Before ANYONE jumps onto me…. Disclaimer 1… This is not a judgemental post.
“We all parent differently which is absolutely fair and valid BUT these items are basic parenting.
“We should all be teaching manners and be encouraging a healthy diet.
“Disclaimer 2…I am not referring to children with special educational needs.
“As a teacher I understand this is different. I wouldn’t have the job I do if I didn’t have a good understanding of SEN.”
It wasn’t long before the post went viral, racking up over 58k views and several comments from social media users.
“My son starts September and he can’t even talk yet not along day please and thank you yet,” wrote one.
A second penned: “I think it’s wild that schools think they can tell parents what to feed their children.
“Get your point about filling them up completely but if they have a chocolate bar to accompany a healthy lunch or squash in their water bottle etc there’s nothing wrong with that and it shouldn’t be shamed.”
A third commented: “These comments are all the mums who expect teachers to parent their kids. I would be happy for you to teach my kids.”
Meanwhile, a fourth noted: “I’ve worked in schools and one child’s lunch was a chocolate croissant and that was it – so very sad and just not acceptable.”
And another added: “I have one that loves to learn, and one that doesn’t. Twins, raised exactly the same.”