ABSTRACT
You may have heard from a number of people, parents and non-parents alike, how incompatible teaching and parenting may be. The expectation of both ‘jobs’ is so overwhelming, all consuming and exhausting, that it is fully understandable why so many mothers and fathers leave the profession.
This chapter takes a closer look at real life experiences of parents who left teaching, for a variety of reasons, and then decided to step back in. It focuses not only on the reason that they left but also how they felt when returning to a teaching job and in the ways in which they were supported. It also looks at ways in which schools can do more to support those who have taken an extended leave, for parenting reasons.
