Bringing it home

My job is stressful. There's no doubting that. I try really hard not to bring my job home with me, but it does happen from time to time. I'm talking about not bringing home my troubles and stress, not actual work like grading papers and such. However, sometimes when I get home its hard to flip the teacher switch off and flip the husband and dad switch on. Sometimes the line between the two gets a bit fuzzy. In the past there have been times when I have come home and snapped at the kids. Not because they deserved it, but because I'd had a tough day and hadn't completely switched out of teacher mode. Tami will often look at me and tell me I'm not at work. These are times when I may be particularly intense or harsh about something. I don't deny it. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between work and home. It doesn't happen all that often, but it DOES happen. One day I knew I had crossed the line when I "shushed" Abby for talking. She looked at me puzzled and said, "Why?". I kind of shook myself awake and told her honestly, "I don't know". I guess my students had been particularly noisy that day and must have done a lot of "shushing". My response to Abby was an involuntary reaction. I had not quite gotten out of teacher mode and used my teacher voice. You probably have never heard my teacher voice, but believe me... you'd know it if you heard it.