Overdosing on Stress
02/23/2007 04:24 p.m.
I'm starting to hit overload. There are things that I feel I HAVE/MUST do in order to be a good parent/wife/person, but I'm having a real ordeal trying to balance everything out.

1) I am a full-time teacher, and where I live we are in mandatory state testing season. I teach 5th grade, which is a year of retention, the students have 3 opportunities to pass the test, or they are retained. I feel the pressure of doing all that I can for my students, and I feel their stress and pressure as well.

2) My OWN child is in the 3rd grade, which is also a retention year, and I fell horrible when he asks for help on his GT math homework, and I can't help him because the work his teacher sends makes absolutely no sense to me, it appears that it is just an exercise to waste time to me, and I really don't have the time to call the teacher, schedule a conference and take off work. I feel that I'm letting my son down.

3) I am back in school (Grad. School) myself, and I am really struggling with some of the work, mostly because it's psychological research based written assignments, and I'm having trouble determining exactly what I'm supposed to do/what my teacher expects and I'm also not a technical writing type of person (I endeavor to make my writing very understandable, so that anyone, even middle school level, will be able to read it and know what is being discussed), whereas my teacher is very much into that style.

4) We are struggling to make ends meet. I have a teenage son who always seems to "Need" something new, and I hate to tell my kids no, but I have to pay the utilities, and the house note, and insurance, etc., etc. I am contemplating taking a part-time, on-call massage therapy job to help make up the difference and to help pay for my schooling, but when will I have time to study, and cook, and wash clothes, and all the other things that have to be done.

5) Little League baseball is starting back up, and I'm on the board of director's as well as both of my son's playing... and Opening Day is right smack dab in the middle of needing to study for mid-terms and writing papers...

I have over-extended myself, but I have no one to ask to pick up the slack when I'm over-whelmed, and I can't let my family down, or kids down, or students down...

What have I done to myself?