…who, remember, isn’t yet three.
SETTING: The boy has just gotten up, and I’m getting him changed and dressed.
HIM: Daddy, are you a teacher?
ME: Yes.
HIM: Why?
ME: I have no idea.
HIM: But you’re a teacher?
ME: Yes.
(Several minutes pass; various early-morning toddler things happen. I ponder the chain of events leading up to that question; I have never said the words “Daddy is a teacher” to my son, and I’m not sure he knows what the word means. He decides he wants a chocolate graham cracker for breakfast, a request which is denied until other, more appropriately breakfasty foods are eaten.)
HIM: Chocolate graham cracker!
ME: No.
HIM: But I want chocolate graham cracker!
ME: No. You can have a chocolate graham cracker once you eat some cereal or a squeeze pack.
HIM: But I want chocolate graham cracker!
ME: Kenny, do you remember asking me if I was a teacher a few minutes ago?
HIM: Yes.
ME: This means that I am used to disappointing children who want things, and that I don’t care even a little bit when I do it anymore.
(He contemplates this for a moment.)
HIM: …I want raisins.
Exeunt.
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Welcome to infinitefreetime dot com 
I think you are going to be brilliant at teaching him to run rings around you.
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I’m not a mom yet, but one day I’ll be glad I practiced disappointing (and teaching) so many children. 🙂
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All teachers should feel the obligation to explain to their own kids that teacher doesn’t know everything, and may be wrong. Quite a few will be satisfied with the feeling.
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Lol, brilliant bout disappointing and not caring
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ROTFLOL! As a teacher who also doesn’t know why I am I can totally relate. People looked puzzled when I say I don’t like kids, but your last comment and the fact I chose to teach Math prove my point. 👍👍
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I have told my students, flat-out and to their faces, that I don’t teach because I like kids. I teach because I want better adults.
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Exactly! 👏
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