10 Reasons Your Kid's First Teacher Will Probably Become Your BFF For Life

I work from home and, as most parents know, attempting to get anything done with kids running around, much less actual work, is next to impossible. It can be done, but doing so will likely cause a parent to prematurely gray (trust me, I know).

Being able to get my work done while my kids are at school a few days every week feels like a vacation. It's so, so much easier to concentrate on what I'm doing when I don't have two kids trying to spin me in my office chair while constantly demanding fruit snacks. I would pay my kids' school double what I'm paying them now if I had to, because getting some time to myself, even if I'm still working, is doing wonders for my mental health.

Not only do teachers tolerate your kid's shenanigans, they tolerate a lot of other kids' erratic behavior, too. I honestly don't know how they do it. I mean, wrangling an entire room of hyper children into their desks long enough to teach them their ABC's is more impressive than any magic trick I've ever seen. Sit down, David Copperfield, teachers make you look like a rookie.

My older son is almost three now, and he's reached the "what's this?" stage in his life. He wants to know what every single thing in every single room of our house is, and why and how they exist in the first place. It's exhausting. I do my best to answer his many pressing questions, but having his teacher on my side to take over some of those lessons is a huge relief.

Even if a teacher doesn't have children of their own, they understand the struggle just as well as any parent does. They take care of multiple children for a living. That means they also combat multiple tantrums, dole out multiple snacks, have to practice patience multiple times, and have to answer multiple questions multiple times a day. They get it, and their summer vacation is more than deserved.

Teachers understand that not all tantrums mean that a child has an underlying condition or that there might be something going on at home. They know that sometimes, kids are just jerks and they throw fits because their socks are bothering their toes or because their juice is in a blue cup instead of a red cup. Tantrums happen. That's just life with kids.

My older son absolutely loves his teacher. He comes home talking about her, and every time I tell him that we're on our way to his school, he immediately asks if he's going to see her. My youngest isn't old enough to tell me how he feels about his, but every time we walk into his classroom, he immediately runs into her arms if he knows I'm leaving him. He's slightly obsessed with me, so seeing him look to someone else for comfort is a big deal, and a sure sign that he likes her just as much as I do.

I love hearing my son count in the car on our way home from his school. He's so excited to learn and discover, and his teacher is taking his curiosity and turning it into real life lessons. Since starting school, my son is now completely potty trained, he can name numerous shapes that he had never even heard of before, and he can count almost three times as far as he could before he started school. It's amazing to see everything that he's learned, and I'm just so thankful that his teacher is picking up my occasional slack.

Not only do teachers educate our children on their numbers and letters, but they also help children learn to be more independent, too. My son is now dressing himself almost entirely, and he's washing his own hands and putting away his own dishes and helping his dad and I with his little brother, too. An independent kid means more free time for me, which I'm definitely in favor of.

Your child's first teacher is a lot like your first love, in that I doubt you'll ever forget them. A first teacher represents a child's first step into an independent life. It represents them growing and learning and thriving, and discovering their own way in the world, and the person who was there during that intial step will always hold a special place in a parent's heart.

Realizing that your babies aren't babies anymore, and that they're growing up faster than you're ready for them to, is bittersweet. Watching a child thrive is a beautiful thing, but the more independent they become, the less they need their parents. Of course, all parents need a little extra time to themselves, but I have a feeling that we'd all give that time up if it meant that we could hold our babies for just a little longer.

Having a teacher that truly cares about your child and their well-being takes away some of the sting of watching them get older. Knowing that you're leaving them in good hands is extremely comforting, and seeing that they're just as excited as you are when your child succeeds makes the anxiety of letting your child grow up just a little easier.