Meeting Teachers out of school

Guess what? Teachers are real people. 

I know. Shocking isn't it?

But really there is a good chance that you have one living in your street. You won't necessarily know he is a teacher because he's not your, or your child's teacher but teachers are everywhere.

When my daughter was little she liked to say "hello" to her teachers if she bumped into them during the holidays. I would follow this up with a polite, "Are you having a nice holiday?" , which was followed by a circular "yes, and you?", a nod and an awkward smile. My son never recognised his teachers so we only spoke to the ones I knew and he thought they were my friends. For his sake, we pretended they weren't acquainted.

Teachers, in my experience, rarely want to discuss a child's progress or genii tendencies in the holidays and any attempt to do so will embarrass both teacher and child.

In the Supermarket a child shouting, "Miss Smith," at the top of their voice causes a smile but when it comes from a parent watch lovely Miss Smith dive into the freezer with the frozen peas. 

The exception to this rule is very drunk teachers. This is fine because very drunk teachers won't remember the conversation anyway but beware because they could be brutally honest.

Many years ago in a bar with a friend during a Christmas holiday we met one of our daughters' teachers. He was merry and slightly wobbly on his feet. We watched him being overly friendly 

with the bar staff and chuckled quietly to ourselves discussing the rude parnsips that I had brought my friends as Christmas presents from the allotment. Then he spotted us. He lurched across the bar and flung an arm around my friend, breathing beer fumes into her face he pointed at me but kept his face very close to hers. "I bloody love teaching her daughter but not yours. She can't spell for toffee!"

I'll be honest. This holiday I'm thinking of taking up drinking.