The International Schools Review Forum

I can only imagine you do not have children to be able to make a comment like that with any seriousness.

@curiousme

Nope no kids, but it doesnt change the ana1ysis either. If you have a third child and it kills your career you cant go back, children are like getting a tattoo on your face, you have to be committed.

Three children do not kill a career, my wife and I have three kids and we have taught overseas for the past 16 years and all three of our children graduated from international schools. Having said that, at times we were turned down, rebuffed and looked at like we were crazy but in the end we worked hard, did a lot of networking and found jobs.

@mysharona

You got lucky, it could have just as easily killed your career. Its one thing to be settled with tenure and expand your family its a nother trying to break into admin as an expensive hire.

"You got lucky." Opinion.

Fact: I know at least 6 families I can think of right now with more than 2 kids (including one with 5 and including at least 2 'top tier' schools). Yep, they might have had knock backs (though haven't we all), but it certainly didn't 'kill' their careers. It's probably also worth mentioning that not all these families are teaching couples.

Conclusion: Having 3 kids will close some doors, as will not being Caucasian or having a strong accent or not having the required experience or...

Make an informed decision based on your priorities but a 3rd child doesn't mean the end of the line.

Thank you Psyguy for downplaying my wife's and my experience and training. I don't think there was any luck involved, we've worked hard for what we have and to put it down as luck is insulting.

I also know many, many, many more ITs and IT candidates that have families that exceed the 1:1 ratio that cant get hired or even their resume looked at. I have been to fairs and talked with ITs that are extremely excited about a candidate only to learn they have 2+ kids and then they get the "were still looking" answer, and then they dont here anything more.
It is disingenuous to minimize and under emphasis, such as you might be looked over or have a harder time, for many ITs that harder time results in nothing but frustration.

"As teachers we should stand up for those who negativity effect our profession or confuse the new teachers who have dreams of IT. We all had those dreams once and I hate to think one man is making others dreams feel a bit hopeless or confused. Hopefully we are still chasing our dreams."

@curiousme

Dreams are not reality, IE is not all rainbow farting unicorns and pixie dust. There are real considerations of marketability that become increasingly more restricted to the point of unemployability as logistical factors including family size increase.

This legitimate question is a prime example of why people are so irritated on this forum.

The original poster asked, "But I'm wondering if there are schools out there that make provisions for more than two kids. I'm on my way to becoming an administrator as well - are there more provisions for admin than teachers in this regard? Do any of you out there have 3 or more kids that would care to comment on your experience?"

Several people chimed in that they either had 3 children and were teaching abroad or know families who were successful. Some of those posters acknowledged that it would add a another layer of potential challenge to the job search.

ASKED. AND. ANSWERED.

Everything else is arguing for the sake of scoring points on someone.

I feel that people are so irritated because they aren't use to people being blunt with them. It's nearly impossible in real life, in a formal setting, because people know who you are. So, we just wear our mask of politically-correctness.


@mamava

You are probably right about some of the posts after said question, but I feel the rest of the posts still have value. For example, hearing why someone thinks having 3 dependents makes an IT's career riskier.

@mamava

Thats your answer, my response differs from yours and we disagree about the impact 3 children would have on a career.