13 weeks holiday and STILL moaning?

Wouldn't it be fairly normal to plan to follow on with your chosen career path into retirement?  I think so.  Maybe a few years before 67 or 68 (as it will be for my age group) people might slow down a little by possibly reducing hours or going into a less demanding role.

In my case, teaching in a state secondary school is more like something I regularly feel I cannot bear much longer and I am in my forties.  Despite my absolute and totally unfaltering efforts, I still feel I am falling short by the tumbleweeds blowing through any imaginary positive feedback sessions I don't get and regular criticism misnamed as 'feedback' or (most galling) 'support'.

The reality is that I am not supported, my blood pressure is affected and my mental health has taken and continues to take a very real and painful hit.

It's not the people who pour scorn on teachers for 'finishing at 3.30 and having long holidays' whilst in reality I start planning lessons at 5 a.m., do hours of marking etc at the weekend, and spend holidays recovering at the beginning and full of dread/anxiety at the end that bother me.  It's the middle management and SLT (Senior Leadership Team) who let certain students come into your classroom 3 or 4 times a week to abuse you, disrupt the whole flipping class to the point it has to stop and continue to do so with no proper sanctions from the school.  Your own sanctions are ignored or useless in some cases and when you reach out, you are usually just asked if you have 'called home'.

So, instead of contentedly settling into around 20 years of continuing to give my all and being happy to do so, I am often planning my escape.  Can I change career paths? Take a sabbatical? Cut hours and fund it by reducing outgoings or creating other income streams. Maybe this is good though...  Instead of bashing myself against this brick wall for another 20 years, maybe the universe is forcing me to go sideways into some tutoring that will fit round my own child's specific needs which seem to be forcing me to homeschooling him.  There's also the spiritual stuff which I love and feel drawn to trying to spend much more time on.

We are 'a long time dead' as they say and so I refuse to settle for awful but widespread and instead will create (somehow!) a situation that works for me and maybe too all the others that I could be helping