Teachers can be a peculiar bunch. Our schedules are different than most professionals, our days definitely look different and we deal with things that no one professional can relate to. So it’s no surprise that when it comes to dating, we tend to date… other teachers! Teacher couples are a unique entity. Here are just a few things you can expect if you end up in one.

1. The house is always a mess

Most teachers make it home at the end of the day with barely enough energy to walk through the door. As a result, a lot of those household chores can get… well… put off until a later date. When you have two teachers in the home, you have double the mess to clean and even less motivation to clean it. As such you just kind of get used to the house mostly looking like various stages of a disaster movie.

2. You never have to feel bad about lying on the couch all weekend

Dating non-teachers can be tough. They get to Friday and want to hit the clubs and party. Teachers get to Friday and the only thing we want to hit is our pillows. Teacher couples never have to have that awkward conversation about what to do on a Friday night because the answer is always the same: Takeout for dinner and a Netflix marathon.

3. Dinner doesn’t get made until about 7pm, and it might be cereal

Teachers rarely get a chance to eat during the day so we tend to come home pretty hungry. Unfortunately, by then, the idea of having to cook a full meal seems more daunting than scaling Mt. Everest without supplies. Thankfully, as a teacher couple, you’re equally tired, so you can equally share the load of throwing together some sort of meal. It may not be haute cuisine, but it will be food that you can share together.

4. You are a celebrity in your partner’s classroom, even if you’ve never been there

Something that students never tire of is peppering us teachers with questions about our significant others. They may never be interested in solving for x, or the reasons why the Revolutionary War started but they will forever be curious about who you’re currently dating. That means to your partner’s students, you are an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and if you ever do pop in for the visit, they will instantly turn into paparazzis. 

5. There’s never enough wine

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There’s nothing that can calm a teacher more than a relaxing glass of wine after a long day. Put two teachers together and you’ll discover that that bottle of chardonnay doesn’t last quite as long as it used to. The good news is, you’ll at least have someone special to share it with.

6. You could literally swap stories about your students for all of eternity

Teachers are never at a loss for stories from their classrooms. From the uplifting to the bizarre to the absolutely absurd we’ve seen it all. When teacher couples start talking about their students, it creates a seemingly endless back and forth that could go on for days. 

“You had a student lick the walls today? That’s nothing, I had a student shove a crayon up his nose!”

And on and on it goes.

7. There may be some “friendly” competition

Not every teacher couple is the same but some of us do enjoy a bit of competitive back and forth. Whether it’s who can come up with the coolest hands-on activity, or whose classroom is the most decorated, teacher couples can have a lot of fun pushing each other to be even better.

8. You forget that other people work over the summer

When summer arrives, teachers become entirely different people. We don’t set alarms, we’re relaxed, we smile more… it’s great. When your partner is a teacher, that means double the summer fun! It also means that you’re even more perplexed when you see people driving to work in the middle of July.

9. Endless hours are spent cutting/pasting/laminating for each other

Some couples join a bowling league, others may take an art class together or sign up for dancing lessons. Teacher couples, however, have all the activities they need right in their own home. Every week, you’ll be side-by-side printing out, cutting up and laminating activities for each other’s classroom. 

10. You always have a Target shopping buddy

We, teachers, do spend an inordinate amount of time shopping for classroom supplies, and if you date a non-teacher, they may not exactly “get it”. Dating another teacher, however, means never having to say you’re sorry for spending another $50 on borders and posters for your classroom. In fact, you’ll forever have a partner in crime to share in your shopping sprees.

11. You forget what it’s like to have a conversation about anything other than school

When you spend all day talking to children or with other people who talk to children, it can be tricky to switch back into “adult mode”. It gets even harder when the person you come home to is also a teacher. You spend so much time discussing lunch lines and district assessments and administrator walkthroughs that you can forget what it’s like to discuss things like mortgages and home improvement projects.

12. Having all the same holidays off rocks!

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A teacher’s calendar looks a lot different than most other people’s. We get days off that most other people don’t (Spring Break anyone?). What makes those days off even better is having the love of your life to share them with. Teacher couples never have to worry about planning vacation time together because they automatically get to spend every vacation together. Those who don’t need to work second jobs, that is…

13. Your actual children will be massively overprepared for everything

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If you do decide to have children together, those children will be the most school-ready children on planet Earth. Teachers deal with children all day and know exactly who their biological children should aspire to be. Teacher couples will groom their offspring from day one to be the most prepared, well-behaved children that have ever gone to school.

14. No matter what you’re going through, you have someone who understands

Teachers deal with experiences that no one else can wrap their minds around. We come home with stories that no one outside of education could possibly understand. When we tell non-teachers what our day is really like we hear things like “You have to be making that up, there’s no way that’s real.” And yet… it is.

The absolute best part of being a teacher couple is having someone by your side that gets what you’re going through. The successes, the missteps, the frustrations, the craziness and the joy of teaching is something that only actual teachers can sympathize with and appreciate. 

Also read:

When Teachers Date or Marry Other Teachers