amorous teachers and suspicious husbands

Laine is 25 and a stay at home mom who is going to night school to complete her high school education and all was going fairly well until she told her husband about the amorous teacher.

"I don't expect to be doing anything with my qualification for a while," confesses Laine, "I just want the satisfaction of knowing that I completed high school - and I want to set a good example for my kids, too."

"I look after the kids all day and my husband takes care of them at night when I go to school - it works out great for me, but my husband does grumble a bit."

"I had expected my fellow students at night school to be as old or older than myself," says Laine, "so it was a surprise to find that most of them had left school the year before and were repeating at night school rather than going back to school for another year."

"They hadn't made the grade to get into college or university so they were coming back to get better marks."

"In this sort of competitive environment I didn't think I'd do very well," confesses Laine, "but I surprised myself by catching up with the younger students very fast and getting pretty good marks."

"The only thorn in my return to school experience," sighs Laine, "is one of the male teachers at night school who is really embarrassing me with his amorous attentions."

"He lies in wait for me to arrive and comes to my car and walks me into the building - chatting and making suggestive comments."

"I try to ignore him but its very hard when he gives a lesson and addresses all his comments to me - working comments about love and beautiful women into whatever he is talking about."

"I don't know what the other students make of what is going on between him and me but I've certainly never encouraged him and keep my eyes down and take notes without giving him the reaction he wants."

"He's quite attractive but judging from his behavior I think he's probably been banned from teaching in the regular schools."

"I made the mistake of telling my husband about the guy and now he's getting suspicious about me."

"How can I convince my husband that I'm going to night school to study not to have an affair with a hack teacher? And how can I stop that guy pestering me and spoiling my return to school?"

"Mucking around with boys and wanting a good time caused me to drop out of high school in the first place," explains Laine, "and it's ironic I suppose that this time around it's a teacher who's trying to distract me!"

dreams vs. husband

Bridget’s dreams had always been to go to law school, and when she achieved that aim after having had four children and playing the good wife – her husband was not as supportive as she hoped he would be.

"Winning a place at law school was totally out of this world," says Bridget. "I was thrilled, and I refused to let my husband's attitude get me down.”

“He had grave misgivings about my ability to remain a good wife and mother,” says Bridget, “but I told him that this was my time, my dream, and if if he loved me he would support me in my goals."

"My tutor at law school warned me that husbands often sabotage their wives' studies and rob them of careers they deserve in order to maintain power in the marriage," says Bridget, "and while I don’t think he did it deliberately, it is exactly what happened.”

"I could see he was annoyed with me because he had to take over almost total care of the children when he came home from work," says Bridget, "and when he developed a bad cough I became really annoyed with him – coughing so much that he distracted me from my studies and denied me adequate sleep.”

"I made him see a doctor and there was no medical reason for the cough, but it was so loud that I had to move into the spare room to get some sleep," explains Bridget "When I did this, my husband complained that he felt unloved and neglected."

“Finally, one night I lost it with my husband and as a consequence I lost my self-confidence and desire to excel."

“I felt awful,” explains Bridget. “My husband was right. I had turned into a monster and I had upset the harmony of the home and marriage with my dreams.”

"No dream is worthwhile if it causes you to lose respect for yourself and others to lose respect for you, is it? It had all turned into a nightmare.”

Bridget maintains that her husband did not force her to quit the law course. It was her decision to do so. She quit the law course shortly after the argument with her husband and returned to her old part-time job.

Read more about Bridget:

stations in life

what will the neighbors think?

held back by family