Good afternoon, I need advice. I have been teaching in a private secondary school for almost two years now. The students love me, and parents often commend my effort, yet behind the scenes my experience has been far from pleasant. The main issue is that I am a single mother, and for some reason my employers treat this like a stain on my identity. During interviews, they made me promise that I would not allow family distractions to affect my duties. I agreed because I needed the job, but ever since then, every small mistake is quickly linked to the fact that I am raising a child alone. If I arrive five minutes late, they say, “This is why single mothers struggle to keep jobs.” If I request time off when my child is sick, they remind me that they warned me about family responsibilities. What makes it worse is that my colleagues who are married with children get more understanding when they face similar situations. I have seen a married teacher take days off to care for her sick husband without a problem, but when I asked for a day off, I was told I should have thought about stability before bringing a child into the world. The emotional weight of this discrimination is heavy. I sometimes feel like I am being punished daily for choices I cannot change. Leaving the job is risky because finding another one in this economy will not be easy, yet staying here is taking away the confidence I have in myself piece by piece. I am caught between protecting my mental health and holding on to the job that sustains my child’s needs. Would you advise me to endure the unfair treatment for the sake of stability, or to walk away and trust that something better will come?