In late 2024, Lincoln High School science teacher Mrs. Tiffany McCloskey and her husband, the assistant principal at Narragansett High School, welcomed Emilia “Emi” Daisy McCloskey into the world. McCloskey excitedly told The Lion’s Roar, “Emi has been a wonderful addition to our lives!”
Although McCloskey was pregnant in the spring of the 2023-24 school year, no one knew until she came back to school in August 2024 with a baby bump. Baby Emi was born slightly early, and McCloskey went on maternity leave from the end of the first quarter to the end of the second.
Mrs. Tracey Cook, a recently retired LHS history teacher, was McCloskey’s long-term substitute teacher, and McCloskey could not be more grateful for Cook.
“She was absolutely incredible . . .” said McCloskey. “It was very difficult to find a substitute for this class. We didn’t have the opportunity to get somebody who was science certified, but we got the next best thing, which is somebody who knows LHS, knows the procedures and policies, and someone who’s so dedicated to doing a good job with everything that she does. I communicated a lot with her prior to being out [and] during my maternity leave, she would send me updates from time to time.”
She came back during midterm exams, which she considered a relaxing transition back to work, since while students cram for exams, teachers simply spend the week grading.
Now, McCloskey is balancing the chaos of being a teacher and a mom of two, since she also has a young son, Les Daniel McCloskey. That means waking up at 4:00 am so she has enough time to get ready for the day. Despite the early morning, she describes the act of giving herself enough time as “filling her cup.”
Emi, for her part, is a well-behaved baby, but no newborn can sleep through the night. After her experience with Les, McCloskey reminds herself and other new moms that “it’s all temporary, all of the phases, and it all seriously goes by so fast.”
McCloskey also warns new moms of the emotional struggle of balancing two children.
“I went through the emotions of my toddler not being the baby anymore,” McCloskey said. “That was kind of an emotional rollercoaster. And then making sure now that I’m giving enough time to him as well as her, because obviously she needs me in different ways than he needs me. He’s kind of become my husband’s child, and then the new baby is mine right now.”
With McCloskey back at school, she has managed to make things work.
“I have adjusted very well with being a new mom of two [and] returning to work!” McCloskey said. “We all got into a routine pretty easily. Emi is also adjusting so well to daycare… The most difficult part of balancing it all is figuring out in the moment what to do when she or my son is sick and can’t go to daycare.”
Although it is tough to balance motherhood and a teaching career, there are benefits to it as well, like helping her kids with homework when they are old enough to attend school in their hometown, Coventry.
“I enjoy what I do as a teacher, so that makes it a little bit easier to leave [my] baby behind when maternity leave ends,” said McCloskey.
Congratulations, Mrs. McCloskey and family!
