I Snapped at My Neighbor

I've been annoyed several times through the year at my neighbor in school.  He likes to follow the rules and I do too.  Sometimes I get a little lax over the whole no gum in school policy.  I figure that if my worse problem is that my kids chew gum then I'm doing pretty well.  My neighbor likes to come peek in on my class occasionally.  I normally take his catching kids with gum in stride and laught it off.  I couldn't take it anymore on Tuesday and I finally snapped at him when he came into my class and announced that a student was chewing gum.  I whipped around and loudly stated, "I don't care!"  He sulked back to his room.  I felt elated that I'd finally stood up to him for one minute at most.  After a miserable fifth hour thinking of how awful I'd been I went up to him and apologized for my actions. His parting words were that all of use were getting tired and that he would have done the same thing if I'd come into his room like he had into mine.   

The funny thing is that the students are thrilled that someone stood up to their strict English teacher.  Someday they'll appreciate his strictness.  Until then I'll keep getting caught with kids who have gum.