The joys of Childcare

Oh the joys of watching people kids, it's a lovely job that requires patience, compassion, and a strong stomach.

Patience: Let me first start out by saying that I am in no way a morning person. I require at least one hour of complete silence to start my day. If I don't get it utter annoyance sets in and then anxiety, after that I just wanna SCREAM!!! Every morning I have a 9 year old that comes to my house to walk to school. She is a rambler. She always has to be saying something. "How many more days till my birthday...lets see..3, 4..no wait. 1, 2, 3, 4, oh silly me I have 5 days till my birthday. Hey Misty, I have 23 pokeman cards, oh no I don't I have 15,16,..... and she follows me around the house where ever I go mindlessly counting something. I will try to escape to my room closing the door on her face behind me. Then after being in my room for a couple of seconds I start to feel like a horrible care giver. Guilt sets in and I return to the rambling. Then it rubs off. I start thinking "how many more minutes till she leaves for school? Five, great now four, one more minute! Time to Go!"

Strong Stomach: There are times when I have 5 kids in my house. Two babies and two 3 year olds that are potty training and one in preschool. Some days, It will start with changing 4 poopy diapers in a row, one of those will be a blow out and I will carefully have to manuever the baby so as to not get poop all over the place. Two of those are potty training and one is wearing underwear who has an accident while standing over my new lovely carpet in the dining room so I get to scrub my floors constantly. Later that day after I am done feeding one of the babies a bottle and he has burped, I will stand up only to feel a wet shoulder. Upon looking down I realized I have just been spit up on, not just on my shoulder, but in my hair as well.

Compassion: There are times when it seems like a full moon has risen and all hell breaks lose. One of the babies is crying because he is teething and his tolerance for pain is minimal and I just can't console him. My daughter is woken up too early and she is cranky, tired, emotional and cries at the drop of a hat. So now she is crying and my teething baby is crying, then to top it off, my almost one year old baby sympathises with all the crying and starts crying cause well every else is so there must be a good reason for it. My other 3 years comes running into the room cause he wants to check out why every one is crying only to trip on a toy on the floor and goes tumbling to the ground. Now he is crying cause he bit his tongue. All I can do is sit on the floor, hug and console them as a frustrated tear falls down my cheek.

.......how many more monthes till I am done with this job...two..no three.. maybe four.