Lessons Learned in the Last Year

Job-wise, what did I learn? Truth be told, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to being a child care provider. The idea of working with children under the age of six simply frightened me. I dreaded working there, but due to situations that were out of my control, I had to turn to this job as a temporary fixture at that time. Only thing is that I didn’t envision working and surviving here for over eleven months. Anyway, read on and see exactly what I have learned while doing this job. Have fun figuring out which ones are serious and which ones are the snarkier comments.

- Children are very huggable when they are being sweet and cute.
- Never give children gloves. Stick with mittens.
- Hand-washing for 300 times in one day is not going to guarantee good health.
- Wearing a smock doesn’t protect clothes from paint, bleach, drools, and other nameless fluids.
- Foods that are cooked for the masses will always taste like crap. (ie: cafeteria food)
- Applying suntan actually helps when it is required to go outside for 80 minutes each days for outdoor play in the summer.
- Infants cry loudly, toddlers babble loudly, and preschoolers talk loudly. Remember this and consider investing in some earplugs.
- Be prepared to have the ABC Song and other nursery rhymes tunes heard and sung every day from Monday to Friday.
- Expect a lot of pot lucks along with chicken wings and pizza luncheons/dinners — especially when someone is leaving amongst the staff.
- The once a month Thursday staff meetings are a necessary evil. This is one instance where free food is given, though.
- Expect the snack in the staff lounge’s vending machines to get stuck on the way down. Especially when TC is at the vending machine, X_x;;
- Chocolates are a must to have for this job. It provides the endorphins that will bring happiness and energy from the sugar rush.
- Having a car is helpful for this job — especially when the job site is practically far away from everything else.
- Having a lot of the every day materials is a cheap way to do art projects. (ie: cotton balls and paper plates!)
- Watch out for the buggies out in the hallways. They are red for a reason: means danger. XD

The more serious reasoning are in my head. I just choose not to divulge that information because it’s a lot easier to be sarcastic instead of being the deadpan information deliverer. In other words, I did enjoy my time here. Of course there were some days where I wanted to strangle everybody I ran into there, but I am glad for the learning experience. Working there has shaped me to be a better person as whole (I hope), and I will miss the children who I can’t help but play favouritisms with!

Oh well. Time to look ahead into the future with the new job. I hope thing goes well tomorrow!