A day in the life of....

I am not a babysitter. It is very frustrating to be treated as such, and I am appalled at aome of my co-workers who allow themselves to be treated as such by performing babysitting services for clients of the center. Thr trouble is, while my new workplace is in a state of transition, I am stuck in the toddler room as opposed to teaching preschoolers like I am used to. Last year I had a clas of 20 brilliant pre-kindergarten children who functioned as a school classroom. We learned to read, we learned math, we learned science, we had manners and we conformed the way all teachers expect conformity. Not in the uncreative, dry and soul-sucking sense of conformity, but in the functional classroom sense. Even great artisits recognize that rules must govern us. But here in the toddler room, no such order exists. SO here is the run down of a day in my current life. For privacy sake, I will refer to the children by other names. Points if you can figure out where I am taking their pseudonyms from.

6:45 am- wake up wondering what time it is. It is an adventure to live in someone else's basement for a week or two. Combined with starting a new job and trying to settle into life in an old/new environment makes for some interesting days. I wake up in a panic every morning.

7:00- shower (fast, because i don't want to inconvenience anyone.)
705-dress (from the laundry basket I currently live out of) Put dirty clothes in plastic bag to bring to car.
710-grab breakfast, bring it and clothes bag to car
715-drive to work
740-sit in car, eat breakfast, read a book, listen to the radio until it's time to clock in. (varies, 815-900)

830-walk into classroom where 4+ toddlers are eating breakfast. Severus sees me and immediately dumps all food onto the table and begins throwing it and smearing it. Narcissa grins big and runs to give me a hug, dumping her own ceral everywhere and smearing me with milk. Avery bites Severus on the arm while Severus continues to smear banana everywhere. We let it happen, because it is a sensory experience, and because it is easier to clean up after they are done than to try to stop them.

845-two more parents with two more toddlers arrive, and add to the breakfast chaos. One parent informs me that little Karkaroff has thrown up this morning, but since he doesn't have a fever, she feels alright about dropping him off. He still smells like vomit. She proceeds to give him corn flakes and milk. The other children who have finished their breakfast are fighting over a book. Avery bites Lucious hard enough to leave a mark.

900 the parents finally finish saying goodbye to their children, (now there are 8 total) who could care less that they are being left here for the day, but somehow connvincing themselves that their child hates it makes the parents feel better about leaving them. I write an accident report about the bite, while another teacher cleans up breakfast and the children throw toys and chairs at each other.

915 we begin the diaper process. sanitize every surface between each diaper, record BMs and smear diaper cream on each precious butt. 8 BMs later, I scrub my own hands and begin the sunscreen process.

945- with clean bottoms and protected skin, we head out the door to the playground.

946- the center director stops us to give hugs to all the kids, in the process she smells that Severus has deposited another package in his pants. I return to the classroom with 4 of the eight to do another diaper.

955- we all made it outside for recess. They fight over the push toys. Avery bites Bellatrix, leaving a mark. Severus tries to take a toy from Avery, Avery begins to bite again, but Severus is too fast, and he pushes Avery in the face, hard enough to knock him off the toys and into the sand. Severus then looks directly at me while he kicks Avery and walks away with the toy. I help Avery up, give the toy back to him, and "redirect" Severus. (We never punish, only re-direct) Severus begins throwing a tantrum.

1015 the tantrum is still happenning. Avery has bitten two other children. Lucious throws up. While we are getting the hose to clean it up, Bellatrix decides to come over and play in it. Lucious is screaming, Severus is screaming, Bellatrix is disgusting, but the rest of the gang is happy.

1030 the barff is cleaned up. The two vomit-covered children have been hosed down, and the other teacher brings them in to change their clothes and call Lucious's mom.

1045 The other teacher returns, with both children. Neither of Lucious's parents are answering their phhones. She left messages. Severus is still walking around crying and pushing people.

1100 We go inside.

1115 We begin the diaper process again. This time, luscious has diarrea. We call his parents again. Still no answer.

1130 Lunch with 8 toddlers. it is spaghetti. (need I say more?) 3 of the eight have food from home to eat. We prep their lunches. Severus dumps his food all over the table again. This time, Yaxley eats some of it. But he is allergic to the egg in it, and we have to get the epi pen ready in case the reaction is severe.

1145 we get out the cots for naptime.

1200 Severus and Narcissa are still eating. Everyone else is laying on their cots with blankies and binkies. Two are jumping up and down, one is crawling under the sheet, and one has decided to move his entire cot to the other side of the room.

1215 Severus and Narcissa are still eating. Two have fallen asleep, two are screaming, and two are rolling around the floor.

1230 5 are asleep. Severus and Narcissa have finished eating and are playing in the sink ("washing their hands")

1245- ONly Narcissa is still screaming, the rest are asleep. The other teacher leaves on break.

115- Narcissa is asleep. I begin to clean up lunch. Luscious wakes up, throws up spaghetti, and begins crying.

145- Lunch and luscious are clean, still no response from parents, other teacher returns from break and I leave.

***One glorious hour to spend on crappy computer***

245- return to the classroom. They are all awake, jumping on their cots and running away from the other teacher. We put cots away.

300 begin the diaper process. more diarrea, more sanitization, more BMs

330- begin sunscreen process.

345- repeat recess process, fighting, biting, tantrums, the same kids do the same things every day. Lucious throws up again.

445- return from recess. We finally hear from Lucious's mom. She will come to pick him up by 530. (helpful, I know)

500 begin combining the classes so teachers can go home. Severus tries to push a big kid. The big kids punches him in the nose. Severus comes crying to me, I check for damage. When there is none, I tell him he deseved it. I am at the end of my wits.

515. Luscious' mom comes for him. She apologizes, 'cause she didn't realize he was really sick.

530. We still have too many children for me to legally leave the room. I call my boss, she comes in and lets me go .

600 traffic is terrible. I finally get to the house I am staying at and realize that only crazy girl is home. I cannot endure another argument over whether Michael phelps is hot just because he has olympic medals. I never argue one way or the other, but bshe argues both sides, so I leave without going in.

630, I have found some friends to go visit, I drive, we visit, I feel great.

1100 I decide its time to head back. when I return, A different roommate has exiled everyone to their rooms because she is making out with a date in the living room. I go to one of the roomie's rooms and chat until 1200

1200 I chase make-out people out of the room. I am tired. I collapse on the bean bag chair and don't wake up until aboiut 645 the next morning.

Ahhh, my life in a nutshell. I just want my regular classroom and a place to live. I can't handle transition very well!