I always wondered how I ended up in the world of day care. You love children, they said; you’ll love working there, they said. Worked ten years in day care and that is WORK. Most unappreciated, under paid job I’ve ever done. School teachers work the same grueling days and they are unappreciated, and underpaid, too. Think it’s frustrating wrangling your toddler at home? Lock yourself in a room with five of them for 8 hours a day! You hold on for playground time and nap time.

Lots of folks think day care workers sit around all day in a rocking chair, babysitting. If you are sitting it’s probably nap time. And nap time is school room chore time or disinfecting toy time. I always wondered how I ended up in the world of day care. When I’d come home worn out and complain, Chief would say, “Always be kind to them! You might be the brightest light in their day.”

I did love those children and treated them like I would my grandchildren. I worried about them and prayed for them. Sometimes I stood over their beds at nap time and watched them breathe.

I’ll never forget my first day… at lunch I was amazed at the the amount of food the sweet things threw on the floor! I call it the food sweep…put both hands on top of the food and play windshield wipers! Didn’t even begin to know how to clean it up.

They loved to try and murder themselves, too. A favorite way was to stand up on a riding toy, hold onto the table, and have the car speed off without them. Their favorite time to do this was when I was changing a diaper. I’d put the diaper baby in the naked butt football hold and race to save the other child. Thank God I always got there in time.

Never forget one of my favorite little boys. He swallowed a bullet from the ashtray in his daddy’s truck. I about stroked when he told me. Worried all day he’d poot it out and kill one of us. Thank goodness they found the bullet in his diaper that night.

And the biters! Little rattlesnakes needed no provocation to sink their teeth in each other. I had one child who would even bite a child sitting in my lap! Had a darling little girl in my room one year, but when it came to biting she was the queen! I told her to not bite but call me and I would help her. She’d screech out, “Mama!,” and I’d come running. She was feisty but so precious!

I was always amazed with the early morning children and their toy choice, too. They pick up a toy at 6 am and declare it theirs. They immediately put it right back on the floor, after proper licking and nose poking, and God forbid anyone else touch it or pick it up. They don’t want it any more but they touched it first. So it belongs to them for the rest of the day.

And the poo! You never forget a child who brings who brings you a prize from their diaper! You put your hand out to get the prize, unaware of what’s being given, marveling at their cherub smile. Yep, happened on several occasions.

And the playground with its pea gravel! Had a child who put the rocks in her ears and nose. I watched her like a hawk but she was very sneaky. I took her in the office once and they tickled her nose with a feather to get her to sneeze the rocks out. Folks, you can’t make this stuff up!

I can laugh now, but once someone missed the diaper when they pooed, little do do balls dropping all over the classroom. The kids thought they were milk duds and we raced to see who could get them first! Just as I was trying to get those prizes before they did. I see a child sitting in a puddle of brown liquid and all her friends are finger painting on the floor. I did a double take look, trying to grasp what they were painting with, then had a heart attack. I swear, I thought I was going to faint from terror! I snatched the babies up, washing their hands in the sink. Put them in the beds, then I see poo footprints. It was a nightmare and a haze of Clorox fumes, and clothes changing and bed sheet changing. And yes I was watching them! Went home many days with a crick in my neck from watching them while changing another’s diaper. You could not turn your back on these angels!

After a couple years I realized the clue to reign in the chaos was baby boot camp. It really worked, too! Be really firm and demanding with discipline for the first two weeks and they’d be saluting, standing at attention, and putting themselves in time out. Smooth sailing after that!

Course I’m being facetious …I loved everyone of those darling children and had close friendships with the other teachers. I hope they are all well and happy!