Child Care Worker

Kristin Webb

Screaming children… enough said. My first semester of college, I started (and ended) a job at a child care center. I have always loved children and have babysat previously, so I thought this job would be easy and enjoyable. Not even close. Children are adorable, don’t get me wrong, until they are crabby, whiny and hard to handle.

I started out working with the Preschool 1 group; they were little angels. This group was easy to keep track of and were fun to be around. Preschool 2 lost an employee and sure enough that’s where I was placed for what I thought would be a week or two, but turned out to be indefinite. Comparing Preschool 1 to Preschool 2 reminded me of the scene in Toy Story 3 where the characters are looking through the window of the older children’s room that are playing so nicely with their toys and the other room is destroying everything in sight.

On any given day, one child would throw the biggest tantrum for no reason that anyone could understand. Others would fight with about pointless “problems” and then tattle to me. Over the years, I have seemed to erase other incidents from my memory. Now I know I never want to be a child care provider, but I admire those who are.