Urgent Prayer Requests

1. A family I knew well and grew up with lost their home to a fire last night. They have 8 kids and I went to school with 6 of them. The house is a total loss. Everybody got out alive, a few sustained 1st & 2nd degree burns and most have smoke inhilation. Please pray for them.

2. Stellan isn't doing well. Most of you know who Stellan is, but for those who don't, here's a link to his mama's blog-- http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ Please pray for them.

Potty Training & Monday's

Working in the 2.5-4 year old room means that we-(the staff in that room)-do a lot of potty training. Some kids catch on quickly, some it takes a few weeks, and others it seemingly takes forever because they aren't quite ready but the parents insist that they are no matter what we say and they send them in underwear.

The kids who catch on quickly are, generally, beyond ready for potty training. They were staying dry in their pull-ups/diapers all day, going to the bathroom without reminders, and basically just needed underwear to 'complete' the process and end the pull-ups/diaper buying that their parents continued unnecessarily.

The kids who take a few weeks are ready but need a little coaxing. Whether it's because the bathroom is scary, they're too busy to go when they need to, or they just don't care, they take a little while. Generally the first week or two is rough simply because they have to stop what they're doing to go use the bathroom. Sometimes we get tears, sometimes we get tantrums, other times they happily go, or they tell us they have to go potty while they're sitting in time out. Once they 'get' that going to the bathroom is not optional, they turn the corner and comply. This usually happens after they've been wearing underwear and had 1 or 2 accidents and realized that it isn't pleasant.

The kids who seemingly take forever are both heartbreaking and frustrating. Their parents put them in underwear too early which results in lots of accidents. Thing is, even if they are soaking wet, it doesn't seem to bother them. They haven't yet made the connection between the urge to go and going on the potty. It's heartbreaking because we KNOW they aren't ready but we can't do anything about it. It's frustrating because it results in lots of clothing changes, and lots of sanitizing for the staff. It's pretty much hit or miss with these kids because, as much as we try to figure out their elimination schedule, it changes on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

All that being said, the single most frustrating thing about potty training is parents who insist their child be in underwear but yet put them in a pull-up all weekend because they 'don't have time to clean up accidents.' This makes for some very stressful Monday's, both for staff and potty training children. We've explained to the parents, time and time again, that this confuses the kids and it's like taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. Monday's are horrendous enough with all of the sleep deprived, sugar filled, spoiled rotten, schedule lacking kids-(basically the entire class)-who come back to school where we have *gasp* rules and schedules, required naps, and healthy food. So why make it even harder by adding to that stress with a child who hasn't worn underwear or eliminated in the potty for the past 48+ hours????

Maybe it's me, but parents seem less and less willing to work WITH child care staff while being more and more likely to press their agenda's on us. This is one of many things that parents do that leave me feeling frustrated, incapable, and stressed.

Following the potty training line, I'll hopefully be writing a follow up post to this one about underwear freedom.

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

So I've written about things that happen at the center, especially my room. This week the boss came to me and asked me if I was interested in moving to the young toddlers room come fall. My first instinct was to shout a resounding "YES!" but I didn't. I didn't because in thinking it through, this may not be a simple room switch. Here's why:

1. The room I am in right now I am a co-lead. At least that's my title, that's not really how it goes. I'm treated as an assistant. I'm talked down to and bossed around by the other co-lead teacher. She regularly makes comments such as "It's my room, we need to follow my rules." and "I expect my room to be cleaner, step it up." Yet she doesn't clean or follow through on her own rules.

2. Moving to the young toddler room means big changes for the people currently in there. There's 3 co-leads in there currently. Unfortunately they don't have the credentials to BE co-leads. The plan is to move me and 2 other teachers into the room to be the new co-leads because we have the credentials to be co-leads. The current co-leads would essentially be demoted to assistants.

3. The room I am in now, my co-lead is having a baby in December and taking 12 weeks for maternity leave. Currently I am the only other teacher who has worked in a lead position in that room.

Lots to think about, lots of decisions to make, lots of things on my mind.

It's Unfair & I'm Complaining

For some reason my classroom seems to be the one that the directors are worried about. They are constantly in there, yelling at me & the other teachers, nit picking about every little thing, and just basically being in our faces and annoying. That's not what I'm complaining about though--nope, though it's high on my list of stressors, it's not what this post is about. This post is about injuries.

We have accident reports that we have to fill out whenever a child gets hurt. Whether it be they tripped over a chair and did a header into a shelf, or they threw themselves on the ground during a tantrum and face planted into the floor, or they were pushed by a friend--if a child is hurt in any way, we have to write an accident report.

The accident reports are kept in the office. The bosses don't like it when we have to fill them out. I honestly dread going into the office to get an accident report because I know I'm going to deal with 2 things while I'm in there. 1) I have to explain to the boss what happened. 2) I'm going to get yelled at for not stopping it from happening. It doesn't matter what it was, how it happened, if it was self inflicted or not.....we get yelled at.

Kid threw himself on the floor and smacked his forehead. Well we should've prevented him from throwing himself on the floor.

Kid tripped over her OWN CHAIR as she was walking around it and did a header into the shelf. Well, we should've made sure all of the chairs were pushed in, regardless of whose chair it was.

Kid picked a scab and it's bleeding. Well we should've taught the kids not to pick at scabs.

You get the point I assume. We're always in the wrong. So I've always thought-(at least since I've worked there)-that ALL staff who go get accident reports get this treatment. Oh no, I was wrong. Today I saw one of the staff in another room take her kids outside to the playground. There's 3 steps and a ramp to get down to the playground from the door. While not paying attention to 1 of her 3 students, her youngest one-(15 months)-toddled over to the stairs at the top, fell down all 3 stairs, and face planted into the ramp. The boss was standing at the other end of the ramp. Went and scooped the kid up, coddled him for awhile, then told the teacher who was responsible for this kid "Oh he's fine, don't worry about an accident report, I'll just let his mom know he fell when she picks him up."

So yeah, it's unfair and I'm complaining.

This teacher has 4 kids MAX ages 12-18 months. I have 10 kids ages 2.5-4. Who do you think is going to have more accident reports???? But yet every time I go get one-(anywhere from 2-5 a day)-I get the what for about how i should've been more on top of things. Seriously. This sucks.