I have always felt a certain negativity towards people who work with children:
So whereabouts are you working?
Oh I’m working in a Kindergarden.
Oh, so you’re actually just playing all day??
Yeah, right.
I am working in a Kindergarden since 8 weeks now and this was the hardest job I’ve ever done and I am sick of people thinking that “we are just playing all day”. I want to see these people try to survive one day in a place like this. I’m just going to try to give you an impression of what happens in the Kindergarden.
6.45am: I leave the house and travel all around London.
8.15am: I start work. I arrive on time and start carrying heavy boxes out of the shed into the room. This happens until 8.50. The whole Kindergarden needs to be constructed every morning and taken down every afternoon. No exceptions.
8.50am: We have a quick meeting with all staff members to discuss the plan for the day. We work on certain topics to teach them about a topic such as Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Animals, Garden… We learn about the fact that 4 children started potty training over the holidays. And probably we notice that due to sickness we’re short off staff and it’s going to be a messy day.
9.00am: The first parents arrive on time. Always on time in the mornings and never on time at picking up time. We greet children and start providing activities trying to deal with the 5 children crying for Mummy. They scream cry, snot dribbling from their otherwise cute faces, they run aways and whatever you say to them they won’t listen and they won’t understand.
9.45am-10.30am: Now it’s free play. Most children have arrived and we usually are able to get most tantrums in control. Now the real fun starts. Just playing. Playing with the cars trying to keep the children from punching each others, judging as fairly as possible about things you haven’t seen, wipe snotty noses, stop noses from bleeding after accidents, just playing basically.
10.30am: Time for nappy changing and toilet. Same shit different day trying to convince children to get their nappy changed and explain them that everyone has to go to the toilet and that you have to wash your hands after you made poo-poo.
10.45am: Tidy-Up Time: Singing a song to try and make the children realise that there is no playing anymore and that now EVERYONE tidies up. Massive discussions with at least 4 children at a time.
11am finally: Time to go outside. After another 15 mins of fighting and crying we finally managed to convice all children to put most of their clothing items on.
11am-12am: The playground. Just playing. And making sure the little ones don’t wet themselves and don’t punch each other and are fair in taking turns and and and. Well just playing.
12am lunch time. We walk back to the KIndergarden with 20 children trying to explain them traffic and keeping them from running and jumping alongside the road.
12.15pm: Discussions about handwashing start. Like a robot you repeat yourself and tell the children that they aren’t going to start eating until everyone has washed their hands. You discover by smell that 2 out of 4 children who potty train have already made wee-wee and poo-poo into their trousers. And if that wasn’t bad enough a 3 year-old manages to wet the complete bathroom (walls as well as toilet) becaue he refuses to sit down for a wee-wee.
12.30pm: We start “eating”. Children and aduts eat together at one table. No break. You’re continuously picking up food from the floor and have to get up to get kitchen roll to wipe yoghurts from shirts and clothes. You continuously reming some children about the fact that now eating is priority and not talling or day-dreaming.
1pm: Naptime. Time to get the littleones into the sleeping area for naptime. You’re having discussions with seven children who simply don’t want to sleep. You finally sit down in the sleeping area to read or tell a story. A boring and repetitive story, to make them sleepy. Oh you actually never manage to properly tell the story because you continuously have to tell the children to be quiet, lie down, stop kicking people lying next to them, stop playing with their feet… Well, it’s all just playing. Finally half of them fall asleep – wow, how lucky. Then you start packing all toys back into boxes while the other children are outside playing.
2pm-3pm. Garden Time. Children playing in the garden falling from their bikes, crashing on stones. You wipe some more blood of their faces and try to calm them down, and you keep reminding the little ones that sharing is caring. And of course you provide continuous entertainment.
3pm Pick up Time. You just want to go home because your working day finishes at 3.30 but unfortunately at least 3 parents don’t manage to pick up their children on time which means you can’t clean up and help cleaning boxes so you don’t make it home on time.
4pm Time to go.
Never forget that you always have to be fair, enthusiastic, loving and caring as well as strict and entertaining. AT ALL TIMES.
So please next time you want to say that working with children is just playing think twice.
