EnTHRALLed: Adventures in Babysitting

After being a server and a teacher, I have always had the strong opinion that you better not rip on servers or teachers unless you've been one. But, having been a server and a teacher, I have the full right to rip on them if I know they suck, right? (Though mostly behind their backs as I don't have the guts to usually advocate for myself... like my "Tuscan" pasta with no artichokes or black olives the other day... And I still never tip less than 15% ... which is not making the point clear so I should work on being straightforward.)

Another career I have always respected and had thoughts about doing when I had small children would be being a home daycare provider. I had worked at a Children's World for a little over a year in college doing full time school-age in the summer, and filling in part-time throughout all the baby-preschool rooms during the school year. This was a good gig for me, on top of student teaching, to definitely figure out 3rd grade and up were my cup of tea. I truly do enjoy this age of kids, but it is a very different level of exhaustion for me! I would need a nap with them everyday :) Knowing more about myself, I'm sticking with teaching 5th graders :)

But I have had "3/8th" an opportunity (just 3 kids... nowhere near 8!) to wear the "at home day-care provider shoes" for a few days. Our marvelous, spectacular, superwoman daycare provider is on a well deserved vacation and I'm obviously home so I wanted to give it a whirl and help a friend out! The kids I have over are actually ten times easier than a teething Declan but feeling the responsibility of keeping them safe, keeping them fed, keeping my house sort of clean and of course, the teacher in me wants to keep them learning. (Oh yeah, and did I mention the attention span? I will never think 5th graders have a small attention span again!)

I am working on letting go of that "teaching" part and truly just rediscovering they learn non-stop while playing and imagining and talking and creating and singing (So shut the screens off... That is another issue and possible venting blog in my future...of course sometimes is fine, but we are their caretakers... not a screen! I just heard about a 1 year old getting an iPad for their birthday, who is only calmed by seeing that or a smartphone, and I about had an anxiety attack! Read the book I've mentioned before... Baby Brain Rules!)

Anyways... I digress and I'm off my soapbox now. I love our daily email reports and private facebook group of pictures we get from daycare, but here are a few fun shots from our 3 days of adventures! Today Declan also spent 15 minutes going up and down the stairs!