Well I mostly saw the good side but I saw some of the bad side too. I am a teacher of 3 and 4 year olds and we had a trip to the farm today. The two boys I was in charge of, one of who can be a bit of a handful were EXCELLENT. (And one of them, I'm not meant to have favourites but he is one of mine!) Yes I bribed them, said I'd buy them a toy if they were! (and did) and was strict when I needed to be but basically let them go on whatever rides they chose and we had FUN. BUT I took them to the toilets and from while we were waiting in the queue till the boys had been to the toilet and came out there was a baby in there SCREAMING its head off.
It was fine honest, mum came out of the toilet with it - I think she'd been changing the nappy - diaper to you! - cos there's changing facilities in all the toilets there it's very kid-centric. She came out and was talking to the baby SO lovingly and what's wrong and holding her so gently and I think it was just a case of the baby was tired or didn't like being changed or whatever. But anyway the noise of the baby screaming was just AWFUL. I even felt sorry for the boys having to hear it. One of them has a baby brother but he said he doesn't cry (much) His baby brother is actually really adorable and smiles at me all the time! But I just thought on one hand I enjoyed the farm trip very much but on the other hand the screaming baby thing. Plus the farm trip though fun was EXHAUSTING, literally and if I wanted to go to the toilet I would go find another parent or staff member from our school to look after the boys first. I always fix my make up at lunch time but this time I had to wait till they were asleep on the coach and I nearly didn't get to finish my drink cos they wanted to go and play in a certain nearby area. I said they could and they did but then they went to a part of that area where I couldn't see them so I had to go back and forth to check! and also when I handed the boys over cos I had to check who was on the coach I felt a sense of freedom! And then there was this climbing area that was super safe (all the playground equipment was EXCELLENT, safe AND challenging) but there were parts where I could easily see the children and more than one exit so a few times when they were there I had to go and call one of their names and look for them to be sure I knew where they were! So in short after this LONG post, while I had some real lovely "kodak" moments today do I want the job of parenting? No siree I do NOT!
