Who am I?

Welcome back after our 3 day weekend. What a morning it has been. I don't know if it was the heat, the 3 days off, or if my little friends had a lack of sleep this weekend... but, we had lots of heated discussions, redirection, and lots of reminders of how we act with our friends. I think the end of the year jitters are upon us. The fact that some of us will be leaving and not coming back to Shell's house can create some anxiety. Which, in turn, makes some of us a little irritable, grumpy, and out of sorts.

Each June I pose the same questions to myself... "Who am I?" "Where do these little ones tuck me away to when they leave for the day, summer, forever??" "Have I done the best job I could have?" "Will I see them graduate high school, college, get married?" "Do they know how much I truly care about who they become??"

As a Family Child Care Provider, each child becomes mine when they are in my care for those 9 or 10 hours a day. I know their looks, their likes, dislikes. I know how to redirect a melt down, I know just where the tickle spot is. I know I am not the Mom or Dad, even the Nana, Grandma, Grandpa or Papa... but I have a unique job, one in which there is no actual words to describe. A Parent gives me this awesome responsibility to care for, and in essence, help raise their child for a short time. They hand to me on that first day, the most precious and important person in their lives. They trust that I will make their child feel safe, loved, special, and as important in this world, as they are. I hope I have lived up to that trust.

Instead of bickering, yelling at each other or getting mad over small things... I hope that tomorrow will be a better day, one in which we can cuddle up together to read one more book, joke about our day, run in the sun, splash in the water, and enjoy each others company, you see our time is getting short.