Thursday, January 26, 2012

Why I Love Working With Children


I don’t have children.  I would love to have my own soon but it just hasn’t happened yet.  But although I don’t have children of my own, I spend all day almost every weekday surrounded by children.  I am lucky to babysit my niece and nephew three mornings a week while my sister works on completing her PhD.  Five days a week I work at a daycare/preschool in the afternoons.  The three days a week when I babysit and work make for long days with traveling back and forth for multiple hours on public transportation.  And sometimes it takes a lot of patience to care for other people’s children.  But I really love what I do.  The sweet moments I have with each of the children make all of the frustrating times worth it.

The purpose of this post is for me.  I want to remember these sweet moments with these children because they won’t always be in my life (with the exception of my niece and nephew) and although there are times when they frustrate me, I really do love them.  I will share two in this post but who knows, I might share more at a later time.

I love the few minutes of one on one attention that I have with each child.  In the classroom setting, especially on days when I have the kids on my own, it’s hard to be able to sit down with each child and play or talk with them.  But they are some of my favorite times.  A few days ago, I sat down and played with one of the boys in my class.  This boy, I, can either be a total angel or a complete terror.  He tries my patience like no other.  I was playing with him this particular day and this was how our conversation went:
 
Me: Have you been a good boy today?  Have you had a good day?
I: Yes, Mrs. Allison, I’ve had a good day.
Me: That’s great!  I love to hear that.
I: I love you too, Mrs. Allison.

It warmed my heart.  It is moments like that that make my job worth coming to each day.

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The other day, I was helping my niece do a “paint by the number” watercolor fairy picture.  She was having a hard time painting in the smaller spaces so she asked me to do it.  I started painting in the spaces but the paintbrush was so big compared to the space that I was painting outside the lines.  We then had the following conversation:

Me: Sorry, T, this isn’t looking very good.
T: That’s okay, I think you’re doing a really great job.
Me: Thanks, T.  That makes me feel special.
T: Everyone should feel special because Jesus made them.  Even if they’re different, Jesus still loves them.

I was amazed at how poignant a child her age could be.  I started to feel a little guilty.  It is easy for me to forget that everyone around me, regardless of how they treat me, is a child of God and because of that, they deserve my respect and sympathy.  I don’t know what problems they have or why they act the way they do.  They are special because Jesus loves them.

2 comments:

Janelley said...

I love moments like that with little kids. They are so special. You are going to be a great mom Allison!

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