Daycare Boredom

I am about to give away the best kept secret of daycare. Daycare providers everywhere can blame me for giving up the goods. Are you ready for it?

Daycare is easy.

There, I said it. Now, I can see many of you with your eyes ready to pop out of their sockets trying to control the physical urge to reach through the computer and slap me upside the head, staring at this page thinking........WHAT? You are saying in your head that even on your best day daycare is hard. Yes, you too are correct. Have faith, Judy wouldn't float you down the river!

Sure, daycare is hard in some respects. To be perfectly honest the hardest part about daycare is dealing with parents - dealing with payment issues, dealing with parental expectations, dealing with interviews etc, etc. The actual care of the kids is easy.

Most good daycare providers I know are very, very bored people. These providers have systems in place and did the hard work of managing behaviours when a child transitions with them. Once all the children in their care have settled into routine the provider does little but the common, operational duties of daycare.

I swear there are some days I feel like my brain has gone to mush. I can actually feel a physical burn in my head while cells explode into oblivion. And there are times that I think if I watch the kids play toys one more minute I am going to go stark, raving mad.

Yes, daycare is boring.  Childcare is not rocket science. I know a lot of daycare parents would be surprised to hear that but the truth is the truth. Kids don't need a lot of fancy degrees on a wall to understand you care about them. They don't need hours of instruction on the current buzz words in education. They don't need Toys R Us in their playroom. All kids need is someone to keep them safe, warm, fed and happy - and leave them alone. Yes, I said that too! Kids need to be left alone to discover and play. They do not need my constant interaction or intervention. And thus, that is why daycare is boring.

As I sit here blogging the kids are playing dress up , sitting in the play house waiting on the pizza delivery man to arrive with their pretend dinner. And for the time it took me to write this blog I felt, for the first time today - engaged. Heck, maybe I even replicated and replaced a few of the brain cells I lost earlier watching them play.

Daycare is boring. It's a fact. And there is little we can do about it. No amount of rearranging daycare furniture, crafts, or snuggling is going to change that reality. A trip to the park to talk to another provider or networking online with other bored providers helps. But for the rest of the time? I'll just chalk it up to one of the occupational hazards of providing daycare.

Oh, and the next time I post that I am having a rough day because two kids crapped up their backsides and another one fell down and the newbie is screaming feel free to remind me just how boring I claimed this job to be!

But for today - I'll take boring.

For concerns, advice or suggestions I welcome your email at judytrickett@yahoo.ca