Last week provided me with ammunition to start a chapter about 'When Things Go Wrong' in the day care world. It was a combination of the most frustrating moments of the day mixed in with enough time to appreciate the humor in the situation.
Thursday, I had a very very busy kid load. I was at my maximum limit of kids and I knew I was in for a busy and challenging day. As I looked ahead to the lunch crowd that I would have, I planned a very simple to serve and eat (no assistance required for the younger ones) menu. It was time consuming to prepare a meal that required little assistance during the actual meal, but it is always worth it on a busy day.
Lunch was ready. I was organized. I always have the table preset with the lunches already set out on their plates. The kids just have to find their spot at the table (they each have a specific glass and corresponding wash cloth and they just find their glass to find their spot for the meal), I help the little ones into the high chair or booster seats, push in the odd chair and we're ready to go. It works like a charm. Except .... when the oldest child in the crowd spilt her milk before I had pushed in the last chair and put the lunch on the high chair trays. Not only did she spill her full glass of milk all over the table, bench, wall and floor ... but also onto the lap of the boy sitting beside her. First order of business was to get enough milk off the table so it wasn't dripping on the floor. Secondly, I had to find a change of clothes for the wet child. Then, I finally got around to cleaning up the milk. A full glass of milk goes a long way.
We survived the lunch ordeal but it was enough to throw my day for a loop.
Friday was a much quieter day. Just a nice amount of kids to have, lunch went well, the day was going good until .... a 4 year old little boy poked his head out of the bathroom door and said, "Colleen, I peed all over inside the toilet and on the floor ...". Nothing gets a person running like a distress call like that. There he was. Standing with his pants down, on the 'edge' of this catastrophe. I looked at the scene and didn't know where to start. The bathroom is very small, so there wasn't even room in there for me to move him to a dry spot on the floor and clean him up. I picked him up as he stood and placed him in the tub. I had to clean my way to him (the puddle on the floor exceeded what I would have thought the holding capacity of this little boy could hold - much more than the full glass of milk from the previous day anyway) and eventually I got to this damp child standing in the tub. Of course he didn't have spare clothes and I couldn't find any his size right off the bat. Eventually I sent him out of the bathroom, clean and dry in a pair of sweat pants 2 sizes too small for him.
I was still tending the 4 other children throughout this 'bathroom scene' and the voice from the tub quietly stated, "My mom doesn't get mad when I do this ...". In my exasperation, I uttered, "Your mom doesn't have 5 kids to take care of." Even by the time I retold the story (in a much more condensed matter) to the dad when he came to pick up his son at the end of the day, I could see the humor in the situation.
A little time and distance from a lot of the more taxing moments in my day are a little bit funny, when you have the quiet in your household and mind to appreciate it.
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