Work Hard, Play Hard

I started working at Small Son's "school" yesterday. It's a child care center affiliated with the university where my DH works. It's a historically Black school, and most of the other children are African-American, as is all the staff (except me). Yesterday and today, I worked with the toddler class. They have 17 children in this class, aged 22 months through early three year-olds. There were three of us in this class, and two in the pre-K class, which is my son's age group (threes and fours).

It is very hard work. I am a desk jockey. I sit at a computer and do stuff all day. I don't lift, carry, haul, clean, or run. But that's what I do at this job. What a change of pace!

It is also a whole lot of fun. I play all day! Well, except for changing diapers (yuck) and supervising meals. This afternoon, I played outside for an hour, from 3:30 until 4:30. They have wonderful play equipment for a facility in the middle of a pretty crappy neighborhood, in a big back yard play space. The little kids do lots of free play. I had a wonderful time.

I probably wouldn't do it for free, and the pay is pretty lousy, but I get free day care while I'm working there. My unemployment ran out on 04/03, so this is bridging a gap. I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm enjoying it as much as I am. And it's only for two weeks, so even if I start disliking it, I can handle it until the assignment is up.

I think it's interesting that I'm actually not qualified to fill this job. It requires an AA in Early Childhood Education.

I had worried that my whiteness might be a problem. In the past, the staff has been very deferential to me, and that bothered me somewhat. But now that I'm low man on the totem pole, I get stuck changing diapers more than they do, so I don't think I need to worry about being "deferred to."