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Good practice
July 1, 2006
My duties this weekend have been switched. While most of the older kids leave camp for the weekend, the youngest ones (aged seven through nine) who have no means of a quick vacation hang around, eat ice cream, and watch Harry Potter. Likewise, while most of the underaged staff saunter off to find bars that won’t check I.D.’s, which don’t exist around here, therefore compelling them to get trashed in the cornfields, I offered to stay back and take care of the little ones.
It’s been a big difference from the past two weeks. While I’m usually up late listening for sneaky footsteps out the back door, I’m listening for homesick sniffles. Rather than falling asleep to the giddy gossip of who kissed who and why and when, I’m tucking eight little kids under their princess-themed blankets with their Lion King stuffed animals. Instead of sending a group of older girls off to lunch while they roll their eyes and continue to add more layers of black eyeliner, I’m holding hands with a line of tiny girls whose only worries are if they’re getting pancakes or Apple Jacks for breakfast. Suddenly I have a back pocket stuffed with Band-Aids and a group of little hands pulling at my earrings and telling me my sunglasses look like the sunglasses which they saw on that one girl in that one movie with the pink dress and the fluffy thing.
While I’ve been spending more than enough time with the older girls as practice for teaching their age group when I graduate in two years, I can’t help but think that this weekend is excellent practice for when I become a mom.
July 1st, 2006 at 10:38 pm
little kids can be so refreshing after you’ve spend a good enough amount of time with the bigger kids.
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:29 am
I love babies and little kids. They’re so sweet and innocent, and you know you’ll do anything to keep them that way. I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself. I know what you mean about practicing to be a mom. Well, when you’re around kids at all, you’re practicing to be a mom =) And I’ve no doubt you’ll be a terrific mother!
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:48 pm
I find little kids easier to handle than the older ones. I enjoyed babysitting for my cousins while they were younger, and I miss pampering them. It’s great how you get to practice two skills while there. One is how to teach, and the other to be a mom. What a great deal. ;D