Thoughts While Babysitting

April 4th, 2013

I babysit at a place called M.O.P.s (Mothers Of Preschoolers) on the first and third Thursday of every month September through April (ish, I didn't double check, so this is a bit of a guess). MOPs is where moms gather together, dropping their kids off in various rooms according to their age, and go to a meeting where... they talk about stuff... or something. I've never been in one of the meetings, so I've no idea what they do.
This year, I help in the 4s and 5s, and I must say that that is the easiest age group I've ever been in. (I've been in the 1s, 2s, and the 4s and 5s. The other two groups are infants and 3s.) Today it was crazy, but I thought quite a bit this time. There are several things I don't understand and whether these are explained to me or not, I don't care. I just wanted to write them out.

     1. Why don't the kids wash their hands? I'm always the one to take the kids to the bathroom, and for a while, I always just thought that they were quick in the bathroom. After that time, I realized that many of the kids were not washing their hands. I even asked one of the girls if she had washed her hands (knowing she hadn't), and she just looked back at the sink and said, 'ah, I don't need to.' and moved on.

     2. Why is it that the quiet shy ones are treated like they're odd? I love getting to know the quiet ones because they're less aggressive, more inclined to share, sometimes more mature, and just generally kind. This year, there's a boy in my group of 4s and 5s that didn't want to play the first few meetings, but eventually, I decided to read a bit of the Bible to him since everyone else was gathered together for story time and I had to watch him. My first instinct was to try to play with him, but he didn't seem comfortable with me getting near, so I backed off and stayed away. After reading some of Isaiah aloud to him, he came up right beside me and only backed off when I stopped reading. Over the next several meetings, he started to talk and even play with me. Now, near the end of the MOPs season-time-thingy, he plays with just about anyone. Sometimes I miss that he doesn't play with me as often, but I'm glad that he's not just sitting around doing nothing the entire time. I rather hope that he'll remember me.

     3. At four and certainly five, I would imagine that the children could possibly be a bit more selfless than they seem to be naturally, and yet when I ask the kids to give up their swing because they have been on it for about five minutes and there are other kids waiting for a turn, more often than not, they'll either refuse to get off or complain about being kicked off. Even when it comes to having to share the marbles because they have 20ish and another kid has none, rather often, they're very inclined to keep as many marbles to themselves as they can, even though they have more than enough.

     4. There are a couple of five year olds in my class that are 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. Usually, I believe that I wouldn't think much of it, but the two seem to take the endearment much too seriously. One time, the two actually kissed each other during the movie at the end. When the mother of the girl was informed of what happened, she was as shocked as I, and told the girl that she was only to kiss 'Mommies and Daddies and Grandmas and Grandpas' on the lips. I suppose I'm a bit odd and old-fashioned (not that I'm ashamed of that in slightest), but I wouldn't allow my child to kiss a single person on the lips at that age. However, I do my best not to judge, because that's not my place.

Anyway, those were some of the things going through my head this morning, and I felt like sharing. As for the rest of my day, I have to go to the chiropractor, and I hope desperately to be able to watch The Dark Knight today, because we watched Batman Begins last night, so I'm in the mood. Oh, also, we got the Kamp applications filled in today!! I'm so excited to go to Kamp in July!! :D :D Aaand... no school today! Yay! ...I keep remembering more... I'm turning 17 in thirteen days!! It's so weird to know that I'm that age... but that leads to a post I'm planning for a later date. Anyway... good day!