Kids. . .go figure.
May. 26th, 2004 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseThe good news is, I have a job. The bad news is, I have a job.
Apparently one of the librarians is quitting, and they want to hire me to replace her. It's where I want to work, it's good pay, what's the problem, right? Well, the punchline is...she's the children's librarian. Which basically means that my job (as described to me) would be to hang out in the children's room, make sure the kids (we're talking mostly elementary-school age here, some younger) don't get too rowdy, and do what I can to make sure they enjoy being there; read to them, whatever.
I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this. On the one hand, five years ago, this would have been my dream job. But that was back when I loved kids. I think the three months I spent working at the Barrow daycare traumatized me; ever since then, I've been extremely uncomfortable around small children. (David, the library director, was somewhat apologetic, as I told him about my problems with children when I first dropped off my résumé.) But then, I *did* ask for work at the library, and this would give me a chance to get over my fear of small children. . .which, now that I've thought about it, is really more a fear that I'll lose patience with them and strangle the little buggers.
The major problem I have with kids is their lack of reason. You can't reason with a seven-year-old. It just doesn't work. And I have a hard time respecting people I can't reason with. I lose patience with them rather quickly. I used to be able to make allowances for children, but for some reason, I seem to have lost that capability several years ago.
On the other hand, I decided to let a job come to me, and now two possibilities have done so (which, time-wise, I could both do simultaneously and therefore earn some pretty good cash). To quote Saffron from Firefly, "All you've gotta do to be a rich woman, hon, is. . .get over it."
I wish I had someone to smack in response. . .I just know that God's laughing at me.
In any case, I was a bit of a wreck when I came home due to my conflicting feelings about all of this. When I told my mother about all this, she sat me down and showed me some acupressure exercises that supposedly would help me get over my fear of children. She explained some of the research that's gone into it as well, much of which had to do with quantum theory and energy fields...it sounded interesting, so I figured I'd give it a shot. And oddly enough, I do feel a lot better. I'm not so sure exactly how it'll hold up when I'm actually faced with the prospect of keeping several youngish kids interested in reading and whatnot, but I'm feeling more relaxed, and more importantly, not getting a clutching feeling of dread whenever I think about it. So I'm going to give it a shot, and see if I can't get over my fear of children. If not, David agreed I could quit after a week or two, and if so, well. . .at least I won't fit into the stereotype of the rabidly child-hating CF'er. And I'm sure a tolerance for children will serve me in good stead later on in life. =)
My point, if I have one. . .I guess I want to apologize in advance if I start posting daily rants. And if anyone has any ideas on how to deal with young kids, most of whom are used to being allowed to run wild, I'd love to hear it.
(cross-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
childfree)
Apparently one of the librarians is quitting, and they want to hire me to replace her. It's where I want to work, it's good pay, what's the problem, right? Well, the punchline is...she's the children's librarian. Which basically means that my job (as described to me) would be to hang out in the children's room, make sure the kids (we're talking mostly elementary-school age here, some younger) don't get too rowdy, and do what I can to make sure they enjoy being there; read to them, whatever.
I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this. On the one hand, five years ago, this would have been my dream job. But that was back when I loved kids. I think the three months I spent working at the Barrow daycare traumatized me; ever since then, I've been extremely uncomfortable around small children. (David, the library director, was somewhat apologetic, as I told him about my problems with children when I first dropped off my résumé.) But then, I *did* ask for work at the library, and this would give me a chance to get over my fear of small children. . .which, now that I've thought about it, is really more a fear that I'll lose patience with them and strangle the little buggers.
The major problem I have with kids is their lack of reason. You can't reason with a seven-year-old. It just doesn't work. And I have a hard time respecting people I can't reason with. I lose patience with them rather quickly. I used to be able to make allowances for children, but for some reason, I seem to have lost that capability several years ago.
On the other hand, I decided to let a job come to me, and now two possibilities have done so (which, time-wise, I could both do simultaneously and therefore earn some pretty good cash). To quote Saffron from Firefly, "All you've gotta do to be a rich woman, hon, is. . .get over it."
I wish I had someone to smack in response. . .I just know that God's laughing at me.
In any case, I was a bit of a wreck when I came home due to my conflicting feelings about all of this. When I told my mother about all this, she sat me down and showed me some acupressure exercises that supposedly would help me get over my fear of children. She explained some of the research that's gone into it as well, much of which had to do with quantum theory and energy fields...it sounded interesting, so I figured I'd give it a shot. And oddly enough, I do feel a lot better. I'm not so sure exactly how it'll hold up when I'm actually faced with the prospect of keeping several youngish kids interested in reading and whatnot, but I'm feeling more relaxed, and more importantly, not getting a clutching feeling of dread whenever I think about it. So I'm going to give it a shot, and see if I can't get over my fear of children. If not, David agreed I could quit after a week or two, and if so, well. . .at least I won't fit into the stereotype of the rabidly child-hating CF'er. And I'm sure a tolerance for children will serve me in good stead later on in life. =)
My point, if I have one. . .I guess I want to apologize in advance if I start posting daily rants. And if anyone has any ideas on how to deal with young kids, most of whom are used to being allowed to run wild, I'd love to hear it.
(cross-posted to
childfree)
