I had planned to write about something else today, but after this morning, I changed my mind. You see, this morning I had a reminder to stop being so bloody self involved – well, by the end of the day I had two reminders but its the first I want to share here.
If you follow me on twitter, you may recall last week that I posted a comment about Mushroom’s keyworker being ‘moody,’ and that it was ‘not good.’ Did I stop to ask why? No. All I cared about in that moment was that she didn’t seem as interested in Mushroom as she usually is. In fact, my actual words were:
‘When I dropped Mushroom at nursery his keyworker had a face like thunder & barely looked at him. Not good.’
This morning, I was slightly more aware of the world beyond my own nose for a change, and noticed that Mushroom’s keyworker – let’s call her Lovely* (because she is), still wasn’t herself. So I took five minutes to ask if she was ok. Her answer threw me completely. Lovely told me that the week before last – just days before I wrote that tweet – her sister had died.
My heart went out to her. Her sister had died suddenly and unexpectedly, and yet she had come to work just days later. I had seen the raw grief in her face and called it ‘moody.’ I felt ashamed of myself. Some days, I conveniently ‘forget’ that these people, who care for our children for part – or for some, most – of the week, have lives of their own. In trying to ensure Mushroom has the best care possible when I’m not there, I haven’t taken in consideration what might be going on in the lives of these keyworkers, who look after our children because they want to, not because they have to, and enjoy doing it (most of the time. I’m sure they have bad days too).
So, this post is for all of you who work in childcare – the nursery/daycare workers, the childminders, the nannies, who suck up your ‘stuff’ to ensure our children do get the best care possible when we’re not there. Thank you. You’re amazing.
*Just to be clear, Lovely is not her real name.
