This week, I had the opportunity and the honor of, in my opinion, working at the best job ever. I was a counselor at a day camp for 2-5 year olds at my temple. I do know that working or being around toddlers and little kids is not everyone’s cup of tea, but personally, I think spending time with young children is one of the most gratifying things in the world.
As I came in to work on Monday, I wasn’t very sure what I was getting myself into. Sure, I had babysat young kids before, but I only ever had to work with at most three kids at a time. But 20? That’s a whole different story. Though there were at least 5 other counselors working with me at a time, these kids were a lot to handle.
Throughout the whole day, there would always be a little spiff going on between at least two of the kids; a camper took another campers doll, someone had a marker that someone else wanted, some camper was sitting in another camper’s favorite playground equipment, one camper hit another camper, etc. But the great thing that I found about little kids is that they are very forgiving, and they don’t hold grudges. So as long as someone said sorry or we figured out a way for campers to share something, all was well, and all the campers would be happy.
Although all of the campers were forgiving, one quality that no young child has is patience. The whole reason that these kids would get upset in the first place was that another kid was using something that they felt that they had the right to play with that very moment. And because of this, everyday I saw kids tugging back and forth on toys, having tantrums while they were waiting their turn on the swings, and 5 kids at once going down a slide because waiting any longer would just be too unbearable.
Listening skills is another thing that many kids have trouble with. I’ve learned that many times kids only like to listen to who they know is in charge, since they have the most power over them, and they believe that they can get away with more with someone that they know is not the head honcho. The boys in particular I found don’t like to listen as much as the girls do. You can ask some of them tens of times to either go do something or to stop doing something, and they’ll act as if you’re talking to a wall, and then get upset when you either have them sit out or take away a privilege as if the punishment is unjustifiable and out of the blue. So, sometimes asking who was in charge to step in made things easier for everyone, except for her since she already has a million things to do. So hopefully their listening skills will improve over time.
Now I know what you’re thinking “if you are describing kids like this, why do you still like them so much?” Well, even with some of these slightly irritating qualities that little kids may have, I still believe that young children are the best human beings to be around. For one, they are ridiculously cute and sweet. They will always look up to you with huge smiles on their faces, and they are so grateful that you sit down and play and talk with them. Young kids are also honest, they always tell you what’s wrong, what’s on their minds, and their opinions, and you can really know how they are feeling. They also have the most innocent minds. It makes me smile knowing that their biggest troubles are having to wait their turn for the swing set or not getting the popsicle flavor that they like, they have nothing to worry about and they just run around enjoying life. They give the best hugs, they tell you that they love you, they all hold your hand and each others’ hands, they have cute contagious laughter along with so many other things that has made me fall in love with working with young children.
On my last day, I made sure I said goodbye to every kid and told them that I’ll miss them, which is 100% true. Even though I only got to work with them for a week, I learned a lot about kids and myself and how much I adore kids. I gotta say, although I worked there for just a week, I got a lump in my throat as I said goodbye to the kids and drove away. I’ll never forget this extraordinarily fun week that I had with these kids and I hope that I can do it again in the future.
