I have been working with children for over four years now, and I will tell you that not only will you make an impact on their lives, but they will make an impact on yours, too.

What I love about having a job involving taking care of children is that they look up to you for support and for wisdom. You learn a valuable skill by being a positive role model for children. They look to you to learn what is right and what is wrong, and it is your job to teach them these values. For example, I value manners highly. I believe that if you start reflecting positive manners on children at a young age, they will carry these skills through their life. So, let’s say that my kindergartener Sally comes up to me for snack and says, “Give me snack!” I say, “Hey, Sally! Why don’t we say that in a better way? How about, ‘May I please have some snack, Miss Annie’?" Instead of yelling at them and telling them that they’re wrong, you tell the child the right way to use words and respectful manners.

Working with children definitely puts a different perspective on life. These children are mesmerized by the smallest things, for example, rocks. What’s so special about rocks? Children have a wide imagination of things you wouldn’t understand yourself, but it allows you to open your mind to new ideas and get a different outlook on life by talking and playing with children. You hear their stories about how they caught a fish or went to ice cream with Mom and Dad. The smallest thing in the world could be the most exciting thing in the world. It lets you appreciate what you have down to the smallest detail.

These children don’t realize how much they change the lives of others. You don’t even realize as an adult that you’re slowly changing the life of a child. I have worked at a summer camp, day care, and a Montessori School, and working with children has taught me to appreciate the small things in life and to teach the younger generation how to be good, genuine people. It inadvertently teaches you that you have to respect yourself to respect others. You learn who you are through what you teach others.