BEDA 2: Children

I can honestly say that in previous times, that I have liked working with kids but after this week, I'm beginning to question this.

I like being around kids who are pretty chill, possess only mild levels of mischievousness and listen to what you have to say. The kids at choir camp this week have not been remotely close to a good example of these traits. Maybe it's because I'm used to working with kids who are (1) ages two to four or (2) into middle school. Everything in between is foreign to me, and in light of the fact that these kids at choir camp are (1) mostly from inner city sort of areas in (2) a city that has mostly blue collar work that (3) also has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Canada; these kids are usually not your well trained kids who grew up in the suburbs with a white picket fence*. Basically, not the kids I'm used to.

Don't get me wrong, most of them are sweet and obedient, but when there are forty kids and ten leaders of varying ages, the five or six mischievous kids quickly become a huge handful. Today, one child managed to intentionally get stuck in an elevator that needs a card to use, just because she could. Not cool.

I do my best to get to know the kids and have a good time, but it's just so damn stressful to make sure nobody insults somebody to tears, runs and hides in an unknown crevice of the church, or bludgeons somebody to death with a chair. I've given up on keeping paint off the floor in crafts, as it's the least of our concerns. At camp, I'm easily wiped after three hours. Even Moriah has stopped being excessively cheery and just wants to take a nap.

To conclude, I think I still like kids, I'm just not sure if I ever want one of my own or to intensively be in a leader like role for forty of them for an entire week ever again.

One more day.

*These are vast generalizations but you get my point.
Love,
-J-
P.S.- Today after I scrubbed every surface of the craft room of paint, glitter glue and sharpie (only to have it destroyed again), the lady who was running the kitchen told me I'd make someone a good wife someday. I scowled to a new level of disdain. 'Housewife' is incredibly far from my ideal career path, as well as modern society, as far as I'm concerned.