Practicing Patience

On Wednesday I babysat for the "last" time in what I imagine will be quite some time. Mind you last is in quotes because I am nearly positive I will find some time to babysitting again before I actually leave. Children are fascinating hysterical little beings. I truly love babysitting. They have their own dictionaries and perspectives on life. I will miss all my kiddos and our one-on-one time dearly in Lesotho.

Most days I have all the patience in the world with children. When worlds like all, always, never are used there is typically an exception. That is definitely true for my patience. Some days I amaze myself with the abundance of patience I have with children and other days those little minds truly are a test of my patience. I have little patience with others (my age and older)... especially with the slow, impractical, selfish people (myself included). Unknowingly, children are usually all of the three. My patience is rooted from the understanding these messy creatures have only been on the earth five years or 28 months. They need to be taught, and loved, and have good examples of better ways to channel their frustration. As the babysitter I am the teacher and friend, the person they hug when they fall down, or someone who hands them pudding and tells them to finger paint.

It's the days I struggle with patience that burdens me with guilt. Not using the nicest tone, expecting too much, and getting easily annoyed when those little ears are in ignore mode. I already told you not to color on the wall five times today, please stop and use the paper I put out! What don't you understand? Let's work through this. I am not sure what the best strategy is for handling children on their off days (or my off days). There is such a fine line when disciplining others children. Plus, it is so much more fun to be the nice babysitter... letting children climb up slides when no one else is in line. However, when there are other children crowding the playground... I have to switch into supervisor mode, which is not nearly as fun. Oh and did I mention how confusing that probably is to a two year old child who is sometimes allowed to go up and down but other times only down. Yikes, I brought this on myself.

I am sure this is something all parents (and babysitters) struggle with. The guilty feeling of always saying 'no' or 'stop' when we are annoyed eats me alive. It seems especially frustrating to me because I want to be the perfect babysitter, and I am paid to do a good job. Loosing it over spilled milk (oh, wasted resources) never got anyone anywhere.