Have you ever had one of those days? You know the ones - the ones that come in looking like any day of the week but are truly a Monday in disguise. Days like this start out innocently enough but...
Imagine a day that starts out with little Amy's mom rushing her in the door, depositing Amy in your arms, kissing her little angel on the head and yelling over her shoulder as she leaves your house, "Amy woke up with a fever. It was just a little one 100.9 but it's gone now thanks to the Tylenol. She should be good to go!" Amy's drop off is immediately followed by Mathew coming out of the bathroom saying, "Your bathroom is really cool Miss Sue, and the floor is all squishy-squashy." Upon investigation you find that the Myth Busters in your program have figured out just how much toilet paper and how many paper towels it takes to make a "waterfall" out of your toilet, which does in fact lead to squishy-squashy floor. Upon exiting the bathroom you hear Becky say, "Look Miss Sue, Tommy's breakfast is coming back out. Isn't that cool?" The final icing on the cake of your "are you kidding me day" is topped off by your licensor ringing your doorbell and popping her head in to say she is there for your unannounced visit!
Anyone reading this description that is not a child care provider might think you were making the whole thing up. If they did believe you they would probably just chuckle and offer a few well-placed platitudes such as, “I just don’t know how you do it” or “It probably seemed worse that it was.”
Now don’t get me wrong those that love us such as husbands, friends, and parents (both our own biological ones and those that we serve in our child care programs) truly do care about us and want to hear about our day, it’s just they can’t really understand the feelings and emotions we go through during a day like the one described above.
If you tell another child care provider about a day like this, not only do they understand but they can completely identify with how you are feeling and tell you they understand because that kind of day happened last week for them. This becomes a bonding moment for the two of you as providers.
This kind of sharing between family child care providers is vitally important to our mental health. The support we gain from others in the field is invaluable. Family child care providers we spend anywhere from 10—12 hours per day generally without the ability to interact with our peers. Networking with other providers helps to combat isolation and burnout and is important. Being able to share our thoughts and feelings with others who truly understand is crucial to our well being as providers.
Do you have a support system of other family child care providers? What do you do to fight burnout? How do you survive Mondays in disguise?
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