Calgon... Take Me Away...

If I thought for one millisecond that banging my head against a wall would help my headache, I would do it. Work is sooo crazy! We have had a pretty easy few weeks until this week. We got six new kids this week, and it has turned things upside-down around here. The new kids are all great kids, that's not the problem. The problem is the adults and their attitudes. Where this has come from, I do not know. Maybe they've gotten lazy the last few weeks, but it seems that all I've done for the past two days is deal with adults acting like children. One of the women is menopausal, and she is the one snapping at everyone. I'm sure it's a hormonal thing, but her sour-puss I'm-the-only-one-around-here-working-hard-enough attitude has thrown everyone else into a tail spin. This is when I hate being the boss. It's hard to call one of the sweetest people I've ever known into my office and tell her that she's going to have to give herself an attitude check. Also, I'm stressing because it looks as though I may have to hire a new person, and I hate doing that. Not only is it hard to find someone trust-worthy enough to care for other peoples' children, but it's also hard to train them too. Everyone here meshes well together (most of the time) and I hate having to chance messing all that up.

Also, the school kids have been here all summer. They're a great bunch of kids (most of the time), but it's hard to keep kids in that age range entertained for so many hours a day ~ especially our kids. They have attitude problems too sometimes and it gets harder and harder to deal with as the summer drags along. I'm soooo ready for school to start back! They are too, I think. And here's the problem with that. The first day of school may have to be delayed for the school here because the summer construction projects that have been taking place are not completed yet, and it doesn't look as if they'll be done before school starts. Great. Just when I thought we were in the home-stretch...

Yesterday the kids reached a level in their energy that I've never experienced before. I have worked here for five years, and have seen some rough days. But yesterday, just the afternoon, took the cake. It was awful!!! They were so loud; yelling and screaming all over the place. They were having fun, and not really doing anything bad, but they were so loud. I've never heard them be like that before. Just when I didn't think I could take another minute of it, Jimmy, a man from church that visits the daycare often, came in. Anytime he comes in, the kids are as excited as if Jimmy was Jesus Christ himself walking down the street. So yesterday when they were already so keyed up, then Jimmy came in, you can imagine what I was hearing in my office next door. By that point I had taken all that I could, and I let them have it. I didn't even yell at them. I very calmly pointed my finger towards the rug and they all sat down and hushed. Then in a most quiet voice, I explained to them that I knew they were excited, but that the yelling and screaming was for outside not inside, and they were going to have to act accordingly. I guess it did the trick, but really I'm not sure because I left. Luckily, I had to run an errand for church right at that time, so I hit the door as fast as I could. By the time I made it back to work, all the kids were gone. Boy... do I need a vacation!!!