I love how things change so quickly. One minute I was a skinny smart mouthed 23 year old who was getting her education in Early Childhood Development. I was promoted to Director of a large Daycare Centre - successfully managing 116 children, almost twice as many parents and 18 staff members. And the best part was...I knew EVERYTHING. Especially about raising children. It was easy, really - we learned all sorts of tools and coping strategies in school. And if it was written in a textbook - it must have been right...right?
So - needless to say - I was happy spouting off snipets of my vast knowledge to parents - offering suggestions, ideas and words of wisdom to help with the seperation anxiety, eating problems, behaviour issues and so on. After all - I knew EVERYTHING...right?
What I didn't know then was something that I learned very quickly after I became a parent. They were all probably secretly LAUGHING at me! Why? Because I know for a FACT that I personally would laugh my butt off if some young childless "expert" tried to give me advice on what to do if my child flings herself onto the floor in a complete meltdown after fighting with her for 20 minutes to pick-out a pair of socks to put on before the bus comes in 2 minutes and the elastic is too tight and it "feels funny" underneath her pants, and it was my fault she was late because she didn't want her toast cut into triangles and that's why it took so long to eat, and she couldn't find her library book because she put it on the counter, and someone else hid it from her, after her sister took her favorite blue jelly bracelet and kept her up all night because she snuck into her room and kicked her in the head...
I would probably smile through my morning sleep deprived eyes, take a swig of my 3rd cup of coffee since 5:45 that morning, pull up the elastic on my milk-stained yoga pants...and laugh...
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