Working with children is a career too

Are you going into ‘care or hair’? Ever heard that phrase? I have, and it annoys the hell out of me! Childcare is not an ‘easy job’ but a lot of people decide to go into this line of work not really knowing the amount of work that we actually have, and the responsibility we have to bring up the next generation. We are looking after and developing the generation who will be looking after us one day, did you ever think of it that way?

I have worked damn hard my whole life and my passion has always been child centered. I love children; I am intrigued, absorbed, captivated by the tiny minds that are being shaped and I am completely in awe of them. People should not go into childcare if they do not have a passion for it because the work is hard and the pay is not great but if you love your job then you sacrifice the finances.

I have been working with children for over 10 years now and I have seen a fair amount of people come and go. These people go into this line of work because they think it is ‘simple’ and ‘straightforward’, but in reality we have so much work that we drown in it. However much I would love it, we do not ‘play’ with children all day. We scaffold learning; we aid development; we plan, track, assess and observe; we clean and tidy; we have so much paperwork to complete that it comes out of our ears (most of the time we take this work home) and last but not least we care, love and play. We are there for children’s first steps, first words, their low days and high days, yes we see it all and it makes us happy and makes us feel like each individual child is a part of our own family. We love the children that we care for and that is why I love my work.

The children that we care for depend on us every single day to keep them safe and to care for them. We give cuddles and wipe their noses, we potty train them and we teach them to speak. We teach manners and we prepare them for future life experiences. We mould and shape these children’s minds and we make them who they are today. We teach them to love learning because if they didn’t enjoy it then they will have a pretty hard 15 years ahead of them. Early years professionals do not get the recognition that they deserve and quite frankly we are severely overlooked. We still have to work damn hard for our Ofsted reports and keep updating our training, yet our pay is minimal. It is the truth that we do not go into this line of work for the money, and it is a good job, because these innocent children would be the ones that suffered. I wish everyone saw how important children are, just like I do.

Do you still think working with children is easy? Come and step in our shoes for a day, you might then have a newfound appreciation for the people who look after your children day in and day out, the people who are like parents to your children when you aren’t there, the people who hug your children when they are upset or hurt and the people who love and bond with your children like they are a part of our own family. We love our work, we just want other people to appreciate how important it is.