Recess Duty
It was teacher appreciation at Em's school today. We parents made salads and lunch food for the teachers and took over their normal duties so they could enjoy the lunch hour. I had recess duty. I signed up before I knew how cold it was going to be...
I arrived at the school and checked in as a visitor just in time to have the lunch room mommy march in with a child and proclaim "She has a tummy ache too."
"too"... that word sunk in a second or so.
The secretary said "What's for lunch? This is the third one with a stomach ache."
<<<>>>
I headed out the door, and as I was just getting used to the 11 degree heat wave, a child looked quite forlorn. She was being comforted by her friend. I thought I would be nice and see why she was so sad.
"Because... I feel like I'm gonna puke..."
I quickly escorted her into the nurse's office before her problem became mine, and headed out for the remainder of my recess duty.
The first thing I noticed was that it was bitterly cold. The second thing I noticed was how many children had no mittens and were running around with their coat unzipped. I was trying to run around and zip up the coats and beg them to put on mittens. I was surprised how many didn't have them...... One child was sitting on the outdoor bench with his boot and sock off, dumping the rocks out of his boots. I headed over to rescue his toes from frostbite just in time for him to stick it back on with the sock halfway on and run to play with his friends. Note to self: buy lots of mittens and donate them to the school for these precious hands.
My mind wandered for a moment on how I should be sure to tell the principal to send a note home URGING the parents to send warmer mittens for their kids.. then I was thrust back into reality... RECESS DUTY.
It was more like combat duty!
Note to parents: You should seriously see how our beloved, blameless brood behave when at school on recess.
I must have had at least 15 kids involved in some sort of altercation.
**Use your whiney-est voices when you read the following quotes out loud**
"Zach is following us and we don't like it"
"We were playing and he keeps bugging us"
"I wanted to swing and I don't want to run and they won't listen to me"
"I feel like Zach is stalking me"
I handled that last one in a very diplomatic way... even the finest full-time educator couldn't have done a better job.
"STALKING!?!" I said. "This is RECESS. It's not possible to STALK at recess! He's in third grade for God's sake! Play nice."
I know one thing for sure. When my daughter comes home and says someone at recess did something to her. I will turn it around and say "Play nice". The "victim" is never innocent, as I witnessed so clearly this afternoon.
Do you want to know what else I noticed? Most of the whiners were boys! I know, I know. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I had not witnessed it with my own eyes and ears. Given my long history with feisty females, I would have surely thought the whiners would be girls. But, nope. Not true today for sure. All boys.
I witnessed boys arguing over things I didn't realize boys argued over. I watched boys practice their wrestling moves on each other. I saw first hand how boots become muddy, hats get lost, and snowpants get holes.
I watched as one by one, the kids, eager for winter sports to begin, but not having enough snow to quite have too much fun, ran and slid down the partly snow covered incline for lack of an actual hill and toboggan. They ran and ran, then let loose and slid on their knees and rears. Their run was really longer than the actual slide, which ended quite abruptly when their knees hit the rock on the area where the playground equipment started. It looked quite painful really. No doubt bruises will be the topic of conversation in the bath tonight as the children claim they are unaware how they got there and that they have NO CLUE as to how the holes appeared in their fresh, new snowpants.
Now we know.
I have a new appreciation for the teachers on recess duty. Every parent should experience it at least once.
I arrived at the school and checked in as a visitor just in time to have the lunch room mommy march in with a child and proclaim "She has a tummy ache too."
"too"... that word sunk in a second or so.
The secretary said "What's for lunch? This is the third one with a stomach ache."
<<<
I headed out the door, and as I was just getting used to the 11 degree heat wave, a child looked quite forlorn. She was being comforted by her friend. I thought I would be nice and see why she was so sad.
"Because... I feel like I'm gonna puke..."
I quickly escorted her into the nurse's office before her problem became mine, and headed out for the remainder of my recess duty.
The first thing I noticed was that it was bitterly cold. The second thing I noticed was how many children had no mittens and were running around with their coat unzipped. I was trying to run around and zip up the coats and beg them to put on mittens. I was surprised how many didn't have them...... One child was sitting on the outdoor bench with his boot and sock off, dumping the rocks out of his boots. I headed over to rescue his toes from frostbite just in time for him to stick it back on with the sock halfway on and run to play with his friends. Note to self: buy lots of mittens and donate them to the school for these precious hands.
My mind wandered for a moment on how I should be sure to tell the principal to send a note home URGING the parents to send warmer mittens for their kids.. then I was thrust back into reality... RECESS DUTY.
It was more like combat duty!
Note to parents: You should seriously see how our beloved, blameless brood behave when at school on recess.
I must have had at least 15 kids involved in some sort of altercation.
**Use your whiney-est voices when you read the following quotes out loud**
"Zach is following us and we don't like it"
"We were playing and he keeps bugging us"
"I wanted to swing and I don't want to run and they won't listen to me"
"I feel like Zach is stalking me"
I handled that last one in a very diplomatic way... even the finest full-time educator couldn't have done a better job.
"STALKING!?!" I said. "This is RECESS. It's not possible to STALK at recess! He's in third grade for God's sake! Play nice."
I know one thing for sure. When my daughter comes home and says someone at recess did something to her. I will turn it around and say "Play nice". The "victim" is never innocent, as I witnessed so clearly this afternoon.
Do you want to know what else I noticed? Most of the whiners were boys! I know, I know. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I had not witnessed it with my own eyes and ears. Given my long history with feisty females, I would have surely thought the whiners would be girls. But, nope. Not true today for sure. All boys.
I witnessed boys arguing over things I didn't realize boys argued over. I watched boys practice their wrestling moves on each other. I saw first hand how boots become muddy, hats get lost, and snowpants get holes.
I watched as one by one, the kids, eager for winter sports to begin, but not having enough snow to quite have too much fun, ran and slid down the partly snow covered incline for lack of an actual hill and toboggan. They ran and ran, then let loose and slid on their knees and rears. Their run was really longer than the actual slide, which ended quite abruptly when their knees hit the rock on the area where the playground equipment started. It looked quite painful really. No doubt bruises will be the topic of conversation in the bath tonight as the children claim they are unaware how they got there and that they have NO CLUE as to how the holes appeared in their fresh, new snowpants.
Now we know.
I have a new appreciation for the teachers on recess duty. Every parent should experience it at least once.
Comments