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Crybabies

 

As I have mentioned, Phoebe is in a Parent's Morning Out program at our church. This is a cooperative enterprise; each child's mother has to help out every eight weeks. Today was my day to be the helper.

There were eight 1-year-olds in class. One of them cried non-stop. For three hours. Three others cried about 75 percent of the time. The other four cried about half the time.

That's a lot of crying. That's also a whole lot of baby snot. Fortunately I brought a clean shirt to change into before I went to work.

Phoebe cried less than the others, unless she saw me holding another (crying) baby. At other times she was content to read books or play with trains. There was another little girl there who reminded me of my niece, Isabel. She was fine for a while but then started to cry because the other babies kept taking out the toys that she was trying to put away. "All done!" she would scream, snatching a toy out of the unsuspecting baby's hand and hurrying to stow it back in a bin. I got her to calm down by telling her that she was a very good helper. About ten times I said, "You're a good helper!" and she would nod and cry and say, "Toys all done!" Yikes.

The mom of the boy who cried the whole time asked the teacher if she should withdraw from the program. "Give him another month," the teacher suggested. Yikes again. A whole more month of crying? Maybe it does take that long for little kids to understand that mommy really will come back. Or maybe some little kids never get it. I don't know, I've always had to leave my kids so I think they're kind of used to it. But I also have pretty easy-going kids. I don't know what I would do if I had a child who just couldn't take being left somewhere.

The PMO class is planning a trip to a pumpkin patch in a few weeks. Am I a bad mom for not wanting to take Phoebe? I just don't see the point. She would probably have fun, but she'd also have fun just playing in our backyard. And that would be free. And it wouldn't involve driving 20 miles. Or spending the morning with a bunch of crying babies. I think I'll skip it. Posted by Picasa

Comments

aimee said…
Oh my gosh. I think I would go crazy. Actually, I worked at a daycare with 8 less than one-year olds. And some did cry all day. I only worked there 4 months. It is amazing that I wanted children at all after that experience.

Glad that Phoebe did not cry as much as the others.
5:27 PM
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