Thirtysomething

If You Don't Have Kids, This Post is Totally Worth Skipping Over

This morning, it sucked.

A couple of months ago, Rolo moved from the infant room at day care to the infant transition room. Actually, there's one big room with a divider and one side if the infant transition "room" and the other side is the young toddler "room". So anyway, today Rolo was scheduled to move from the infant transition to the young toddler side.

What a disaster.

When I brought him in this morning, there were only two other kids on the young toddler side and both were screaming their heads off. It was their first day too (one moved up from the infant transition side, like Rolo; the other one was brand new to daycare). The teacher looked strickened and appeared not to be equipped for more than one screaming child at a time.

Now my little guy likes his routine. Usually when we get to day care, I would plop him in one of the bucket seats (little chairs that are set into a table, functioning as a set of high chairs) and his teacher would start feeding him breakfast. But in the young toddler room, the kids just sit at teeny, tiny tables on teeny, tiny chairs. The teacher had no idea what he usually eats for breakfast. Hence, no real routine. Oh yeah, and there were those other two kids screaming. So Rolo decided to join in.

Now, the teacher looks completely overwhelmed, trying to get breakfast ready for Rolo and one other kid, and feed the other one who had been there awhile. Sensing she was ready to scream herself, I took Rolo over to look at some of the toys and he stopped crying. When his teacher cheerfully announced, "Okay Rolo, time for breakfast!" I brought him over to the table and sat him down in his teeny, tiny chair. Right around the same time, Rolo realized that this person I was leaving him with was not his infant transition room teacher and he decided right then and there that he did not enjoy this development AT ALL. And so more screaming ensued. I wished his teacher luck and walked out.

Only to realize when I was nearly out of the building that I left his lunchbox in the room and needed to go back in and get it. So I walk back in the room, hoping that Rolo was calmer. But no, there he was, open-mouthed and red-faced, sitting in his teeny tiny chair, wailing with oatmeal dripping from his chin. Tiny though they are, his feet don't touch the floor in those teeny, tiny chairs and so I think part of the problem was that he felt like he was "stuck". He has no idea how to get off a chair like that. By then, the second teacher was in the classroom and at least the kids were getting attention, even though they were up to 5 screaming kids by then.

It was the first time I left Rolo crying at day care and I'm sure there will be other days to come just like this. But it still sucks.

Labels: parenting, Rolo, winter of my discontent

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 1:50 PM