Listen to thisChild care workers are unique people. They are people committed to children and youth, so intensely, that they are willing to spend the majority of their days living and working with them. How many other people would choose to spend their days and evenings and nights working with children who hurt? How many others would voluntarily choose to spend their time helping young people learn new ways to live in spite of the fact that these children behave in ways which hurt and abuse you on a daily basis? Yet, in spite of the hurt it may cause for you, and in spite of the fact that much of your work is not valued by the societies in which we live, you choose to continue to make your contribution in this way. Many people, if you told them that you were choosing to spend your days with children who would frequently hate you, often hurt you, and only occasionally appreciate you, would think you were crazy.
Child care workers are curious people. They are curious about life, about behavior, and about what “makes things tick." Let me paint a little scenario for you. It’s dinnertime. You and one of your colleagues are sitting around the table eating supper with a group of troubled young children. At the other end of the table two of them begin to fight, you ask them to calm down, they tell you to go to hell, and one of them throws something at you. After you've dealt with the situation in whatever way works best, you probably find yourself later that evening talking with your colleague about what happened. And, typically, you find yourself asking questions like: “I wonder what was bothering him tonight?"; “I wonder how we can help him manage better in the future? Questions of curiosity. Questions of understanding. The search for reason and the search for a way to do things differently. These are hallmarks of the child care profession and they grow out of our curiosity about children, about problems, and about life. Many other people, after such an experience, would simply be angry and critical of the child. Child care workers seek answers to questions rather than satisfaction for their own upset or anger.
Child care workers are creative people. There are no manuals for teaching you how to deal with the myriad of events which face you on a daily basis. You are constantly creating new ways of dealing with new situations – and of using life events themselves as therapeutic opportunities. You seek to find ways in which you can be creative with the limited resources you have. You create new ways to wake children up, or put them to sleep, which will be helpful to them. You are constantly creating new ways to do old things and new ways to do things that have never been done before. Much of what you do cannot be learned only from a manual or a textbook. That knowledge can only be created through your experience.
Child care workers tend to be extremely assertive. If they like the way things are they tend to say so. If they don’t like the way things are, they tend to say so as well. While this sometimes tends to make supervisors and managers uncomfortable, it is a necessary component of our advocacy for troubled children.
They are people capable of sharing great intimacies with others. Because it is the nature of their days to spend their time in intimate interaction with others, child care workers are people who are capable of, interested in, and committed to openness, honesty and intimacy in human relations. But perhaps above all else, child care workers tend to be caring people. They care about children, about colleagues, about themselves and about the society within which they live. And, because they care, they tend to be catalysts for change.
