You Know You Work in a Daycare When...

• You recognize the individual voices/screams/crying of the children in your charge.


• You imitate the cooing sounds of any baby you hear, even if it's just someone on a home video.


• A child throws up on you, and you're hardly even phased; you just feel bad for the poor child (True story; just happened today).


• You know more kids' names than adults' names.


• You dream about that stupid classroom toy that plays a silly children's tune over and over and over again.


• Paper towels are valued higher than gold.


• You constantly talk at a volume twice as loud as average.


• You stop wondering where you got that stain on your shirt (you probably don't want to know anyway...).


• Your hands are perpetually dry, usually cracked, and often bleeding from constant handwashing.


• You rush toward a child who's about to do something dangerous and then have to remind yourself that it's actually your thirteen-year-old brother (which, considering my thirteen-year-old brother's track record, is not all that encouraging :)).


• You've eaten more Saltine crackers than the average five adults ever would.


• You can locate the perpetrator of a soiled diaper within moments of smelling it.


• You can hold a child on your lap while feeding two babies at the same time (yes, I have done that).


• One of the greatest moments of your day is to see a thirteen-month-old toddler finally walking, a nine-month-old baby finally pulling himself into a standing position, or a four-month-old infant finally recognizing your face.


• You give and get more hugs and speak and hear more phrases like "I love you" than you'll find in almost any other job.


• You almost always look forward to work.

I realize some people might contend with that last point.  Some daycare workers do not always look forward to work, and I'm sure that people in many other professions look forward to working at their jobs as much as I look forward to working at mine, but hey, I had to find a happy, concise, warm-fuzzy note to end my little bullet list.  What better than to let the world know that despite the insanity and the stress, and because of the love and the joy and the fun, I love my job?  :)