Job Possibility?

I have debated about whether or not I want to continue working in daycare. It's not a high paying job, but there are definite rewards. I saw an ad last week for a full time day care center job in a different school district. I debated about it, and finally decided against it because it's not Sunshine day care... and was a little bit of a drive.

I love my job. There are parts of it that I don't like, especially having to haul out and put away an entire huge room full of stuff every day, but I don't hate going to work. Always something fun going on.

I really like working where I am because both adults and children know what to expect from day to day. There is a lot of flexibility in what we do and the different activities we provide for the kids.

It's well-run and mostly efficient.

Sunshine is good at what she does. In some ways she is a quite 'schooly' (this book is not at your grade level, you need to choose another) but she really does care about the kids and is very respectful of them and their feelings. She often does the same thing I do... finds something cool while out shopping and picks it up for them because she knows they're going to like it. The two of us make an excellent team, and the kids enjoy being there. Many of them are upset when their parents come to pick them up at the end of the day and beg to stay 'just a little longer, Mom, please?'

I know not all day care situations are like that. I've seem some disastrous ones while out on field trips with the summer kids. I don't want to be part of that kind of chaos. It would make my fun job into something else entirely and cause me undue stress. I can't imagine what it does to the kids who are stuck in it.

When I first started working for this company, I was bounced around to several different locations. I got to see how other programs were run, or rather how some of the other programs ignored bad behaviors and unsafe practices unless someone got hurt or angry. Can't even call it controlled chaos, because there was no control. I hated it. The school I had to work in on Wednesdays had such an awful program that every week, I wanted to call in sick.

It was good I landed in my current situation, that's all. Or maybe not. Maybe I'd have been working somewhere else for the last five years and accumulated some benefits and sick leave and all that.

Yesterday morning, I was looking through ads online. I found one for the daycare center that's actually in my neighborhood. They have health benefits and vacation time and sick leave, and the job would be full time.

The job is within walking distance. I wouldn't have to drive. It's only a mile from my house!

So I'm going to go over there this morning and see what their program looks like and ask questions. It may not be somewhere I want to work. But it might work for me. I won't know unless I go ask.

In my favor, I am already enrolled in the state childcare division's criminal history registry. Oh. And I'm not bad at what I do, either.

And I have no problem with them calling my current job for a reference... IF they intend to offer me a position.

Obviously Sunshine doesn't know I'm looking for a full time job, so I'd prefer them not to call unless everything else checks out and they want to hire me contingent on a recommendation from my current job. If that is the case, I'll have time to talk to her and explain why I'm looking for full time work. That I'm not going away mad, just... going away. I know she would have good things to say about me.

So I'm going to go shower and get dressed and drive over there (it's raining like hell right now and I don't want to walk, thanks) and see what I can learn.