Occupational Hazard

Most afternoons, we try to get in our requisite 20 minutes of reading. Most of the kids are a little tired from a day of running around at school, and enjoy sitting down with a decent book.

I have about 200 of them on the book cart that I personally purchased for my program. You can recognize them because they have my name inside and almost always a Goodwill sticker on the back. :)

When I took over at that site, there were very few books on the book cart, and I wanted my kids to have decent things to read. The fluffy and stupid things that had been provided for them didn't really have any educational value. Oh, I have purchased a large variety of that type, too, but I try to avoid things like Hannah Montana or books that talk about how stupid boys (or girls) are. It's just... not what I want to present to them.

I have had Dave with me for a couple years now. I had his older sister for several years. She's in middle school now, but I've known Dave since he was not quite 18 months old. Just a toddler in diapers. That continuity in caregivers is so important to me. Something that's near and dear to my heart.

But I digress. It's actually one of my talents. And damn, am I good at it. :)

So Dave is one of my kids who attends AM and PM program. He's still pretty young, and he's usually sleepy when he walks in every morning about 6:40.
He gets picked up around 5:30 most days. Long day for a little guy.

So quite often when we have our reading time, he falls asleep on one of the beanbag chairs.

Today was no exception. He tried to read, but it wasn't more than five minutes before his book dropped from his fingers and he was lightly snoring. My policy is to leave kids alone if they're sleeping unless a parent has specifically asked me not to allow them to sleep. Some kids won't sleep well at night if they nap, I guess. Dave's one of the ones whose parents are fine with him napping if he wishes to.

So he fell asleep. About 45 minutes or so after he fell asleep and I was putting away the toys and the carts and the extras I brought out this afternoon, I saw that the floor was... shiny.

Upon closer inspection, I realized he'd wet his pants while he was sleeping.

Now when something like that happens, my biggest concern is making sure the child isn't embarrassed. I work hard to make sure that no one sees that it's happened.

So since the kids know to leave a sleeper alone and go on with their stuff, he wasn't disturbed. I've learned that he sleeps through quite a bit of noise, actually. :)

I was concerned he'd wake on his own, though, and get up and the two children remaining (it was 5:20) would see. I casually dropped some of the janitorial towels next to the beanbag on the side facing away from the kids, hoping to sop up at least some of the liquid.

I pulled his file and dialed his mom's cell phone. As I pressed send on the phone, I looked up and saw her at the door. I quickly got over to the door and stepped outside with her. Explained the problem. I told her that I'd take the remaining two kids with me to the copy room for a copy and she could wake Dave up and get him out of there so no one would see.

I told Molly* and Timmy* to come with me, that I needed to make a copy right away.
"Can we bring our dragons?" Molly wanted to know.
"Sure! They can fly up the hallway with us and make sure we're safe." I told her.

So they cheerfully accompanied me out of the room so Dave's mom could handle Dave. I stayed gone with them about five minutes. I didn't want to be gone when the other parents came to get their kids, but I wanted to be gone long enough to save Dave's feelings.

As we walked back down the ramp into the cafeteria, Dave's mom was signing him out. I said, "Are we good?" and she gave me a thumbs up.

She let Timmy's dad in as we were entering the room.

While Timmy and his dad were busy discussing the dragons with Molly, I asked Dave's mom if everything was okay. She said it was, Dave was already in the car, but she wanted to stay and clean up the mess.

I just told her that it's part of the job, not to worry, I have cleaners and bleach wipes and I'll handle it, you just get home and take care of Dave.

So I stayed about 10 minutes after the last child left to get the beanbag cleaned. I bagged up all the wet rags and left a note on them for the custodian to see me before opening the bag, cleaned the beanbag chair thoroughly and dried it. Then I sprayed it with disinfectant and left it to dry overnight. I will spray it once more tomorrow morning before putting it away.

I am pretty proud of myself for keeping the other kids from finding out what had happened.

And cleaning up pee?
It doesn't happen often, but it's just one of the things that are part of my job.

I recall an occasion I had to pick up some little turds, too. I may even have written about it, actually. I should go look after I hit post on this. :)