Occupational hazards, care packages and my wild child...

I just got over Covid a couple weeks ago.

No, I don't have it again. Or at least I don't think so. What I have is a sore throat, exhaustion and a fever.
I spent most of Saturday sleeping after going to bed super early (for me)Friday night, 9:30.

I slept for about 18 hours with a few pee stops in between. It was after 2 PM when I got up for the afternoon. I didn't eat anything at all, although I had some gatorade about 8 this morning.

I know illness is an occupational hazard. I do what I can. I'm paranoid about washing the end of the table I use while checking kids in/admin stuff. We have a hospital sanitizer that we spray on the tables. Spray on, leave it a couple minutes, wipe it off.

I remind my young humans to please sneeze or cough into their elbows. Quite often they try, but being young humans means they're not experienced with that and they often blast a big puff of warm air in my direction. They're not doing it on purpose.

On Tuesday I was helping one of my little guys with a project at the table. He put his arm up right after he coughed in my face. I remember thinking I was going to end up with his sore throat.

I was right.

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Still missing my assistant.

We're going to make him a care package this week, go around with a big card to the school personnel who are acquainted with him and let them sign it as well as putting it on the parent table for the parents to sign.

The kids can make a card if they want to or sign the big one we're going to make together.

Hope he enjoys getting a care package.

Interesting thing about my company. I messaged the company VP and said that now that I'm not responsible for Jim's time card, I no longer have his personal information in my ADP portal, so could I please have his address so we can send him a care package?

She not only responded with the address, she asked me to keep any receipts related to the care package and turn them in for reimbursement.

That's the type of company this is.

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My little guy with the large issues had a little better day on Thursday.

It's odd, though. Bob's been with me for over a year and I haven't seen large manifestations of his differences. He's a nice kid. His siblings are nice, too. I've enjoyed having the whole crew, really.

I've been corresponding with his mom a bit. She said that he had some issues with a few of the summer staff and that he's still having a bit of trouble getting past that. I can't share any of his diagnosis with anyone, but what she says is reasonable for this guy.

She's been very kind and very polite. Has expressed appreciation for me and for how I have been handling things and has offered several tips and ideas for a bit different approach.

I'm willing to shift my way of dealing with a kid 20 times if that's what needs to happen, but I am hoping for at least a little bit of change, it's a lot to deal with.

One of the other kids, who's new this year, was already acquainted with the family. Jeffrey eggs Bob on. He laughs when Bob does stuff he shouldn't do. Worse, he does it, too.

An example, we have four lily pad chairs. They're in great condition, as are all our things, because I expect the kids to take good care of them. Bob and Jeffrey were throwing them. Trying to fold the backs down the wrong direction. Sitting on the back, trying to break them.

I had a manager person there on Thursday, and he was right next to them. He was speaking to them about the chairs and their own safety and they laughed at him.

Didn't stop trying to break the chairs.

So on Monday, the chairs will be staying in our storage room. When they ask me about the chairs, I'll tell them that we weren't able to take care of our stuff last week, so it's not coming out this week.
Perhaps next week.

Those chairs are $75.00 each.
We're taking care of them, dammit.

I had a conversation with Jeffrey on Friday, too. Bob only attends Monday and Thursday, so he wasn't there. I sat down with him and told him that when someone else is breaking rules and acting silly, that doesn't mean that he needs to do it, too. That my expectation is that instead of joining in, he walk away and find another activity. I made sure that my conversation wasn't Bob-specific, although of course that's what I was thinking about.

I'm hoping I won't have to remind him. Of course I will attempt to talk with Bob, too. Just because he has stuff going on doesn't give him a free pass.

There is always a Bob or a Jeffrey. Or an Aaron. Aaron has his own things going on and is sometimes an extra amount of work. They're all worth it, of course. I want to be the support they need when I can.

It's a lot easier to be supportive and cheerful when I don't feel like crap, though. Here's hoping for less coughing and sneezing coming up.