Do I know what I'm doing yet?

When I worked for the evil empire, (Champions, a division of KinderCare where children aren't even part of the equation) one of my co-workers was one of those idiots who self-righteously said, "Well I wouldn't hurt anyone!" when someone talked with her about her lack of brains when it came to boundaries with kids.

For example, our license said only one child allowed in the restroom at a time.
Every license says that for school age.

It seems to be common sense to me, but not everyone figures that out.
During a combined program when school was out, she allowed three girls in the restroom at the same time more than once during the morning.

She knew or at least had been informed of the rules, but she didn't care.
Then, around lunch time, she went into the bathroom at the same time as the kids and peed with them.

When Karen told her, "Oh no, we can't go into the bathroom with children!" she held her hand up in Karen's face and said, "You don't get to tell ME what to do. I was a classroom teacher for six years. I have done nothing wrong!"

Then she got out her phone and texted Sherri Burks, who was being paid to be a manager but was really just an asshole.

This dumb cow Mykele was Sherri's friend, you see, and therefore she was right. She had done nothing wrong. When Karen went to Sherri, Sherri told her that Mykele 'did foster care so she knows how to handle kids' and dismissed her concerns.

On brand, really, that's all that bitch did. Dismiss valid concerns and not give a shit about kids. Coincidentally, that was my impression of the entire company. I think the ONLY thing they cared about was money. Lots of it. I know people who still work there. They have said nothing has changed. I don't know, I don't work there. But I'd be really surprised if the company suddenly gave a shit about kids or the staff.

It was a wrenching decision to leave, and I still hate that shitbag Sherri for ruining my joy in my job. She couldn't take away my enjoyment of the work, though. I still have that and she can kiss my ass. I'd like to run into her sometime, but I'm driving such a small car now that it probably wouldn't be all that satisfying. Still, I'm willing to try.

One of the things required in my state is proof of continuing education. We have to have I think 16 hours per year in certain subject categories combined. Stuff like admin at sites, paperwork, medication policies, child development... you get the idea.

We are paid for the time we spend in training.
When it's a most of the day session, they feed us lunch.
This week we had Panda Express and the next day, pizza.

I can't say that going to these sessions is a waste of time although I hate getting up early and sitting in a crowd for hours.

It was really cold in the office, too. Didn't find out until Friday that there was a reason for it... the heat had been turned off during the break and hadn't been reset. Oops.

So we have to show up for trainings to keep licensing current.
The presenters endeavor to be entertaining, informative and to cover important topics.

At our training session on Thursday, we talked about different scenarios regarding physical contact with children. I have sent emails to upper staff regarding what I know about things that have gone on and the idea that we need to set our kids up to be safe from adults who may not have good intentions. I noticed that quite a bit of the input I sent them was incorporated into the training.

We ended up by saying that  we must set them up for safety.
When they leave our care, we don't know where they go. Who they may encounter. So how nice we are or how we take care of issues like personal space and physical contact makes a difference. We can't be setting them up for anything but safety.

Sadly, some people don't have a clue and they're still going to say to themselves 'well I'm not going to hurt anyone' and just go on doing what they do. You can't fix stupid, as my husband is fond of saying.

Friday's session included activities to do with bored kids during the wet and cold afternoons when we're not able to go outside or to the gym, some conversation about different theories of psychology and child development. Ideas about not expecting more from a five year old than a five year old is able to give.

At the end of the day, they post a QR code so we can give feedback and get whatever credit hours are ours. We have to upload our certificates to an Oregon website so that when our licensing person visits everything is up to date and they can look it up. Not a bunch of paperwork that way, or at least not physical copies.

But you know, it's aggravating that life experience or work experience in the same field is looked down upon. A person can walk out of college with a degree in pretty much anything and will be placed higher in 'the Oregon registry' than someone like me.

I have 20 years of experience. And more than 400 hours of training. In case you wondered, that's a lot when you consider most training sessions last an hour to three hours.

Once in awhile I've lobbied a bit. The Oregon registry sends out questionnaires on occasion and while most of them are check box surveys, sometimes there is an opportunity to leave some comments. I do leave comments. 

They'll probably start counting experience and expertise about the time I retire.

Hope I am trained by then.