I'm not going to lie, the switch from Orem City to the Boys and Girls Club was pretty rough. Everything that I loved about the park--the quiet, the relaxed pace, the hands-on problem-solving concreteness--is not true about BGC. There's screaming and sass and drama and I kind of feel out of my depth in trying to think up ways to engage the kids. Mostly I feel a lot like I don't have a lot to offer that they'd be interested in ("Hey kids, I brought this awesome poem I read today. Anyone heard of poetic conceit before?"). But I have had a couple successes: 1) We were playing cards and Tegan who is a little whiny and didn't acknowledge my existence for a week sat by me and was leaning on my leg with casual familiarity. It was tiny but reassuring. 2) Jazzmin. Troubled home life, etc., but really friendly with me. I like her, feel like we've bonded a little at least. 3) We started this relaxation/stress management class (they all get screechy at 5:30 or so and I think if everyone took a nap the last 2 hours would be much less dramatic) and only a couple of kids came. But I think they liked it. At any rate I think it means that I get to nap once a week. :)
Also, I think the experience is invaluable: I'm getting to know kids and how they work and how to work with them. I think that I ran from teenager-hood like it was a burning building and have tried hard to forget how it worked, and so I'm relearning a little. Also I'm learning a bunch of games which will be useful for winning kids to my side in the future.
Also: I've been thinking about family lately. Specifically, how the ideal situation is that you have parents that like to hang out with you. That think you have good things to say and who like to play a little. Who enjoy your company. I'd like to set that kind of family up when I get the chance and I think I'm getting a taste of what that could be like, or how to do it.
So.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
my summer job is better than your summer job: revisited
Posted by Kjerstin Evans Ballard at 10:20 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Do you think about that kind of stuff a lot? I mean the family thing. I just wonder, because with my parents' situation I've always worried that even though I can SEE what I would like to do, I'm not sure I'll be able to do it.
Not a lot a lot, but I hope I'm learning something. I think that no matter what you do or which way you lean you inevitably screw your kids up in some way. So I'm trying kind of to collect ideas and build an ideal, with the understanding that probably I'll fail in a lot of ways and my kids will be mad for something and that's fine.
That interesting, because one of my in-laws, who comes from what I think is a near-ideal family, has been to therapy for years. I think we all spend our adult lives recovering from childhood (good or bad). Because we're trying to make sense of it all and childhood defines so much of who we are.
Post a Comment