Mar 29 2011
Protocol?
I know, I know. You were hoping for a race report, and I promise, I’m working on it. But a situation came up today that has me thinking about something else.
I’m a klutz – that’s no surprise to anyone. So, this morning, as I dropped Sam off at school, I passed him over to his teacher, said my goodbyes, and turned to go. The teacher said, “oh, watch out, watch out!” but it didn’t process quickly enough and I bumped smack into one of Sam’s classmates. He’d been finishing a bottle and had crawled over behind me to see what all was going on. I didn’t really hurt him, thank goodness, but it scared him (it definitely startled me), and he started crying. I felt HORRIBLE, so of course, I immediately stooped down and picked him up to try to comfort him. Sam, of course, didn’t like that and got WAY jealous and started screaming. With both boys crying, the teacher somehow managed to take both of them, get Sam’s classmate in his bed (it was naptime and the other teacher in the room also had her hands full with crying babies). Meanwhile, with both classroom teachers having their hands full, I noticed another classmate had rolled over in her crib and had her hand stuck through her crib slats. She was sort of stuck, and was beginning to get upset about it. (To be clear, she was in NO danger – she just didn’t have quite the right leverage to get rolled back the way she wanted to be.) Since both teachers had their hands full, and my hands were free, I walked over to her crib, cooed a little to her and gently moved her arm and rolled her back to her back, where she was more comfortable. At this point, Sam’s teacher had the baby I tried to run over calm, and she brought Sam back over to me to let me say goodbye one last time.
I left the room, still feeling horrible at having basically run over one of Sam’s little friends, but glad I could help out with baby 2. At work, I relayed the story, and got a perspective I never would have thought of. Someone mentioned that maybe I shouldn’t have picked up the baby I nearly ran over, because he isn’t my baby, and people – this person included – wouldn’t want just anyone picking up their baby. Well, I of course bristled at that – I’m not a stranger – I’m a classmate’s mommy! And, I reacted like a mommy – I made a baby cry (accidentally, of course), I picked him up to soothe him. If the situation was reversed, and Sam was the baby nearly run over, I would hope the parent in question would stop to try to comfort Sam. But, should I, as this person suggested, instead have taken my own baby and let the teacher pick up and soothe the other baby? Did I not follow current parent protocol?
And what of the other baby – the little girl? I simply was trying to be helpful, since both teachers had their hands full, and my hands were empty and I wasn’t needing to rush out immediately. Did I step on the teachers’ toes by helping that little girl? Did I, in that situation, not follow daycare protocol?
In my heart, I still think I did the right thing in both situations. But I’ve messed up daycare protocol before, just because this is all new territory for me. So, I’d like some feedback. Please try not to totally berate me if I’m in the wrong, and let’s not start tearing anyone down. In other words, keep the comments constructive, please. I’m just interested in whether folks think this was an “it takes a village” situation where I should have helped out, or if I should have acted more…I don’t know, formally? for lack of a better term.