Assert yourself...and you will succeed in getting 5 year olds to walk in a straight line.

My friends think I am a little "harsh" when it comes to looking after children. They think that my tone of voice and my gestures may be a little too "extreme" for the eyes and ears of my little babies. But, you tell me how I am suppose to get 17 little children to even keep their eyes and ears open without a little "assertiveness?" I really just think that kids have an attention span of a pebble and without several snaps of the fingers, and some repeated commands, they will not submit to anything you say. I work at a day camp during the summer and well, there's kids...and more kids. There's not much I can say about the camp except the fact that it's expensive and that half of the activities we do, we don't need an expert to teach it.

Enough said, back to the little kiddies(because if I say any more, the directors will hunt me down and kill me...or worse fire me.) Anyway, so I have a bunch of wonderful little children and despite what my friends say, I really do enjoy working with my campers. I look forward to work everyday and I am always over joyed when the kids arrive at the front door with their over sized back packs half falling off their tiny little arms. I also work with a very young age around 4-5 years old. So, many of the kids have never had experience being in a room with 17 other kiddies. Some are shy, some are not. Some have low energy, some do not. Some are divas and some get pushed over. I especially like the ones that haven't developed a need to be the center of attention yet. Most of the good ones are the younger ones because they are still too young, and too innocent to really do wrong. The 5 year olds however; some just reached that time when they start talking more and start thinking more "creatively." By thinking creatively, I mean being the clever little bastards that they are and giving me sass whenever they want. With a few exceptions of the more "witty" ones, all of them are generally good kids. They may be a little rowdy at times, but none of them are bad at heart...which is why i think it's sad that they will only be young and innocent once.

These kids know nothing outside their giant mansions, and their loving mothers and nannies. Most of them come from suburban neighborhoods and some kids come into camp with designer clothing that costs more than my fuckin paycheck. But they don't know that; all they know is that their mommies and daddies put them into camp and they are expected to have fun. They don't care about their burberry swim trunks or their countless ralph lauren polos that they spill juice on everyday. They just want to have fun and do things that make them happy...and it is our job to make sure that they are happy.

I am a bit pushy and assertive when it comes to handling kids but I only do it so that we don't have to waste time standing around in the halls waiting for everyone to get in a straight line. I am not even that aggressive. I just raise my voice a little higher and i gesture a lot. But I always have a smile or a laugh at the end. I never let the kids see me get annoyed or get frustrated. I want to let them know that I am here to keep them safe, help them, get them where they need to go, and get them to have fun. I focus myself so so much on the kids that at the end of the day, my body just gives in and I legitimately shut down and die. But it's all worth it at the end..these kids will soon hit an age where they will start soaking in everything around them..good and bad and it's really up to us to keep them thinking on the good side...or at least have the best summer of their 5 year old lives before they start getting corrupted by the media...money...and society.