Nikki, the director of Belize Bird Rescue does a program with the Humane Society in elementary schools called Be Kind Belize. It teaches kids about their environment and the animals around them and how to be respectful of others etc.
A few days ago I attended one of the school's graduation ceremonies. All the kids preformed little skits they had made up and got certificates for finishing the program. It was really cute even for a non kid person.
Notice the child in the middle with his mask still on : )
Ok, so now on to today. I decided that since the children were so cute for the hour that I was with them it would be a good idea to come along on their zoo trip today. Every child that graduates from the program gets to go to the zoo and it's usually a combo of two schools in one trip. Today it was approximately 25 kids. We met up with them around 8:30am and were on the bus around 9am. I was assigned three children once we arrived at the zoo which turned into five children, which I had lost within ten minutes of getting into the zoo. By 10am I kind of felt like laying down in the jaguar pen. By 11am I had lost all of my patience but was too tired to do or say anything besides "stop it" and "don't do that."
Before we got back on the bus every child received a bag of water and a bag of chips. Around this same time I started to notice that the two schools were keeping their distance from each other. So basically we had just handed out ammunition to two opposing teams. The next ten minutes consisted of them squirting each other with water before getting on the bus.
The bus ride home wasn't too bad. A hand full of children sat next to me and behind me and told me stories about video game consoles, the newest in style shoes, and how all of them were best friends and why they disliked the kids from the other school. Words were thrown around like "rude, disrespectful, out of control, and bad." At first I tried to say things like "you should just ignore them, and non violence is better than violence etc. etc." They of course felt the opposite way about the situation and actually had a pretty good argument at the end. Apparently some of the boys from the other school said mean things about these boys Moms. Well, to be honest if I was back in grade school and anyone had said anything about my Mom I would've decked them too. I didn't say this of course, I just kept my mouth shut on that one. The last ten minutes or so of the bus ride consisted of everyone getting wet because some of the boys realized if they shot water out of the window it would come back in at others towards the back of the bus.
So what did this little experience teach me today. Well I asked myself that same question as I drank a vodka and cranberry after the ordeal. My answer is this: I like some kids but would NEVER EVER EVER have kids of my own. Oh and it also made me appreciate my Mom even more than I usually do. She not only attended every single one of my school trips as a chaperone, but she did the same thing for my other three sisters as well. Big shout out to all the Moms (and grandmoms) out there, that job is way harder than they make it seem!
Loved this story! It can be challenging to chaperone other people's kids, actually easier to chaperone your own. You'd make a great Mom. You've already got what it takes to manage, love and care for lives 24/7. Granted animals usually don't talk back, but they can and do give lotsa attitude.
ReplyDelete