We call them “our kids”
and they pretty well are
6-8 hours of the day
all week long,
10 months of the year.

Our job is
paperwork,
scheduling,
filing,
emails,
organizing,
preparing,
teamwork,
phone calls,
interviews,
creating,
collaboration,
researching,
shopping,
writing,
brainstorming,
meetings,
reading,
lots of reading,
oh and to-do lists…
but that’s all after they leave,
or before they arrive…
our kids.

When they arrive
our job is
mother,
nurse,
referee,
artist,
personal counsellor,
scientist,
coach,
pastor,
author,
encourager,
supervisor,
judge,
historian,
activities director,
professional mime,
theologian,
actor,
musician,
disciplinarian,
comforter,
manager,
cheer-leader,
and sometimes
simply a friend.

Our kids fill our thoughts
and conversations,
sometimes they seep into our dreams.

We write down their quotes,
complain about their attitudes,
laugh at their comments,
and grieve at their losses.

We push them past their “I can’t”s.
We slow down to hold their hands.
We continually enrich their little worlds
and bask as they grow.

Our goal is independence
and one day it comes.
We work ourselves
right out of a job,
but thankfully
there is always new kids coming
and we call a new batch
“our kids” and begin again.

But the grown ones come back to you
again and again,
and remind you of the time capsule you buried together,
and the stories you read them,
and the fun you had.
They walk round their old classroom
like treading sacred ground,
their faces alight
with child-like joy
again
as they recognize
their little selves
smiling back
from the pictures on the old walls.
They don’t remember that there wasn’t a window in that room.
Or that you struggled to explain that math concept,
or that you lost your cool once or twice,
or that you weren’t the best time manager
or the most patient listener.
“Do you still have the back play room?”
they ask excitedly.
“We loved the back play room!”

What a holy calling,
What a fruitful path,
What a worthy cause
with a lasting impact.
Loving children.

So we get up
and do it again.

We
serve,
give,
slow,
hug,
push,
inspire,
correct,
delight,
pause,
listen,
persevere,
try again,
hurry,
hope,
pray,
repeat,
but mostly,
love
“our kids.”