Me? A Pushover?

For those of you that don't know I am in child care. I've been a toddler teacher for almost 3 years now and most of the time I love my job, I truly do. I wouldn't trade careers for most anything else.

I consider myself to be a fairly strict teacher, but I get results. My class is always full of happy and pretty well behaved toddlers. I always figured I would probably be the same kind of parent...that is pretty strict and no nonsense. Tears don't work on me. I didn't think so anyway.

My whole opinion of myself as a potential parent changed this past Friday when I babysat a little girl named HP. HP was in my class at one point for a short time and she and I really clicked. Sometimes you meet an abnormally special child that just steals your heart. HP did that with me. I love that little girl as if she were my own family. I think of here more as a little niece or cousin than just one of my former students. This is important because you need to realize that as much as I love all kids, HP is different. She's special.

When I was trying to get her to bed and she made her 'I'm about to cry' face it broke my heart. I laid next to her bed on the floor freezing my tail off for almost an hour so she wouldn't cry. In the end I gave in and we ended up on the sofa watching Disney Jr. I was a TOTAL pushover. I would never have let my students get away with doing that. They cry at naptime and I let them cry it out and go to sleep. Because logically I know that is the right thing to do. With HP logic did not factor in.

Am I going to be a pushover with my own child? I'm starting to question the type of parent I will be. I never would have guessed I'd be a pushover...but it turns out I am. Ms. Toddler Drill Sargent was turned to mush by big blue eyes and a sad face. Who would have thought?