Tuesday 8th May 2018
Presenting as a male in a female dominated industry in itself was not an easy feat to achieve considering at that time, I was actually a rare occurrence. I mean to say, that not many men decided that Childcare was going to be for them. Even I had not gone into it for anything else other than to be a cook, which after the many horrid years working in retail was a huge career move at the ripe old age of 40. I never expected to end up out on the floor putting babies to sleep, changing nappies and chasing children around the yard.
I had made myself very much at home in my little centre and although the Educators who I worked didn’t know it yet, they were the first ones who gave me the confidence for what was about to come. Their love, encouragement and support was something that had eluded me in my days of working in retail. So finally being encouraged and told that your doing an amazing job was totally foreign to me.
Sadly, their were some down points such as every so often I’d get a parent walk in and give me this uncomfortable glance as if to say "What are you doing here? Is there something wrong with you that you want to spend your time with children." To be honest, it hurt at first and in that first year I almost walked away from the industry because of it. It was only because of the support that I received from my Director at the time and the growing number of families who would come to me and say things like, "Do you know what my child said last night." and begin telling me stories about how their child wouldn't stop talking about me.
I also learnt very quickly that children are very much like parrots at times. Every so often I would here the words, "My child said this last night and we all laughed". Each time I would be forced to give a sly smile and say something like, "Yeah, that's mine".
As time went on, the families became more accepting of a male in their centre and before long, those few parents that looked down upon me, were starting to ask me to look after their children for the weekend. I was quickly advised that may not be the smartest move and never took them up on the offer.
I finally decided to kick my butt into gear and begin studying my Certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education. As you may remember from my first blog, schoolwork and I were never the best of friends. I struggled through the next 18 Months as I worked full time at the centre during the week and studied my Certificate on the weekend. After I had finished I decided that never again would I put myself or anyone else through that again. Having said that, the feeling of accomplishment was amazing for me considering this was the first real acknowledgement I'd received in my life.
As time went on, I came to one of the hardest decisions to date that I had made in my life. I was feeling the need to move away from my 39 place centre. It had been an agonising decision because I considered this centre my home and the people who worked their my family. The connections with some of the parents and their children, I still hold to this day. Thankfully, with the advent of social media I can still keep up to date with the goings on at my old centre as well as keep in contact with my families and beloved educators. This centre will always remain special in my heart and I will always be grateful to my amazing friend Mirren for taking a chance on me.
Armed with my newly received Certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education, I enlisted the help of an Childcare agency to find me jobs. I would get phone calls early in the morning asking me to be at a certain centre by a certain time and would basically get ready and go. I enjoyed this work at first because I could end up anywhere and during this time I visited lots of amazing centres and some not so amazing. I remember going to a certain centre in the southern suburbs of Melbourne where I was honestly scared to leave my car during the day for fear there maybe nothing left of it but four hubcaps and a line of rubber heading up the road leading from where my car once stood. Thankfully that never happened but I have to admit, it was an experience.
The centre it's self, was lovely considering the lower economic area that it was based in. Apart from the constant fear of losing my car, I actually enjoyed going there. The Centre Director once told me that if I ever decided to leave the agency, that she would hire me in a heartbeat because of the way the children responded to me. Sadly, a lot of the children that attended the centre were from single parent families. Dad had ran off all fallen fowl of the law for one reason or another a lot of the children didn't have a father figure in their lives. With me at the centre, the children knew that I wasn't like the other Educators and knew that they could be a little more rougher with me.
The children would regularly pull me this way and that as well as jump all over me, throw a ball at me for a game of catch or to kick it around the yard or they would just ask me to chase them around the yard in an endless game of Chase. I enjoyed every minute of the interactions that I had with these kids as you could tell they enjoyed every minute with me. Their enthusiasm even considering their surroundings was infectious.
As much as I enjoyed the game of running the gauntlet each day with the car, I finally decided that I needed to place some roots in the ground and find myself a new more permanent arrangement because the early morning calls and the uncertainty of working or not especially during school holiday time began to worry me as if I didn't work, I didn't get paid. Thats when I found my home for the next five and a half years, literally three doors from my front door.
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