Yesterday Mom and I were talking about unpleasant medical tests. She not-so-fondly recalled some über-nasty procedures she was forced to undergo before working at a daycare centre many years back. Everybody's concerned that you don't give the kids a disease, she explained, shrewdly noting, but nobody cares what the kids give to you! They can have worms, they can throw up on you...
She was right: Teachers and educational support staff walk into microscopic war zones each day at school, and it's every man for himself out there (figuratively-speaking). Other people's little angels are like snipers that pick off the grown-ups one by one with sneezes, coughing, and bathroom issues. They are nothing more than agents of germ warfare, a microbe-militia that infiltrate the adult world, handling their weapons with dexterous ease and releasing their poison with deadly precision. Their most sinister stratagem: Innocence. As long as they're cute, what can you do?
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I just read this. I know what you're saying. During a half-year traineeship at a high school I constantly had the flu. After I stopped working there, the flu also disappeared. I can't imagine the attack on my health once I start working at a day care center! :D
Eunika
To be honest, I don't know how my Mom survived either. Teachers and day care workers are special people, that's for sure! :)
Just be sure to get lots of rest, take vitamins/echinecia/etc., and bring your own personal bottle of hand sanitizer to work if you can. And it's even better if cleanliness and washing hands can be turned into a game for the kids. My cousin teaches kindergarten, and I think I remember her telling me that she does this with her students too. :)