If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's this:

Being an adult is harder than being a kid.  Not because you have to pay taxes and bills and budget your money and such... well, probably partly because of that, but I wouldn't know because I don't have to do that stuff yet. 

But the real reason is this: kids (well, kids who are, say, 10 and older) know what they should be doing.  Adults say to kids, here's what you should do and here's what you shouldn't do.  Sometimes the kids listen and sometimes they don't, but either way, they know exactly what's expected of them, and they know they're risking punishment by doing something wrong.

No one is there to tell adults (and I suppose I'm talking more specifically about parents or people like me, acting in loco parentis) what the right or wrong decision is.  In fact, most of the time, there are multiple right decisions and multiple wrong decisions, and a few neutral ones.  It's not, "should I do my homework or not," it's, "did I come off too harsh?  Should I have been harsher?  Is there something I should have said that I didn't say?  Did I make the right choice?  Was there a better way to do this?"

When you're a kid, you assume adults just know what they're doing.  But the secret is, WE HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA.  And even if we do, other adults are going to have different opinions from ours.  If kids/teenagers knew this secret, there would be complete and utter chaos.  Luckily, they don't, unless they're reading this blog.  In which case... ha ha!  I'm kidding, of course!  We know exactly what we're doing... they give us a handbook actually...

Ugh.  I wish I had a handbook.  And NOT the Organization X Handbook because that thing is worthless.

A Day in the Life

Well, the board is making us houseparents log what we do every hour of the day. Because, as the other girls' houseparents put it, "They think we watch soap operas and eat bonbons all day." Wanna know what I did today?

Here it is:

Thursday, May 3, 2012
6:00 am- make breakfast (eggs and bacon), talk to WK
6:30- fold house laundry & put away
6:40- sign a scholar's quarter 3 report card for her teacher
6:45- check off a scholar's deep clean (completed this morning)
6:50- room checks
6:55- do dishes from breakfast
7:00-9:00- break
9:30- drop off application for scholar for summer job
10:00-12:45- girls' school for office hours. Check e-mail, scholar grades, pick up notes for senior scrapbook
12:00 pm- ASC weekly meeting at Loyola; talk to program director about car accident
1:30- country club in Glencoe to pick up scholar summer job applications
2:30-3:00- put away clean dishes
3:00-4:45- break
4:45-5:00- drive to the Youth Job center
5:00-5:30- meeting at Youth Job center
5:30-6:30- house dinner; talk to the girls about upcoming events
6:30-8:00- check and answer e-mail, make flyer for Northwestern college panel 8:00-8:15- call a scholar's mentor
8:15-8:45- make notes in log book
8:45-9:00- talk to a scholar about study

OK I don't want to totally freak you out. To be fair, this is what a longer, busier day looks like. Most days I go 3-11 without a break, which is WAY better than 6am-9pm with 2 2-hour breaks. ...BUT STILL. Clearly I sit around watching T.V. all day. NOT. This job has given me so much respect for stay-at-home parents.