Raising other peoples Children - the Young ones

Some people desire motherhood from the time they first play with dolls. I was not one of those women. One time in an honest conversation with my mother I admitted that I didn't have that desire. My mothers response was that she was not surprised.  I was a 'Tom boy' a girl who like tumbling through the canyon, at one point I thought I was going to be a Cub Scout. I have had moments when I wonder what it would be like to give birth to my own child, but never an overwhelming desire. I also strongly believe that children deserve two parents, and I hadn't met that man yet.

Although, I have ever experienced the maternal drive to carry my own child, I have been taking care of other people's children all my adult life.  My first job when I was a junior in high school was 3 hours every Friday at a nearby pre-school. I was an aide, my mother a teacher. That first job lasted me nearly10 years on-off through college. Summers as an aide or a teacher, occasionally filling in when they needed someone.  A lot of children passed through my life, kids who miss their moms, fell off the monkey bars, some who had hard starts in life. Some with wonderful parents, some with grandparents who stepped in to care for them, some kids were there from 7am - 6pm.  I raised some of them more then their parents. I wiped their noses, cleaned up their vomit, kissed their 'boo boo's' taught them how to ride a bike, throw a ball, play nice. Teachers raise other peoples children, we supplement what they learn at home or give them the stability they are missing at home.

These were some of my first experiences in raising other peoples children. What I learned there is that children, and in fact all people, need stability.  My mother taught 3 years olds for 20 years and worked at the pre-school for 27 years, in that time parents would request their 2nd child be placed in her classroom because of the influence she had on their children. I was fortunate to grow up with this wonderful woman as my own mother. One of the things she made top priority in her classroom and I believe at home, was stabilizability and  consistent rules and consequences.  These are lessons I apply to my new life as a step-mom.