My Biggest Challenge

This weekend has been extremely challenging for me. Overall, the kids group went really well. I loved playing and being silly with all of them. They are all so great, and they love coming to the house, so it was a fun vacation for them. We were meant to be their entertainment and not their babysitters, so I was looking forward to a nice weekend of fun, and not any discipline or scolding....but I was very wrong to assume that!

There were seven volunteers, seven children, and a supervisor, Rebecca. Rebecca works for CASA in the kids groups only, so she knows all the children very well, and they all love her. She's very lovely and I like her a lot. However she is really easy on the kids and lets them get away with everything they want, which is hard for us because then we have to tell them to stop hitting the other kid with the golf club, or to stay by us at the zoo when they are running way ahead. In theory we weren't supposed to do any of that stuff, but unfortunately we were all left to it.

I didn't grow up with younger siblings, and the only kid I ever babysat was Joey my cousin and he's pretty much the easiest kid to look after ever. I LOVE kids and I love to play with them, but I've never learned the right way to handle the hard stuff. So this will be good for me I think...but we'll see...maybe it will just make me not want to have them! haha

I got to the Swords house (the other breakhouse that doesn't have permanent inhabitants and is used for bigger groups) on Friday afternoon and met with my girl for the weekend, Lauren. Lauren is 11 and she has a very unique disability. I can't remember the medical term for it, but basically her skull stops developing and her brain continues to grow as she gets older. You can't notice anything right now because she's little, but apparently as she becomes an adult, it will become more noticeable. Anyways, the bigger reason she comes to the CASA house is because of her home life. I don't know much (and it wouldn't be appropriate to share anyways) but she is having some serious stuff to deal with at home, and it makes it hard on her. She's also one of 6 kids and Rebecca says that she doesn't get the attention she needs. So she has a lot of behavioral problems that are difficult to work with.

I really struggled with this. One moment she loved me and wanted to be my buddy and the next she was running away from me and pretending to cry. I could never tell what she needed from me moment to moment. I wanted to have fun with her and make it the best time for her as possible because it was her weekend. But at the same time, it was hard to not scold her because she was often causing problems with the other children. And Rebecca was of no use to me, which made it even harder. I'm really not trained to watch after children with Lauren's problem, so I felt very inadequate the entire time. I really wanted to be good, and I felt like I failed. But Rebecca assured me that I did great, and there really wasn't anything that anyone could have done differently. She said that Lauren wasn't usually this volatile, but this month has been especially bad at home.

The first night we all had pizza and watched a movie on the projector. That was a lot of fun and the kids loved it! The next day we had breakfast and played in the morning until the bus came to take us to the zoo. I was already really tired by 11am because another one of Lauren's quirks is that she is only able to do an activity for about 4 minutes before she's bored and wants to do something else. I realize that most kids are like this, but she was the only one out of the seven kids that was quite that bad. So I was literally following her from the sitting room to the kitchen to the living room to her bedroom to outside where there was a bouncy castle and then the same thing over again! I definitely got my workout! :) So the zoo was pretty cool. I had a hard time, however, because Lauren was constantly running ahead of the group and never wanted me to follow her, which made her run even further away. She'd take me to the bathroom a million times, and the second we got to it she miraculously didn't have to go anymore. She wouldn't stay in line for lunch, so she ran off while I was waiting for my food, which was stressful. By the time we left, I realized that I spent the whole time chasing after her, and I worried that she didn't even have fun at all. But I really didn't have control over that. What was I supposed to do...not follow her? We got back to the house and had more running around and playing. She painted my nails. :) She also tried to teach me soccer, which is hopeless. haha But she played with the boys and she definitely gave them a run for their money! A volunteer came and made us dinner, which was great. And then Megan (who is another little girl that I loved!) had an idea for a disco dance party! It was so much fun! All the kids had a great time, and it was nice to have a whole hour of one activity with Lauren. :) After the dancing we all settled down for a story and then bedtime. My heart melted when I tucked Lauren in and she asked me to lay down next to her and read her just one more story. It was moments like that that made up for all the craziness of the day.

Yesterday morning we all had breakfast and played until Mass at 11. A priest came over to the house, which was really nice. I can't imagine what sitting in a church for an hour would be like with Lauren. After Mass we all went to a park and had lunch. There is a farm at the park with lots of animals and a petting zoo area. That was really fun. After the kids had enough of that we went to the playground and they got to run around a bit more.

We got home and cleaned up a bit before it was time to go. Lauren gave me a huge hug and I could tell that she really did have fun that weekend. And even though it was really hard for me, I had a lot of fun too. I know that I'm complaining a lot in this thing. And some of you must be thinking that if I can't handle one weekend with children, then I better not have any of my own! And believe me, I've been thinking the same thing. But I do realize that it's a completely different situation not only because of the disabilities but also because they aren't my children. And I think that makes a huge difference. Lauren knew that she could push the boundaries with me and that's exactly what she did. I only hope that I learned from this weekend so I can move forward and be better on my next kids group.

I think I'll write a little about the other kids. They were all so great! Kyle was with Billy. Billy is about 6 years old and he has down syndrome. He is the cutest kid I've ever seen! (With the exception of my nephews, of course.) He is so funny too! He loves to dance and be really silly, so he's constantly entertaining. Erin was with Chrissy. She also has down syndrome. She loves High School Musical and she was so excited about her pjs that had a HSM theme. She also gives the best hugs. And then there is Darren. He was with Gabriele. Darren is 10 and also has down syndrome. He has the BEST expressions! And he loves attention! He likes to be a comedian for sure. And he asked me to kiss him on the cheek and as I went to give him one he quickly moved to try and get me to kiss him on the mouth! Luckily I was on to him! No kiss for Darrin! Sneaky little guy huh? Bohye was with Connor. I can't remember what Connor has but it's a pretty severe mental and physical disability. He liked to spend all of his time away from the group with Bohye, but he did make an appearance at the dance party to show us his moves. He also LOVED the peacocks which were at the zoo and the farm, so he was excited about that. And he really loved the vaccum and the washing machine. :) Johnny had Matthew. He was a fun kid. I think I heard the phrase "guess what" a 100 times each day from him. haha And lastly, there's Megan. She was with May. Megan is 13 and she has a slight physical disability. She loved everything girly, and she always wore neon colors! She really liked me because i knew all the movies and music that she loves. She was so sweet.

So there you have it! That was my incredibly crazy weekend. Like I said, overall, it went well. But I definitely have some learning and growing to do! I think this year will be the challenge I was looking for....