What My Daycare Job Taught Me

In 2016 I started classes at the University of South Florida - once there, my first order of action was to find a job.

My search for work was out of pure necessity, as I would soon find myself financially independent from my parents. I did not think that the job I would eventually find would in any way help form a meaningful career for myself. However, I look back today and see how greatly I underestimated the impact of my time working at a daycare.

I vividly remember getting ready in my dorm room and leaving for the interview. I borrowed my new roommate’s belt to look more professional and the group of girls I lived with sent me off with well wishes. I arrived at the childcare center, and after a few basic interview questions, the hiring manager wanted to see how I interacted with the children. Once she observed how the little ones reacted to me being there with them, she hired me directly after the interview. I did not realize that this would be the first step of my career.

Most people learn how unique the intense demands of child-rearing are once they become parents. My experience with child-rearing was an amplified, professionalized take - one that followed codes and statutes and required training. I have worked other jobs that require multitasking, like working a coffee bar between the hours of 6 and 10 am, processing payments when credit card machines are down and there is a line to the door. But nothing was like childcare.

There were countless emotional outbursts and meltdowns from the children. One child would begin crying because they missed their mom, and that would remind their neighbor that they, too, missed their mom. Between consoling and distracting children, distributing meals, documenting how much each toddler ate, snapping photos, and getting them all to bed - simply staying on top of everything was difficult.

Children are excellent communicators, they are honest and do not hold back their true thoughts and feelings. They are true to their nature and express themselves accordingly. Their view of the world is always one of learning. Everything is new, everything is a wonder. It changes you when you pause to observe the world through their lens.

They are also impossibly demanding, can change their desires at any whim, and expect their caretakers to adapt with them.

There were happy moments, and tense moments, much like teamwork in an adult workspace. But my team depended on me unlike any other team I've worked with. The concept of being a team extended outside the classroom. Parents, administrators, and the state were all concerned with what took place in each of our daycare rooms. I served as a liaison between my classroom and several other parties. Understandably, many parents who outsource childcare are hypervigilant. They cannot be there to see for themselves how their children are doing so they stay involved in daily happenings as they can. I’m no public relations expert, but communicating outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth to frantic parents while remaining discreet about the identity of the culprit, and maintaining an air of calm took skill.

I stayed in childcare for about a year post-grad. I often questioned how I would ever go from bottle-feeding to something more. The moral of the story is that working a job that seems to be just a means to an end can provide deeply useful transferable skills. If I could tell my college self one thing, it would be not to underestimate the value of the work I did. I think that had I known I was acquiring transferable skills working at a daycare center, I would have had less existential dread or imposter syndrome holding me back from pursuing a career I truly wanted.

While I thought my work was nontransferable, that I had nothing to show for except stories involving spit-up, I’ve realized that commanding a room of toddlers at age 18 and keeping them healthy, is no easy feat. It is a shame how long I had belittled my working experiences because I felt they lacked sophistication.

I hope this post inspires you not to discredit the work you are doing now. Even if you can’t see it at the moment, virtually all jobs will provide you with transferable skills. Believe in all that you do!

Best,

Indra