Thursday, June 4, 2009

Unruly preschoolers

Mom speaks: Well I had my first official story time as a candidate to become a Children's librarian yesterday. I've done story time before but this time I am trying out to see if I really want to be a children's librarian and not a teen librarian. Yesterday was rather challenging as I had about 35 people crammed into a very small room. The first two stories went alright but by the third the natives were restless and wandering, like trying to herd cats*. Maybe the Hokey Pokey wound them up or everyone gave their child a Red Bull before coming in...I don't know. Two kids were crying, one was screaming and one enterprising young lady found wrist bells and was shaking them behind me as I was trying to read Wombat Walkabout. This is the same girl who tried to sit in my seat twice the minute I stood up to turn on the Hokey Pokey. So I just said "I give up, let's dance some more to Shimmy Shake." This was greeted by cheers all around. I have a very high tolerance for children screaming and wandering around. I mean I deal with teens. So it doesn't really phase me, but I want to know if parents ever discipline their children. My mom would have pulled me out of there so fast if I was taking the story lady's chair and shaking her bells while she was trying to read.

* Lily's note: Cat herding is possible if you want to drive them toward tuna or perhaps delicious chicken.

3 comments:

Leigh said...

Methinks you would be an awesome childrens librarian! Welcome to the Dark Side!

Lily said...

Thanks!

groserita said...

Yes Children's Librarian really do deal with the undisciplined and the screaming child fits and the child wanting your sole attention while speaking to an audience of 20 or more..
We are the Goddesses of the Library. So if you're already used to dealing with teens then I take it you are already a Goddess of your very own.