Negotiations
This morning A, the two-year-old I take care of several days a week, asked me for a bite of my bagel, I handed it over to her and watched as she ate all the cream cheese off the top. Then she gave it back and I spread a new layer and dug in to my breakfast, tasty though a little soggy. A is not a big fan of clothing lately so after a couple screaming fits as I came after her with a shirt, I dressed her for the park in a diaper, hat and shoes and then covered her little body with a thick layer of 50 SPF sunscreen which sat on top of her skin as a slimy coating for nearly an hour. When we arrived at the park a greasy imprint of her torso remained soaked in my shirt. Later on the edge of the sandbox, with sweat dripping down my back and sun scorching into the part in my hair, I allowed A to cover my legs with the Brooklyn grade A sand (past sandbox excavations have unearthed used condoms, broken glass, and rat poop). I’ve now returned to the house, whipped up some mac and cheese, only for A to ask me for oatmeal, and finally settled her into her nap. I am officially wilted.
I’ve always taken care of children, somehow it’s been the kind of extra cash that fits in, and makes sense, and I guess I’m pretty good at it, maybe because my sense of humor is just bizarre enough to appeal to them. When I lost my job two years ago, a good friend’s father simultaneously had a new baby with his second wife, and I signed myself up for more lessons in the language of baby negotiations. Overall I’ve learned much about human beings, we are extremely complex and intuitive creatures and the tiniest event at an age of just a handful of months can make impressions that might sit below the surface but never quite fade away. The way we acquire language is fascinating, mimicking words, then stringing them together, putting the first person off till a later date. Babies are underestimated, they read adult emotion very well and they react, their personalities are intact from day one and then gently melded by surroundings. And overall I think that we slump into this world as kind creatures, selfish but social. We want to know others and learn from them and human touch is very important. Then I’m not sure what happens…
I love the girl I take care of now. I’ve fed and talked to her since she was 5 months so I feel we do have a very specific friendship. And though sometimes this job does seem in direct contrast to my career, I’ll often think, maybe it’s not. Most of the visual imagery I work with relates to human emotion and the processes of communication and relationships, and bodies we move around in. When you take a minute to de-focus, there isn’t much of a distance between 3 and 30. Somedays though, I’m selfish too, I just want my own bagel, straight from the toaster, with smooth cream cheese, no finger prints, no stray crumbs.
I’ve always taken care of children, somehow it’s been the kind of extra cash that fits in, and makes sense, and I guess I’m pretty good at it, maybe because my sense of humor is just bizarre enough to appeal to them. When I lost my job two years ago, a good friend’s father simultaneously had a new baby with his second wife, and I signed myself up for more lessons in the language of baby negotiations. Overall I’ve learned much about human beings, we are extremely complex and intuitive creatures and the tiniest event at an age of just a handful of months can make impressions that might sit below the surface but never quite fade away. The way we acquire language is fascinating, mimicking words, then stringing them together, putting the first person off till a later date. Babies are underestimated, they read adult emotion very well and they react, their personalities are intact from day one and then gently melded by surroundings. And overall I think that we slump into this world as kind creatures, selfish but social. We want to know others and learn from them and human touch is very important. Then I’m not sure what happens…
I love the girl I take care of now. I’ve fed and talked to her since she was 5 months so I feel we do have a very specific friendship. And though sometimes this job does seem in direct contrast to my career, I’ll often think, maybe it’s not. Most of the visual imagery I work with relates to human emotion and the processes of communication and relationships, and bodies we move around in. When you take a minute to de-focus, there isn’t much of a distance between 3 and 30. Somedays though, I’m selfish too, I just want my own bagel, straight from the toaster, with smooth cream cheese, no finger prints, no stray crumbs.
posted by Rebecca at 11:31 AM
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