Pissed off with work

I'm getting really sick of my job. I'm a nursery nurse. My job is to care for and educate small children. Recently, it seems that more and more of my day is spent doing other things. The amount of paperwork we're supposed to fill in is increasing by the day, and I don't think a lot of it is necessary. The latest thing is to work out a way for the children to assess their own strengths and weaknesses - these kids are three and four years old, for goodness' sake!

We plan the daily activities, which is fine, but then there's several different forms etc. to fill in, assessing how the activities went. If something worked well then we have to fill in a sheet describing what went well, and also a 'next steps' sheet, to say how we're going to follow up the activity, We also have to fill in a sheet for any children who need more of a similar activity to improve, and for those children who found it too easy. Then there'd be another sheet to say what we actually did to follow up. If a child expresses interest in something, there's even more of these forms.
As well as all this, we have a file for each child, where we keep dozens of observations on each child, plus carefully selected pieces of their artwork etc. for using when we make the profile that will be sent to the school which they are due to attend.
Oh, and unlike every other year, now we're not even allowed to write the profiles for our key group - only the teacher is deemed suitable to do this.

The boss has decided that we have too many staff in our room for the number of children (there's a minimum ratio) so if anyone is off ill or on holiday nobody is called in to cover them. The thing is, that 'too many staff' only applies when all of us are in the room at the same time. It takes no account of teabreaks, or doing the dishes, or getting all the extra paperwork done, or all the times that our room leader is called out to meetings, or 101 other things.

I'm getting so fucked off with the whole job now. It just doesn't seem worthwhile my being there if I can't actually do the job for which I was employed. I often don't feel like I'm doing the best for the children in my care.

On a slightly lighter note, there is the odd thing that makes me remember why I wanted to be a nursery nurse in the first place. for instance, today some of the kids were talking about what they want to be when they grow up. One of the younger ones said, very definitely, 'I want to be a sheep'...

Funny stuff

I thought I'd post a couple of things that make me laugh, in case anyone needs cheering up.
This is the back of a DVD about fishing, that was being sold for 97p (US = $1.90, Aus. = $2.13) in a local supermarket.
It's all very innocent, but it sounds so porny it made my dad think it was worth showing me!



(Plus, that's one of the best names ever!)

I'm rereading The White Road by John Connolly, and found the bit that always makes me giggle, which is a bit embarrassing when I'm on a bus or train.

'Young men and women cruised up and down Broad, rap and nu-metal grinding out insistent, competing beats. Fred Durst, record company vice president, proud father, and multimillionaire, was telling the kids how their parents just didn't understand his generation. There's nothing sadder than a thirty-year-old man in short pants rebelling against his mom and dad.'

For anyone who doesn't know, this is Fred Durst.

Hope you enjoyed them. :)

Neo's challenge

Ok, this post in response to Neo might take me a while to write. Here goes (in no particular order)...


1) Have children and raise them properly
2) See a platypus in real life
3) Stop pulling my hair out
4) Write a children's book
5) Pay off my credit cards
6) Make and sell silver jewellery
7) Stop smoking
8) Exercise
9) Take up archery
10) Get a large remote-control Dalek
11) Redo the entire garden
12) Visit other countries
13) Get the house sorted out
14) Meet some more of my online friends
15) Learn how to do more things with my computer
16) Figure out how to keep plants without them dying (current count: dead - lots, alive - 3, not sure - 2)
17) Skydive
18) Walk along Hadrian's Wall
19) Make a mosaic
20) Make a family tree for my mother's side of the family
21) Learn to fight with a quarterstaff
22) Write samba music and teach it to the band
23) Become more confident
24) Find a way to stop my depression coming back
25) Learn Latin
26) Stop hoarding junk
27) Moisturise more often
28) Have a pet lizard
29) See my friends more often
30) Keep up a good sex life
31) Lunge wildly at the Pope ;-)

I'm glad I'm only 31 - this was difficult enough as it was!

Christmas presents

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I might as well tell you what I got for Christmas.

This isn't a complete list, so I don't want anybody feeling slighted that I didn't mention their gift!

I got these sets of Playmobil. Yes, I know that it's meant for kids, but I've always loved Playmobil and still collect it. Also, being very interested in Romans, you can imagine how excited I was to find out about the new Roman sets...

We got a set of place mats and coasters, for using on our new dining table, that have photos of pebbles on them - they're really nice.

Chris got me a Pirates of the Carribbean 3 DVD, the QI Annual, and this game for my DS. :)

My parents also gave me a Buffy board game. We tried playing it, and once we sorted out all the confusing parts it was quite good fun.

Colin gave me the sonic screwdriver and psychic paper set, and yes, I did have it by my side while watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special!

I love my Haiku Fridge Poetry set, and I also love the rat-shaped handbag and the hot water bottle with a piratey-knitted cover. :)

Nettie sent me the Pirateology calendar, and Tru sent me a cuddly armadillo. Thanks, you two!

However, by far the most original present I got was the set of laminated Bill Bailey jewellery, made by my imaginative and 'special' sister!