Monday, October 3, 2016

I Can't See It All

I like to think I do a pretty decent job of noticing things: if a child just seems off, if they aren't following rules, if someone gets hurt, etc. The layout of our house makes a lot of this possible. It's a small house and everything is kind of right there. The play area is part of the living room, the bedrooms and bathroom are off of the living room, and the kitchen peaks into the living room as well. I can see and hear it all. Except for when I don't.

Right before school began, I was doing Elizabeth's hair and I noticed one strand of hair considerably shorter than the rest of her hair. So I asked, "Elizabeth, what happened to your hair?"


She giggled and smiled wide. "I got gum stuck in my hair this summer and my friends cut it."

"This summer?" I remembered the time she was talking about. The last time I gave all of the bigger kids bubble gum while they were playing outside. She had even mentioned casually about her gum falling out in the backyard, yet she never said it was in her hair. Oh, and that was THREE WEEKS AGO!

She then went on to tell the story and which friends cut her hair to get the gum out. They had come in to ask for scissors for "something we're doing outside." I had said sure. The whole time I was watching from the kitchen window and didn't notice a thing! That same day, there were also reports of two kids kissing by the trash can after I asked them to clean up morning snack while I changed a baby's dirty diaper.

How do I miss big things like this that happen right under my nose??? While it doesn't happen often, I dislike having to tell parents that something happened but I have no idea what. As much as I try to see everything that happens, I try to keep in mind that I can't see it all.