Welcoming a Toddler - Beverly Paul - Allegheny County : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Welcoming a Toddler - Beverly Paul - Allegheny County / governortomwolf
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | I walk outside to conduct daily health screenings and Covid exposure questions at the curb. Caregivers help their young children from the car and say goodbye outside, and I escort the children inside one at a time, along with other designated staff. Today I greet a child new to the program, whom I have never met. He shows immediate fear of my appearance in PPE and, coupled with the appropriate anxiety of separating from his loved one, bursts into tears as his father puts him in my arms. A degree in early childhood education and 11 years of working with children under three in the classroom still leaves me feeling unequipped to handle this situation as I myself feel the sting of anxiety, both for this child and for myself as I wipe his tears with my gloved hand. I help him inside, repeatedly acknowledging and respecting his reaction to this strange event, and try calm him with every developmentally appropriate strategy in my repertoire. I calm him enough to properly wear a mask before entering his pod for the day. His dad waited outside for an update with tears of their own, unable to meet his child's educators face to face, never having toured the inside spaces his son inhabits, or seen the artwork hanging on the walls that shows the joy that happens here. He will not see first hand the self sacrificing educators trying their best to make this building the one safe and "normal" space in his child's life. I reflect on the ways we are all working to build trusting relationships with children and their families in ways we never imagined, desperate to build and maintain the sense of community that we all need, especially families with young children. Caring for children and keeping them safe has an entirely new and very heavy meaning these days. I push the word "dystopian" out of my head as I change my tear soaked PPE and then walk out the door to greet the next family arriving for the day. I put on the exaggerated smile that I have practiced with my eyes and eyebrows and raise my voice to an unnatural pitch so that, even like this, I can appear gentle and warm and start the process again... |
| 撮影日 | 2020-10-07 07:34:57 |
| 撮影者 | governortomwolf , Harrisburg, PA |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States 地図 |
| カメラ | iPhone X , Apple |
| 露出 | 0.008 sec (1/120) |
| 開放F値 | f/2.2 |
| 焦点距離 | 40 deg 27' 18.39" N |