revelation: I like children.

I always said I didn't like children other than my own. Maybe I lied.
I volunteered to help out(with grades K-2) at my daughters' school today for their annual "fun field day." for those of you with no imagination or prior experience, this is where they have water balloon tosses, three legged races etc...
I woke up this morning and groaned inwardly when I thought of what I was to face today. Why oh why did I think this was a good idea? Maybe guilt over my lack of school participation got the best of me or maybe I secretly knew that it would be fun.
Anyhow, I got there, dressed in all black my tattoos on full display and made my way to the line of parents waiting to their visitors pass. I felt a bit of nervousness at having to be around all of those moms, most of them either older than me or obviously more normal and married than me. Fuck it, I thought. I am here for my kid and they can stare all they want...and they did. I got to the front of the line and the teacher just looked at me blankly with the obvious question in her eyes. "Who are you here for?" she asked and I told her my name and she said, "oh, You're Briana."
yeah and?
so after the awkward introduction and reassurances from my end that yes, I did belong here, I was sent to go work at the three legged race post. I looked over and saw another mom already there wearing a white blouse tucked into khaki shorts, her giant diamonds glinting in the sun as she put her hand up to shield her eyes as she got a better look and realized I was making my way toward her.
I got there, introduced myself and we chatted awkwardly. Eventually I got her to settle down and accept that I am quite normal really(or can at least pretend to be) and then...the kids came filing out. There were hundreds of them it seemed to my frightened eyes but in reality probably only about 75-90. They were all pretty little and really excited. You could see it vibrating in their little frames as they hopped from foot to foot, the boys shoving excitedly at their buddies, and the girls holding hands, their eyes alight with anticipation. There was a short speech from the PE teacher and then they blew a whistle and the kids came barreling across the field scattering into all different directions as they tried to decide which game they wanted to play first. At this point, they were content to choose whatever thing they came across first and so the three legged race got some action. I was armed with special little velcro straps to bind the children together and at first I was nervous. How in the hell can a self absorbed weirdo like me do this well at all? well the answer was apparently, pretty damned well. After strapping the kids together and blowing the whistle, the began frantically hopping, tripping and dragging(in one little boys case as he fell and got dragged to the finish line by his buddy) their way to the yellow cone and back. I watched this time and again, laughing so hard my face hurt, while I urged them on, clapping, whistling and cheering. I enjoyed watching the methods of the boys vs. the methods of the girls. The boys would just barrel their way through the course, hopping and dragging one another as fast and furiously as possible while the girls would hop gingerly along until they got to the other side and then they more often than not would confer at that point and come to the conclusion that holding hands and timing their steps would be more effective. more often than not, these two different methods would result in the boys getting to the finish line first while the girls hardly fell down and they definitely had a better understanding of M.O. I know for a fact that I had to escort 3 separate boys to the first aid station and only one girl. I must say, I was really enjoying myself. my partner parent on the other hand seemed slightly bored and annoyed by mine and the children's hyperactivity. Maybe I am just immature?
At this point one of the teachers came up to us and asked if one of us would like to take over for one of the parents that had to leave early. I just stood there not wanting to move but when my partner parent asked what activity we would have to man, the teacher said sheepishly, "hockey" We both looked over and saw a writhing mass of boys hitting eachother with sticks and flinging the ball all over the blacktop. I asked what we would have to do and the teacher, with a question in her voice said, "make sure they don't kill one another and that each one that wants to play gets a turn?" Sounds easy right? I looked at the lady I was working with and she quickly said, "I'll stay here if you want to go." I knew I was doomed after seeing how she had behaved most of the morning so I said o.k. and made my way over to the basketball court. the lady manning this station looked at me in relief and quickly scooted off, practically running to her car in her haste to get the hell away from the chaos. After dodging a few balls and wayward sticks thrown in rage, I realized I was going to have to organize some shit. there were only boys playing and I knew I could handle it. Boys do not get their feelings hurt all that easily. Their main objective was just to play and get points(in what way I do not know seeing as how nobody seemed to understand the whole net thing) and to not have anybody else get a longer turn than the other or to receive a better stick than them. The only problem with this was that their way of scoring points was not entirely working seeing as though nobody wanted to be the goalie and nobody understood who was who. they were just randomly dogpiling as they all frantically tried to gain control of the ball. I had to keep in mind that they were all under 8years old so they only had a rudimentary understanding of the whole thing. I blew my whistle and all of the boys stopped, looking at me with confusion in their eyes as I explained not only who was who but also, which net they had to aim for depending on what team they were on. I had to come up with a way to rotate the boys so that nobody got the boring job of being goalie for too long(boring because half the time, the ball never made it anywhere but beyond the court and into the wooded area). I cannot express how much I enjoyed this. All these sweaty little boys, taking this silly game dead serious until they just lost interest and dropped their stick in the middle of the court and ran off to some other fun thing. I of course was the one that had to brave my way to the middle of the madness to claim the extra stick so that one of the many boys hopping from foot to foot on the sidelines could have a turn. You have no idea how often i heard" I've been here forever and he cut!" or "he's been playing forever and it should be my turn!" and so on and so forth.
The funny thing is, I still enjoyed myself and found myself really good at cheering them on and keeping them focused as well as organizing this random game of hockey that had an ever changing team depending on the moment. It seemed that when the game really got going and points were actually being scored more kids would gravitate toward the game, begging to get in but the moment things fell to chaos, nobody was really interested.
So the point I am making is this, maybe I like kids after all. Or maybe I just like kids in large groups?
either way, I may definitely consider volunteering again next year.
Fuck, who knew?