The knight nursery

My first day

I awoke with my alarm at 5:30 am today is the day I start my dream job as a nursery practitioner at a nursery facility just around the corner.

I quickly jump into the shower to wake myself properly.  I dry and dress in a comfy flowery dress and quietly creep downstairs as to not wake my husband and sleeping children. Heading to the kitchen I look at the time on my phone and its already 6:15am "dam I have to leave in 30 minutes" I say to an empty kitchen.   I hastily pour myself a bowl of cereal and make myself a cup of coffee.   I sit at the dining table and eat while trying to tend to my still damp hair I manage to tame it into a clip so its half up half down.  I tidy my bowl and cup into the sink and head into the hall to grab my coat and put my shoes on and begin the drive to work.

As I'm driving to work I'm going over everything in my head "when I get there I need to ask for Marjorie she will be doing my induction".

I arrive at the nursery find a place to park I exit my car walk up to the building  and ring the buzzer a young girl comes to the door " what do you want" she barks at me "we don't open for another half hour" I gulp and try to speak " h hi I I'm Charlotte I I start work here today"  the girl gives me a dirty look "I was told to ask for Marjorie" I say to her.    "Right you better follow me" she finally replies.

Feeling so small I follow the young girl into the building and a short way down the hall way we come to an office "Marjorie this woman said she's here to see you" I glance over to see who the young girl was talking to and my gaze fell upon a woman who stood around 5 foot with shoulder length strawberry blond hair "alright summer thank you,  you can go and finish setting up the baby room now please" "ugh fine" Summer replied.  I smiled at Summer as she passes me and she just scowls at me in reply.   Marjorie then starts to speak "alright my love you must be Charlotte I'm Marjorie I'm the manager here and I will be going through your induction with you this morning and then you will meet the rest of the staff and spend some time in the baby room this afternoon with the delightful Summer".

We sit and go through all my induction forms filling them out as we go. Also filling out the enrollment forms for my children who will be attending here as well.  We start to walk around the building Marjorie takes me into each room starting with the baby room where I will be working primarily she formally introduces me to Summer and an agency staff member. Next is the toddler room where I met Sorcha and Maddison then we went onto the preschool room where I met Nessa and Victor.  Its so nice to see males working in childcare I thought to myself.

After the walk around its lunch time Marjorie shows me where the staff room is. I head to the staff room and sit at a table in the corner alone to eat my lunch not engaging with anyone.  I take my phone out of my bag and text my husband "how is your day going and how are the girls". It feels so strange being away from them for this long. I scroll through the photos on my phone looking at pictures of my girls. It will only be a couple of days, and they will be here with me.   My phone pings with a reply from my husband "hey me and the girls are fine missing you. How is your first day going? xx"

"it's going ok so far. Missing you and my girls too xx".  I look at the time and its time for me to go back down. I clear my lunch dishes away and I head down and find my way to the baby room and find Summer "Summer what would you like me to do?" I ask.  "Well, you can start by clearing up all of these dishes from lunch" she snaps at me.  I go over to the tables and start to stack the dishes and load them onto the trolley I come back and wipe the tables down.   "What would you like me to do now Summer?" I ask, "go over there to that group and help the agency staff member with circle time" I start walking away and I hear her mumble under her breath "ugh just leave me alone".  I ask Summer if she has a problem with me and she just rolls her eyes at me and storms off.

A few hours pass and the grown-ups start arriving to collect the babies I stand near Summer so I can observe how hand overs are done and what information is given to the grown-ups at the end of the day.   As the last child is collected Marjorie comes to the room to speak to me "how has your first day been my lovely" I stand and contemplate for a few seconds and respond "it has been ok, but I think Summer has an issue with me" I lower my head and look at the floor as I say the last part.  Marjorie rubs my arm in a reassuring way "charlotte my love what's wrong" "n nothing it's ok I don't want to cause trouble on my first day" I look back down at my feet again.    "Charlotte my love follow me to my office and we can have a little chat".  I follow Marjorie still not looking up keeping my gaze low. We arrive in the office and Marjorie gestures for me to take a seat. I sit down still looking at the floor.  "Charlotte my love this is a safe space you can talk, and it won't leave these four walls"

I start trying to talk and I stumble trying to find my words "I it's j just" welling up I carry on "every time I've asked S Summer what I need to do" tears are now starting to flow down my cheeks "sh she snapped a at m me and g gives m m me dirty l looks" I look up at Marjorie tears now in full flow.   Marjorie rubs my arm again in a reassuring way and then walks around her desk to take a seat. She rubs her brow frustrated and then starts to speak in a calm tone "Charlotte my love it's not you" "the delightful Summer has an issue with everyone" she says through gritted teeth "I will have a word with her about this as she shouldn't be making my new members of staff feel this way"   "I'm sorry" I blub back at her "I don't want to get anyone into trouble on my first day", tears still streaming down my face.   Marjorie looks at me "Charlotte my love is there anything else going on".   I look back at Marjorie and think to myself do I be honest here or not and tell her about how I'm really feeling.  I compose myself and take a deep breath close my eyes and blurt out "I'm sorry I'm just missing my girls and my husband. It's made me feel a little lower than normal today and being anxious about starting a new job on top Summer just sent me over the edge"

Marjorie looks at me and I think to myself that's it I'm in trouble now "charlotte my love go to the bathroom compose yourself and then get yourself off home and give those babies a big big hug".  I stand head to the door I turn and look at Marjorie and say "thank you".   I head to the bathroom wash my face and take some deep breathes when I was finally calm I headed outside to my car and begin the drive home.

When I arrived at home I looked at the window to see both of my beautiful daughters waving at me and shouting to their father "daddy mummy's home".   I hugged them both so tightly when I got in the house.  We all sat down and enjoyed a family meal together before I did the girls baths and stories before putting them both to bed I gave them both the biggest cuddles and kisses I could.  Once the girls were asleep my husband ran me a bath.  I had a soak going over the events of the day in my head I was determined to make tomorrow a better day.