The knight nursery

My first problem parent

I had been working at the nursery for a few months now, I had settled in really well and I was finally allowed to be alone with the children.  Myself and Summer had formed a civil working relationship.  It was the start of my shift when one of the parents dropped their baby off and I did hand over with them "good morning hows pertunia today"  " shes absoulutly fine shes still in her pajamas" the parent replied I responded with "that's absolutely fine we will get her dressed straight after breakfast". The parent went to leave when she gazed upon another child crawling on the floor "my gosh hes a big boy isn't he"  I looked to see which child she was talking about " oh yes well hes 15 months so he looks a little bit bigger than pertunia because there is a little bit of an age gap". She gasped and said "hes 15 months" "mmm hmm" I replied  "but hes still crawling".  I looked at her with a smile on my face and said "yes and hes been doing really well" she pulled a face and responded to me "but at 15 months surely he should be walking by now?"  fighting the urge not to be too condescending I think for a moment before replying "all of the children develop at their own pace". I was starting to get frustrated with her now. "yes but at his age he should defiantly be walking my Petunia was walking by 9 months". Taking a breath I replied "well petunia did start walking quite quickly". Before I could finish my sentence she interrupted me "yes but 9 months and 15 months is quite a big age gap are his parents not concerned" "err no no and neither are we hes quite capable of cruising too hes just not walking indepently yet". "yes but that is so strange for a child of his age and its so worrying that his parents aren't concerned". I take a breath and respond "its absoultly fine he will walk when hes ready". Shaking her head at me "no no you should talk to his parents" starting to loose my cool a little no I become assertive "HE WILL WALK WHEN HES READY"

As the rest of the babies start to arrive there were no other issues till the last baby arrived "ah good morning" "good morning Rupert annnnd a very happy 1st birthday oh my gosh hes getting so big" ruperts mum looked at me confused "so how is rupert today" I asked her "yeah hes fine nothing to report"  "oh brilliant I responded trying to keep the conversation flowing I asked "and do you have anything planned for his special day?"  she gazed at me still confused "I haven't really given it any thought to be honest". Starting to become confused myself I responded "oh ok" what she said next took me even more by surprise "to be honest of the top of my head I cant even remember when his birthday is"  looking back at her in complete shock "its today I responded"  she looked back at me shocked "what! Nooo".  I responded "eyes it it is you brought us in a copy of his birth certificate when he first started, and we used that when we wrote a list of the children's birthdays down" I was looking over and pointing at the wall at this point.   "Erm today is his birthday" still looking at me in shock "surely not that must be wrong". Trying to look at her to see if she was joking around or being serious "honestly it had todays date as his birthday" I responded still in complete shock "oh how odd anyway I must off" sh responded at me and turned and left looking after her in complete shock I thought to myself wow.  Then I looked over to Summer who was also stood with a shocked look on her face "did I just hear right she didn't realize his birthday was today"  shaking my head I responded "no" an idea came to my head "let's make a huge fuss of Rupert today ok  today is all about him we need to make him feel as special as possible it's Ruperts day today" I could see Summer thinking "yeah that's a great idea and we can ask chef to make him a birthday cake"  smiling to myself to see a soft side of summer come out "that's a great idea".

As summer sat the babies down for breakfast, I quickly used the phone to call the kitchen and explained the situation to chef pulling on her heart strings a little I managed to get her to agree to making Rupert a birthday cake.  I then called Marjorie and explained to her why I had asked chef to make a cake and you could hear thee frustration in Marjorie's voice "are you serious right now she forgot her own sons 1st birthday"  I felt shocked that Marjorie had managed to keep herself composed "right my love I will pop out and get him a card and get all of the staff to sign it and I will pick a small present up for him"  I couldn't contain the excitement in my voice "thank you so much Marjorie" "it's no problem my love we need to make that little boy feel as special as possible today off you go and make that happen".

We started by taking all the babies to the soft playroom as I knew this was Ruperts favorite.  I couldn't help but snap some nice pictures of him playing with his friends to upload to the app for his parents to see.   As dinnertime came around, we sat all the babies down to eat Rupert has his favorite meal made especially for his special day then all of the lights went off in the room and Marjorie walked in with a birthday cake. All the staff sang happy birthday to Rupert and Marjorie helped Rupert to blow out the special 1 candle she had bought.  I then helped Rupert to open the gift that Marjorie had picked up for him while she was out his face lit up when he saw an interactive Thomas the tank engine toy, he wanted it out of the box.

The rest of the day went by so fast as collection time approached, I picked Rupert up for a cuddle "right sweetheart I hope you've had a wonderful 1st birthday hopefully your mummy will be here soon" I place him back down on the floor so he can play with his new toy.  As the parents start coming to collect their children I could see Rupert was getting tired "I'm not sure where mummy is sweetheart" I say to him as I'm picking him up to soothe him.    Fifth teen minutes later Ruperts mum arrives "Rupert look mummys here "hi has he had a good day" she asked me with the biggest smile on my face "oh he has had the best day we really made a fuss of him, chef made a small cake for him and we all sang happy birthday to him,  this is a gift from all of the staff here at the nursery.  I've uploaded loads of pictures to the app for you to see"  she looked back at me with a dazed look on her face "oh that's wonderful thank you so much for making his day special I er I bought a cake for home''. Shock waved over me "oh that's lovely" I smiled back at her "I'm still so confused its definitely today?"  she asked me "its definitely today" I assured her "I cant believe hes 1 today hm who knew"  she said giggling at me  I chuckled back at her "well we did".

It had been one of those weird and confusing days I cleaned up the toys and hovered the baby room summer had already left.  I headed to the staff room to collect my belongings and pulled my phone out to look at pictures from both of my girl's 1st birthdays and I remembered how special I had made it for them and remembered how my eldest had taken her first steps on hers.   A wave of nostalgia came over me I sat and wept, It wasn't till Marjorie cleared her throat that I came back down to reality "Charlotte you ok there my love" wiping my face and putting on a smile "I'm fine just memories creeping in" a small sniffle creeps up on me "I could never imagine forgetting my girls birthdays" I  said to Marjorie.   Marjorie looked at me with a small smile on her face "and that my love is why you fit in here so perfectly" she takes a breath "you care so much about every child like they were your own".  I have to hide my face as I blush and start to cry 'how you are getting home my love" Marjorie asked me while looking out at the car park "erm I walked in this morning, my husband has already been and collected the girls erm I I'll be walking".

"Tell you what char how about me and you go for a drink and I'll share a taxi home with you?"  looking back at Marjorie in amazement "yes please I just need to let Gareth know I will be late home" I open my messages and text Gareth "hey just letting you know I'm going out for drinks with Marjorie.  Its been a stressfull day :( I wont be home late.   Kiss the girls night for me xxx"