You may have read an article I wrote a while back that was about why I prefer to work with infants. It is titled that because I now work with toddlers from the ages of one year to two years. Do not get me wrong, I love all of the kids I work with, but working with infants was my favorite because it was so rewarding although at the same time stressful to help them achieve their first milestones. Alas, the infant teacher days are well over, for I now know I am definitely a toddler teacher. Here are 16 things that make me sure that I am now a toddler teacher.

Socks and Shoes

"Where are you shoes?" "Where are your socks?" "Where are your socks and shoes?!" and "Keep your shoes on!" are phrases my co-teacher and I say on a daily basis. When a child is crying, I have found that 40% of the time is Christina's response from the GIF above.

Swears and "Naughty" Words

Nobody's perfect. Even teachers swear. I've heard parents swear in front of a room full of kids before; it happens! But sometimes, we teachers forget that we shouldn't be swearing or saying words like "drunk, margaritas, weed, tequila." We're constantly spelling out words we shouldn't say or use phrases such as "Sugar honey iced tea" and other acronyms for swear words. And you know if you do, it will be brought up at the next staff meeting.

Favorites

Yeah we know we're not supposed to but sometimes we can't help it! The ones who help us out the most will sometimes get an extra bit of snack or something else special... We sometimes offer parents of these children to babysit just because we want to spend more time with them. We think a lot of the kids are cute, but our favorites are like our own!

Play-Doh Life

At least every other week you find yourself making play-doh with the children. You're always stocked up on flour and salt because those are your basic ingredients (along with water) for it. You eventually memorize all different types of recipes for the activity and know which ones are edible and which aren't. You will also discover which ones are your favorite to make and which ones the kids love to play with the most. I try to avoid making play-doh at all costs, but my co-teacher insists on making it almost every other week, or slime, or flubber. Either way, you're going to look like something exploded onto you.

Coming Home Covered in Art Projects

No article of clothing is safe when working with toddlers. It will always look like the kids used you to make art projects that day or you just learned to dress differently than you normally would. I have learned no matter what kind of art project you do, even the "mess free" ones, you will still get messy.

Where Did This Come From?

After working an eight hour or eleven hour shift, you'll go out and notice random spots on your clothing. It can be the kid's food, their drinks, paint, chalk, soap, flour, snot (Yum...), the list goes on. You'll start to notice how many clothes you go through a week once you start working with toddlers.

Talking in Third Person

Sometimes when working with toddlers, I feel as if I am in a Seinfeld episode. There's an episode where this guy is introduced in the show and he refers to himself in the third person. Toddlers are constantly asking for things like they're asking for someone else. Suppose Johnny wants more water, they'll go "Johnny want more water, please!" It's cute and funny at first, but it gets irritating after a while. But it's up to you to help them learn to say, "I want more water, please!"

Incident Reports for Days.

Oh man, a teacher's favorite thing to write: an incident report! Half of the time we have absolutely no idea how a child gets hurt the way they did. Also, it just happens so suddenly sometimes that you don't even know what to exactly write sometimes. Oh and when you have to make that phone call to mom or dad, it's swell! Not awkward at all. My heart definitely does not race while I dial the phone.

Potty Training

Oh the joys of potty training! Children are switching from diapers to pull-ups, parents are going to eventually save money because they won't need neither anymore. It all starts at home when the parents think the child is ready. At school, we take them about every two hours or when told they need to use the potty. We also try to help them communicate with adults when they feel the need to go. It does get frustrating though when they learn that they can use the bathroom as an excuse to get out of activities and begin to play around with friends in it. It gets a little irritating being so repetitive with some children as well. For example, you could have a child who is completely potty trained and you still have to tell them every single time to wash their hands before they leave the bathroom.

"Stop That!"

This is literally my teacher catchphrase along with Michael Scott's expression. I am always telling my kids to stop what they're doing, to move away from an object or another child, or to put something away when it shouldn't be out. Then they either look at you like you have five heads or begin to cry and scream, there is no in-between unfortunately.

Socks Become Shoes (for you)

When you chase kids around all day at work, shoes aren't so comfortable anymore. That's when fuzzy socks come in! Well, any kind of socks work. It's great to just move around and be comfortable all day long. I recommend buying socks that you just wear at work and keep them there. Hopefully you know better to bring them home on the weekends and wash them...

Glorious Nap Time

This whole article has been written in two nap times. It really shouldn't have taken that long, but with toddlers, they can wake up at any moment and that's when it's all over. Nap time is wonderful because it gives you time to work on daily sheets, art projects for the days to come, curriculum, hang up art work, etc. It's a time where you can gain all of your sanity back after almost losing it with the children in the morning. If you're lucky, you can find a spot that nobody can see behind and nap as well... :)

Same Art, Different Theme

Whether you're doing a week on fruits or a week on trucks, you can literally do the same art project for anything. You can say, "We colored our own fruit today!" and it can be a bunch of scribbles on a print out of a fruit or a fruit you had cut out. Next week when you do trucks, "Today, we colored our own trucks!" and it's just the same concept: scribbles. You can do it with paint projects as well. Using different materials is a must though, you need to keep the kids engaged somehow.

Memorizing Kid Songs

Pretty sure I have "Baby Beluga" remembered down to a tee, along with the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "The Wheels on the Bus", "Old MaDonald," and tons more. I've learned that if kids start being too loud in the classroom, you just begin to sing some sort of song that you notice they're interested in and all eyes (Okay, most eyes) are on you. So much rhyming, you could become a Kidz Bop rapper...

Memorizing Kid Books

My co-teacher doesn't even need the books anymore to read stories to the children at circle time; she reads them so much she can honestly just recite them with no problem. You know when you're a toddler teacher when you quote the children's books either out of random or because something reminds you of that page out of the book.

Recognizing Children's TV Characters

I barely ever watch Paw Patrol, unless I'm babysitting. However, my co-teacher has never seen an episode of it, yet she knows all of the characters! Parents will overly dress their children in clothing of their favorite shows; you'll feel as if you know everything about all of the characters. When asking a child about a character on their clothing, they'll most likely tell you everything about them. Trust me, it's a lot of information to take in!

Being a toddler teacher, or even just a teacher in general, is wicked tough and can get aggravating sometimes. However, my job is rewarding, and the feeling I get when I help the children I work with is like no other! I've had people tell me that those who work in child care are the most caring people ever and will become great parents because their motherly/fatherly instincts kick in sooner. When you love each kid as if they were your own, it's pretty much a great career.