SURPRISE! You have night-shift!

The last 4 nights (tonight being the 4th) Sarah has had nightshift. But when I say Sarah, I sort of mean me! Sarah was supposed to do night shift on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night. Instead, I did night shift Sarturday, Sunday and Tuesday night. The weekend shift was arranged: I wanted to work nights in the holidays (we're now in 3 weeks of holiday) as I've been doing some form of dayshift since the summer (December) hols and I wanted a change. Although I mentioned this to the volunteer who organises the shifts, I had to be put on day shift for whatever reason, but my manager owed me a MASSIVE favour so she was persuaded to turn a blind eye to me and Sarah swapping shifts, she worked 2 of my day shifts on Sat and Sun and I worked 2 of her nightshifts-same nights. In theory that was then me off for 18 days cause I haven't taken a holiday this year and I think my hours are getting quite high! However Sarah is ill so I'm working her shift again-but I don't mind :)

I'm just gonna whack up some drivel I typed up on Saturday night:

So I'm doing another night-shift! Probably the last set of this year. I was supposed to be on day shift today and tomorrow but my manager owed me a massive favour for singing extra songs at our leaving party so I was allowed to swap with Sarah and do 2 night shifts instead (as long as it was OK with Sarah). So I'm sat on a corridor yet again. The holiday shifts this holiday are 12 hours each: so day shift is 7am until 7pm with a 1 hour break and night shift is 7pm til 7am with no break because well, you sit in the corridor for 12 hours watching films.

Because I started at 7pm instead of 9pm all the boys were well awake and technically the CCW finished when I came on shift. Luckily for me, the CCW wanted to watch the film so stayed until it was nearly finished, but I still had to put around 10 teenage boys to bed on my own. Before I came here my Mum told me she thought if anything would have me leave early it would be my inability to ask for help. I am notoriously stubborn and if I every need help, I hardly ever ask for it preferring to struggle on unaided. I know it's ridiculous but I find it very hard to admit when I'm struggling. Since I arrived here I've managed to null this trait to a minimum although only on a professional basis. When I'm working I no longer refuse to ask for help, if I'm confused about something I'll ask and if I'm struggling I'll let my CCW know so she can help me. I'm still totally stubborn in a social or personal setting but it's worked for 19 years so far!

The house I usually work in has children no older that 11 so there is no doubt as to who's in charge (not that it's necessarily me-it's almost always the CCW unless she's on her break, then I have minimal control) but working with the older children is a challenge for me. I strongly dislike working with the older girls, they're very (excuse my language) bitchy and can flip from totally calm to scary quicker than it takes to blink. In fact, just find my post about honey bees and teenage girls it will explain everything (I hope). When I have to work with the older girls I tend to just hope they're in a good mood and try not to anger them. Usually they go to bed on their own at a reasonable hour and if they get out of hand, you just pray you have an active shift leader. The boys is a totally different matter. Maybe it's because the older ones seem so much older, but whenever I've worked with them I usually get forced out of the picture and one of the oldest boys in the house will take charge and order everyone to bed when he feels it's time. It's very difficult for me to let one of the children take charge over me. Not because it doesn't work, because it does. Better that I could ever do it. But it seems so counter-intuitive to me. I'm supposed to be in charge of the kids. I'm the oldest, it's my job. But on the other hand, I'm only just 19, some of the kids are around the same age as me (one of the boys I'm looking after tonight is only 6 days younger than me). I'm also a short-arse. It's hard for me to admit (I have little dog syndrome-I think I'm much taller than I actually am) but I'm only about 162cm (I think) and most of the old older boys are taller than me which counts for a lot around here! 

Yoh! It's quite long.

But tonight I'm in the babies house...YAYYY! Although I arrived at about midnight (when Sarah came into our room and asked if I could cover her) and I seem to have an extra girl! 2 of my girls are here, as well as a sister of one of mine and another happy feet girl, but there's another one who seems to be roughly the same length as mine but I have absolutely no idea who it is...better than losing one though I guess. Unfortunately a lot of them seem to be ill-the littlest baby (a boy just under 2) has a pretty bad cough, as does one of mine. The baby boy woke up a while ago but went back to sleep pretty easily. The debate is still out as to which houses are best to do night-shift in. With the babies there is more to do throughout the night that breaks it up (especially if it's a 12 hour shift) such as nappy changes and the really young ones wake up occasionally. But with the older kids, you don't get to sit on your mattress in your corridor until much later which makes a huge difference because you're only having to entertain yourself for 8 hours instead of 10/12. I suppose tonight is the best shift then: I started at midnight and I have to change nappies/wake kids up. Woohoo!