My Adventures with Tommy

During my first few weeks of working at the Association to Benefit Children, I learned very quickly that even though I love kids, I am relatively clueless about how to handle them. With this realization in mind, you might be able to understand the fear that ran through me the day the teacher from the Little Wonders classroom (2 year olds) asked me if I could be a one-on-one chaperone for Tommy (name changed for confidentiality) on their trip to the Children’s Museum. Tommy is that infamous student who is continually acting out, throwing tantrums, and causing havoc. Everybody at ABC has a story to tell about his outrageous behavior. And he would be MY responsibility for the whole trip. Despite my apprehensions, I decided to go. At least it would get me out from behind my desk for a day.

When I met Tommy on the day of the trip, his adorable curly hair and big, sweet eyes lulled me into a false sense of security. He was so cute, surely he couldn’t be as bad as everyone said! When we arrived at the museum, our first stop was an awesome Curious George themed room. Tommy and I played, we laughed, we ran around. Everything was great—until it was time to go to the next room. Tommy did not want to leave, so he started running. You think that playing four years of Varsity soccer would have given me an edge over a 2 year old, but I couldn’t catch him or get him to stop running. The head teacher, Aaron, had to help me corral Tommy like a loose chicken. It was quite the scene.

From there, our day alternated between moments of fun and times of complete chaos. Here are some highlights: I ended up with a wet spot in a most unfortunate location at the Splash City exhibit thanks to a large bucket of water I didn't see coming; there was an embarrassing plastic banana throwing incident in the Dora the Explorer room; and in the last room, Tommy climbed up to the top of a space rocket slide and then refused to come down, trapping several other kids inside. Eventually, it was time to go home and I was exhausted. At the same time, I felt proud that I had survived and I knew I could handle any kid after this. Also, Tommy and I had bonded during our day, a fact that was proven when he ran up to me the next day and gave me a big hug. Now, everyday Tommy and I spend 30 minutes playing together in the morning to tire him out a bit and he is behaving much better. He might be hard to handle, but I’m pretty sure Tommy is a good-hearted kid who just has too much energy and a pretty serious mischievous streak. Even so, I wouldn’t try to change him into one of the "well-behaved" kids for anything.