The Unconditional Love of Children

My senior year of high school I spent three hours every day after school wiping runny noses, changing poopy diapers, and yelling myself hoarse — all while dodging flying woodchips. No, this wasn’t my community service project inspiring low-income children to go to college. I was simply a dead broke teen who worked in an established day-care that charged parents too much and paid their employees too little. A girl has to pay for all those purses some way, right?

However, after a one year and one week of wading through crushed saltines and catching every possible known virus known to toddlers, I left my job with more than some stick-figure cards and a wooden picture frame. I left with a lesson in how I was supposed to love.

Children love unconditionally. This I believe. No matter how bad I felt that day, no matter how crabby I may have been, those kids — my kids — did not care. Just because I did not score as well as expected on a calculus test did not mean that I did not deserve a sloppy jelly kiss. Getting a speeding ticket did not mean that I could no longer race cars along the racetrack rug. Not making the budget in student council did not mean that I was unworthy of a bear hug that knocked the wind out of me.

One day, after a long day of work, the kids were all reading quietly while I was attempting to clean their computer lab and conflict mediate at the same time. Beginning to feel frustrated and somewhat irritated at the kids, I re-shelved picture books with a vigor that would make a librarian envious. In the middle of my mutterings, I almost lost Trevor’s quiet voice calling me. “Miss Tie-ya?” I heard. Expecting to hear him ask to go to the bathroom for the fourth time that evening, I instead heard the five words that made everything — the horror stories from the bathroom, the complaints from parents and my bosses — worth it.

“Miss Tie-ya, I love ya”

Their innocence overwhelms me, their kindness inspires me, and their unconditional love is something that I strive for each and every day. This, I believe.