Dad on Duty #129 – A Typical Day at the Office

What is a typical day for Dad on Duty?  What do I do all day?

I thought it would be kinda fun and interesting to do a short-attention-span, illustrated version of a regular day for me here at school.

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At mid-morning, I usually help get the Pre-K kids to recess and then lunch.  Each week that goes by they get better at walking down the hall and not scattering across the school, but there is still a lot of cat-herding to be done.

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Milk cartons are really hard to open.  The manufacturers apparently believe that the milk is either a precious metal, or highly radioactive.  At lunch, I typically open or at least help with about 25 of these badly-designed containers.  I often fail. 

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After being outside, eating or using the bathroom, we have to wash our little hands.  This is a skill that many of the littlest among us are still mastering.  So I do a lot of this.

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When the front office staff is occupied or away from station, I help cover the phones.  In general, I do a terrible job.  So if you’ve called and asked to talk with the cafeteria folks, and instead got transferred to the Police Department, that was me.  Sorry. 

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I walk the building perimeter 3 – 4 times, looking for lost items, unlocked doors or anything of concern.

Occasionally, I find something that needs investigating.  Like this van, parked in the bus lane at the back of the school.

Turns out, it’s GISD maintenance just borrowing our parking lot to do paperwork between assignments.  But I always check anyway. 

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Almost everyday I work, I relieve a teacher for a few minutes so they can get a potty break.  That’s a challenge I bet many of you didn’t even think of….when does the teacher get to go pee?  Well, I’ll tell you, not often enough.

Here, I’m monitoring while a class finishes a self-paced reading assignment.  When the timer went off, they got to have a flashlight dance party for a few minutes.  So, it was a pretty cushy assignment for me.

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I rescue dozens and dozens of lunchboxes and jackets from the playground, blacktop and just randomly scattered around the outside of the school. If I can identify them, I take them to the kid with an admonishment to keep up with your stuff, please.

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While walking the perimeter, I notice one of the gates won’t close.  The latch has slowly drifted out of place.  So I go get my tool kit and fix it.

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I zip up a lot of little coats.  Zippers are really hard to operate.  Especially when you’re 6 years old. 

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I water the office plants, lest they all die a terrible death.

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I tie shoes.  Hundreds and hundreds of shoes.  Oh lord, the shoes…..

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I go fetch a wheelchair for a kid who is now on the playground, with his walker, but they forgot his wheelchair.  And it’s literally on the complete other end of the building.

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I stand in the middle of the office, trying to look as big as possible and occupying as much space as I can, while staff and administration deal with an irate customer in a slightly dicey situation.  Turns out I’m really good at occupying space and doing nothing except looking wide.  May turn out to be my strongest skill.

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I hug a hundred kids a day.  They seek it out, because they need it.  And every time I do, my heart creaks a little bit. 

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And a few other things, here and there.

So there you go, that’s a “day in the life”.  If you’re not already doing so, I’d encourage you to join me.  Come to school, and help.

It matters.