Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/looking-for-high-ground-balancing-needs-of-children-staff-and-parents/5009811/
Last year floods of biblical proportions came to my part of the country. Drowned fields bankrupted farmers, and towns suddenly underwater stranded families on rooftops. And what terrible hardship befell me, you ask, living as I do near the mighty Mississippi? Only a spring and summer of wet feet and shoes that stank from flooded sidewalks and jogging paths. Not a heavy price to pay for a metaphor - albeit not original, in use from the Bible to pop singers.It is easy for child care directors to feel they swim in an endless river of needs. The demands of children, parents, and staff are ever-present, always churning together, and more or less met. For most directors, the flow is steady, sometimes leisurely, with occasional rapids. But sometimes (and in some programs, much of the time), there are just too many problems, too many needs that flood over, and then we scramble for higher ground, trying to survive. We emerge wet, dirty, and hoping for some respite, knowing that this too will pass (won't it?).
But, at times, high ground isn't enough, and driven by our anger and righteousness, we push further for a seemingly ...