Saturday

Taken Down and Rising Up - Working With Kids

I am Leigh, the blog owner and I have been in the hospital for almost a month. Myself and 2 of the admins are in out late 40's while many of you contributors are young, pretty, talented, and hard working ( all that may be true but I'm still buttering you up because we were out of pocket - hope it works a little bit! ;)  The problem is heart related, routine, and they had to take lots of tests and it was the WRONG time to get sick as the doctors were in various stages of being out of town, so we hope we can be given a little bit of a pass from our loyal, talented, awesome, experienced,wise, articulate readers.

My illness has affected my job with children for at least 2 years. The illness is Congestive Heart Failure which may not present for years. 2-3 years ago it started getting harder to walk distances to the site of our children's events, I would schedule myself the indoor jobs with close parking ( this  is called  " compensating " ), I would get friends and fellow workers to help me carry child oriented equipment, i would give the most strenuous jobs to others and etc.

Finally a fluid build up started which had to be addressed, it was getting harder and harder to walk and breath , for 2 weeks I could only do jobs with the kids which involved sitting - like telling stories,so over this period of time I have had an amazing amount of fluid taken from me, and I will still have to have another surgery .

So - TELL US ABOUT YOUR ILLNESSES! How they affected your work with kids and how you overcame it - or any other thing that comes to mind

we are very committed to the blog even though we are not perfect ;) - this came out of left field and my 2 assistants have been concentrating on myself, and the children and moms of our business - thank you for your patience ;)

Happy New Year and PROSPERITY AND SAFETY to all our readers - bigtime !!!


8 comments:

Kate said...

Do I email you these posts or post them here?

Anonymous said...

I'm genuinely sorry to hear about your illness. But a post asking about illnesses isn't really appropriate for this site.

NotJUSTamom said...

Why isn't it appropriate for this site. It sounds like she is asking if anyone has had to deal with an illness while having to take care of children....and Leigh, so sorry to hear about your illness. Hope you feel better soon!!

Leigh Raymer said...

yes, NJM, contributors have posted about their mood swings, illnesses gotten from the kids and how the parents paid etc - bring it on!

Kate - email us !! TU!!

TU I am doing great ! They did their job! I will need a surgery and we will have warning and make arrangements for the site ;)

Anonymous said...

I say it's not appropriate simply because this site was meant as a vehicle to talk about the life of nannies, nanny issues with children, bad nannies, etc. I guess I just feel like there's a sense of desperation to keep something alive that maybe shouldn't be anymore. Not being mean. Just stating my opinion.

Leigh Raymer said...

Not mean at all, any input is appreciated. Actually the site was originally supposed to be simply sighting a (usually) bad nanny and then morphed into a site where nannies comment and advise each other as well as nanny sightings by those wishing to help a child.

I would not use the word " desperate" but " inclusive" or " variety" instead - the reason being that loyal readers like to read something on a daily basis as much as possible and - importantly- I am a child advocate and anything that is related to helping a child will be considered.

We are including authors, recipes, bad nannies, good nannies,books, movies, and yes everything including the kitchen sink. Nobody dead here thank God, we are very much alive with many loyal valued readers

I greatly WISH I had not been sick for 3 weeks because of course it matters a lot to not have the blog active but we are back, we have many hits per day and our loyal readers ( many great nannies, moms, teachers and more ) will rise to the occasion.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Anonymous said...

I was diagnosed with MS in 2016. It started by me losing my vision; thus I wasn't able to go to my nanny job. I was unable to see for almost 2 months (I could see but very poorly). My NF was very understanding, very kind, an absolute dream. I told them I understood if they needed to replace me as I didn't know when I could come back-- they kept me and made do without for a while. When I started to feel better and was still unable to drive they would pick me up and drop me off (I also coordinated this with friends and the limited bus schedule).

My illness as of right now doesn't effect me-- I have treatments. The older child knows about it, in an age appropriate way and now wants to be an eyeball-fixer-er. I have to do lots of shots, I fear needles and so does my NK; with the parents permission we talk about it. The NK has been getting better with shots and other doc appointments-- trying to be brave like me (as we have the same fear).

I am so grateful my NF kept me. I am so happy they don't see me as 'damaged-goods'. I am thrilled that the NK knows about it in an age appropriate way and has goals to help people like me and be brave like me-- she is so empathetic. <3

Leigh Raymer said...

That is a great story!! I hope that family has something wonderful happen to them!!