A Sick Fantasy
AUSTRALIA, CHILDREN, COWORKERS, DAYCARE, NEW SOUTH WALES, REVOLTING | HEALTHY | OCTOBER 1, 2019
(I work in a childcare centre. Every ten minutes we have to check on the sleeping children in the nursery to make sure they are still alive and breathing. A coworker who is quiet, sweet, and very unsure of herself does the check and comes out of one of the cot rooms to say
Coworker: “[Child] has thrown up a little.”
Me: “Oh, okay. Do you want to clean it up, or do the washing up I was about to do and let me clean it up?”
Coworker: “Ah, I’d like to do the washing up if you don’t mind.”
Me: “Sure thing.”
(I go grab what I will need –gloves, washcloths, bag for clothes, etc. — and walk into the room. The child has projectile vomited in her sleep; it is EVERYWHERE and the child is still asleep. The sheets need to be thrown out, the cot has to be disinfected, and the child needs a bath — it is in her hair and in her socks. I walk up to that coworker later.)
Me: “Um, [Coworker]…”
Coworker: “Yes?”
Me: “You led me down a bit of a fantasy there by saying it was a little bit of vomit.”
(She and the other coworkers in the staff room lost it with laughter.)