Heres a discussion topic from our Forum on Affection. Share your thoughts! I was wondering what others thoughts are about (physical) affection from children and how do you deal with it. I have worked in two childcare centres where there was a very close knit community of families and staff were treated as part of the childs extended family. As such, staff were generally encouraged to develop close relationships with children. As a male teacher this has always been a dilemma for me (particularly with girls) as the children seem to thrive on being given a lot of physical affection such as hugging, holding hands, sitting on lap and kisses at the end of the day. It has always been my approach to allow the child to dictate the terms of the relationship, if they are the sort of child that initiates a lot of affection then I will reciprocate. I would never push a child away if they want to give me a cuddle. If a child comes up at the end of the day for a kiss a would give them a little one on the cheek. Parents have always been very positive to me about my relationships with their children but at times I do feel anxious about it, there is so much hysteria out there particularly when it comes to men in schools and childcare. There have been situations where girls have developed very strong feelings for me (a crush I suppose) and the parents think it is so cute, but it is very challenging trying not to hurt a childs feelings as well as meeting the needs of the whole class. I guess I just wanted to start a discussion about this topic as it is something that I have always reflected on a lot in my career. What do you do when a child comes running up with lips puckered expecting a kiss? What about a child that just wants to sit in your lap for a cuddle?
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:00:00 +0000
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