Child care workers play an important part in helping to care for children when their parents are working or are busy with other tasks. They watch the children before or after school. For children who are not attending school, they may watch them on a full-time basis. While some child care workers are employed through a school or day care center, others are self-employed and work out of the home.
The main objective for child care workers is to keep the children safe. Also, they must keep the children engaged in various activities that are not only fun but stimulating. It is important that child carers know many games and activities to keep the children engaged, whether it be on a full- or part-time basis. Another important aspect of the job is to keep the children healthy and to make sure they are in a clean environment.
Child care workers need to be extremely patient, be able to talk to children and have a good amount of energy. It is also important that the person have a good personality, be someone that children can easily get along with and have an entertaining way about them. They must be adept at handling many types of situations, for example, if the child falls down or if the parent needs specific questions addressed.
Some child care providers are around children on a daily basis, so on occasion they may give reports to the parents on how their child is doing. Since some help with homework, they have an insight as to how a child is handling the work. They also have a good insight on how the child interacts with other children and how they react to certain key situations, such as when they lose a game or when another child asks to share a toy. This is useful information to the parents about how the child behaves when they are not around.
In many cases, child care workers play the part of a teacher, motivator, and babysitter, among several others roles. They have a high level of responsibility and must make sure that, at the end of the day, the child is safe and happy. It is an important position, vital to helping the lives of many families run smoothly.