So yesterday

So yesterday a child who wasn't even two nearly destroyed my bay at work.  She pulled down the giant Plexiglas screen (I don't understand why it was there, because the other half of the desk was completely open, so anyone could sneeze. The masks are protection, too, but still...)  she was pulling the rmonitor iser back toward her until she was tired of the tug-a-war as I tried to bring it back. She nearly broke the chalkboard I had out dropping it on the floor (it had previously been hidden behind the Plexiglas, along with my plants, including a glass 'light bulb' on a stand with pothos in it).  Mom was just trying to hold her but did not get her far enough from the desk to do a bit of good.  There was a language barrier, and the child was also having a meltdown, so the interpreter and mother had a hard time understanding each other, and since it was a video interpreter [think iPad on a stick], it was on my side of the counter, so I could hear better, but it was Arabic, which I don't know at all. If it had been Spanish I might have been able to help, or at least repeat it.

Once they left, I hung the blackboard on the wall high up, storing the stand and the Plexiglas under my back counter in the cabinet, and also moved most of the small plants, including the glass holder, to that back counter, along with a picture friend of my best friend. Now the only things left there are the larger ZZ plant and a small Peperomia on my side of the ZZ, where I also hid my pen holder, which includes these flower-top pens I love that my supervisor gave me for Secret Santa, which one other patient has already tried to take.  I had already moved my one Beanie Baby, a purple cat with big eyes that a friend gave me when the older cat died.  My magnifying glass, which is a big half-globe lens, is in its box, far away from prying eyes or little hands [I had a kid stick his arm under the riser to get that when it was out of the box at one point].  I think, with the exception of the monitors, I've got everything situated so nothing can break.  Mind you, the only reason I had anything of sentimental value or breakable on the desk in the first place is that most were hidden by the Plexiglas.

Sigh.  While I like children in theory [as in, they can be cute from a distance and I believe it is everyone's duty to protect them], I don't really feel completely comfortable around them, especially wiggly toddlers, and I'm absolutely terrified of babies because I'm afraid to hold them in case I drop them. So when a coworker comes with their newborn to show it off, I am not in line to hold it. I was an only child, never babysat enough, and never have had kids. I just don't have easy rapport. As a result, the coworker told me once they were gone that my face was priceless, a sort of RBF.

This is one of the many reasons I never had kids. I just couldn't handle it.