Lunch

[rejula]

How do you schedule lunch time for your self? I have tried to schedule a lunch time and have let the teachers know but that has not worked. Between noon medication visits and kids coming in because they were "hurt" on the playground I barely get 2 bites before another child is staring at me while I eat.

[Nurse ABC]

This is such a dilema for me as well! At one school I can put a sign up and lock my door but kids still try to get in and then I'll hear teachers reading my sign out loud and tell the kid to go to the office like the sign says and next thing I know the secretary is unlocking the door to come in and get a bandaid (which clearly is NOT an emergency) so I get interupted anyway. So most of the time I will go down to the teacher's lounge and eat with them which works most of the time because they are nice/friendly to me.

My other school I cannot shut and lock my doors because there are two doors and the teachers/principal uses my office as a walk-through from main office to hall. If I leave the secretary and principal will cover my office. If I stay and try to eat they won't. If I go to the teacher's workroom the teachers in that lunch period want to discuss issues about kids and what I can do or they won't really talk at all. Either is uncomfortable for me. Plus, if the staff sees me in there they start sending kids to me in there so at this school I am allowed to leave and I do. I get in my car and leave most of the time.

It's nice to get out of the building and away from everything even if only for 30 min. However, it's up to me to make sure I get a lunch. No one will notice if I haven't left to eat because I've been too busy. The other day I literally didn't have a moment free to leave. If that happened all the time I'd work it out with my principal to get an aide to cover if needed. We don't get paid for our lunch and we don't get reimbursed for working so I try to make sure I get lunch. Besides, no one would want to be around me if I didn't get to eat!