Through interviews with individuals at all levels of the early childhood field and research on stress and burnout, Paula Jorde Bloom, author of Avoiding Burnout, Strategies for Managing Time, Space and People in Early Childhood Education, has narrowed the causes to three main categories. Burnout can occur when these laudable goals are frustrated, when reality doesn't quite square with expectations. The many demands of the job, the parents and the children is a huge responsibility that as Bloom notes, is often a non-reciprocal balance of living. The teacher or director gives and the child or parent takes, resulting in resentment, in a realization that they can never, despite their exhaustive efforts, satisfy all the needs of the parents and the children they serve. According to Bloom, the effectiveness with which an individual is able to handle the many situations that can lead to stress, is an often overlooked component of the burnout picture.
Stress is unavoidable.
As child care providers and parents we must deal with an enormous amount of change and outside demands. As individuals, we may not always be able to dictate the number and intensity of events that happen to us. In all our efforts to make the world a safer and better place for our children, we have lagged far behind in our views about child care. The superwoman image remains a far-fetched dream rather than a reality. Naturally some stress is good for us.