A dignified job?

Spending significant time with little children makes me realize that being dignified is not in the job description...that's maybe not the right word so I'll just go on. They take no regard of what I, their caretaker, am wearing, or doing or who I am talking to. No place or moment or phone call are sacred to toddlers.

How dignified it sounds to say: I'm a graphic designer or I'm a cosmotologist or even I'm a school principal. I'll bet nobody immediately associates incessant whining, and stuck-on food with those professions. I wonder if they ever have to excuse themselves and hang up in the middle of a good conversation because the background noise has hit a peak. I'll bet their relatives and friends don't get tired of them talking about dirty diapers and frustrating child sleeping habits. And I'm quite sure they would never have to change their shirt because human body fluids look really nasty to the average observer.

And most importantly, why aren't those who raise other people's children those 8 or 10 hours each day, while their parents make money, paid wages equal to those of a nurse? As I see it from the last 3 years of my own childcare, daycare providers, unless they just pop on Nickelodeon for the day and pop in several rounds of PopTarts, carry out a very similar job description except that a nurse generally deals in only ailing persons, which may have its advantages, prognosis-wise.

However, getting a up close and personal perspective in human nature....now you won't find a profession that offers that quite as clearly as raising kids. In fact, most of the world's woes come into focus with High-Definition clarity: crime in just about any part of the world or the mistreatent of any group. You name the problem, chances are it's rooted in childish behavior that was cute at 3 but isn't cute at 30 or 50. And honestly, human nature is just about as undignified as anything can be.