By Winnie Muhumuza, RECE; M.Ed
I am sitting in transit, waiting for my flight to East Africa — Rwanda.
Around me, people are moving quickly through the airport: rolling suitcases, boarding announcements, tired parents holding sleepy children. But my mind is not fully here. Part of me is still back in the classroom.
I did not realize how exhausted I was until I finally stopped moving.
I am a mother going home to see my own children, whom I have missed so badly. My heart longs for their voices, their presence, their laughter, and the comfort of simply being near them again. Yet as I prepare to reunite with my children, I find myself also missing other people’s children — the little ones from my classroom who have quietly become part of my daily emotional world.
Early Childhood Educators carry more than lesson plans, program planning, snack schedules, documentation, and classroom routines. We carry children emotionally. We carry their stories, their behaviours, their fears, their progress, and sometimes even their silence.
As I sit here preparing to travel home after a long and demanding season, I find myself thinking most about the children in my classroom who communicate without words.
The child who looks for me every morning without speaking. The child who says “I trust you” through eye contact. The child who wraps tiny arms around me tightly at drop-off, not knowing that I too am holding myself together.
People often think exhaustion in ECE comes only from physical work — the constant movement, lifting, transitions, noise, and long days. But there is another kind of exhaustion we do not speak about enough: emotional exhaustion.
It is the quiet weight of caring deeply. It is noticing when a child who usually smiles suddenly withdraws.
It is understanding the meaning behind behaviours. It is giving comfort while your own heart is tired.
And yet, despite the exhaustion, I already miss them. Especially the children whose love is not spoken loudly, but shown softly through gestures, closeness, trust, and hugs.
Somewhere along this journey, I realized that ECE is not simply a profession.
It is emotional work. Human work. Heart work.
Winnie Muhumuza
RECE
