Rethinking children’s waiting in Outside School Hours Care

Facilitated by Dr Bruce Hurst

Broadly speaking, waiting is an activity that is viewed negatively. Nobody likes to wait, do they? We see waiting as unproductive, wasted time and characteristic of boredom. In Outside School Hours Care, waiting has additional connotations. If we see children waiting in our services, it can be interpreted as a failure of programming, or indicative of a child who is bored or disengaged. But waiting isn’t entirely bad. As adults, we willingly wait if there is something great at the end. We wait for flights, for holidays, to buy groceries, for concert tickets. Waiting isn’t entirely wasted time either. We do things while we wait.

This session takes a critical view of the waiting that children do in OSHC services. Regardless of how hard we try, some waiting is inevitable. Waiting can also be productive. It can…