Miss lazy 40+ divorcee

So, I was so excited to get this job because it was working with kids. I am responsible and reliable, and I have experience working with kids.
My first day was strange...I walked in and asked what this lady wanted me to help with. She was like uhhh ummm don't really know...just organize games, ect. Do what you think needs to be done. (umm...ok?!?!) So I started to organize games and waited for the kids to arrive. While she told me about her divorce and her horrible life. I listend, I'm good at this. They all came in (the kids) and immediately she started to yell at them to put their things away and sit quietly grab a book and do homework. Understandable...hw needs to get done and reading is important. Anywho... I had to kind of go with the flow and guess what and where needed help. I communicated as much as possible with this person. Nothing went wrong until I had to take on a 2nd job to supplement my income. I would have to leave early and she didn't like this (at least I don't think) She complained to me frequently about how rude the school was to her...and how she had to work 2 plus jobs to help with her single mom situation. I could sympathize but after awhile of hearing that everyone who spoke to her knew this...I was like hmm...strange. The weeks to follow were odd. She had a schedule and never informed me of this or anything else...but it was important for her to go over my job description again with her there. Weird... then she wanted me to do another part of her job and make lesson plans for the month. I have no problem with helping out like I am supposed to do, but she lied and said we were going to collaborate. When I asked if she had her ideas she was like no but lets look at yours. She hadn't been working on anything!! Just used old ideas and my ideas mostly. Then mornings she put me in charge of the kids while she sat down and scribbled on paper all morning. She turned things in but this is stuff that can be done at later times. I felt she needed to be aware and with the kids in the morning. A head in the company came to check us out and she put me in charge while she sat and chatted with the head. The head of course loved our work, but if she didn't it would have been on me...I'm sure of it. Then, I had picked up more and more hours at my other job and when I told her I needed to leave got all rude and told me that she too had other obligations ect. Later on, I came in and she completely ignored me, wouldn't let me do anything, and told me that she was the one running the show, ect. I was confused and extremely uncomfortable and upset. She wanted me to do the lesson plans again for the kids. I agreed like normal but brought this up to my boss...who said you are to add to her ideas. The next day I came in and she ignored me when I tried talking to her, I asked her if she needed help and tried to make small talk...how she was doing ect. and she ignored me. She said I was too nice to the kids and that they needed a more strict person. The kids came in and we would play games but she started to limit things and there were rules upon rules...they couldnt play a game and eat a snack at the same time. She actually went out of her way and told me to get up and move. Then explained it was so that someone else could sit down. She was constantly hounding me about everything I would try to do with the kids. Told me I played favorites, ect. This wasn't true, I treated them all equally...but they all had different needs. I finally had to leave (to the bathroom) because I was so upset and felt like I had to do something to help but couldn't because she was on my case consistently. I came back into the room and she was like YOU NEED TO TELL ME WHEN YOU LEAVE BECAUSE SOMEONE JUST FELL AND INJURED THEM SELF. So I came back in and helped the boy out, filled out an accident report because she never filled any of them out ever. I went to play with the kids and was making them smile and entertaining them/playing with them. Then she came over and said we couldn't do that, ect. and gave no reason why. On my way out once everyone left she told me I needed to reread my job description... Even though she never did things, and was constantly lying putting on a show for everyone else. I almost walked out but I didn't want to screw myself over so I called my boss and was quite upset when I did so. She asked what was wrong what she could do to help ect. and I asked if she could find me another person to work with. She then decided that we needed to all sit down and talk things out ect. I told her I didn't feel comfortable ect. She called her that night and asked her about what was going on. The coworker replied that she thought I was upset with her, ect. and she had no idea what was wrong. She said she would be willing to talk it out ect. I didn't feel comfortable with this and was close to quitting altogether. I needed the money..so my boss called back and asked me to go in apologize and try to talk it out with her. I went in the next day...walked up and tried to apologize...she turned her back on me and was like whatever, then told me later not now. I said sorry, and she told me not now it's an inappropriate time to talk in front of the kids...so I waited til they all left and decided to try and talk to her. When I asked her if I did anything wrong she was like no. I thought you were mad at me...and said I shut her down and whatnot. (not true) I was upset with how the school wasn't supporting her. Then I proceeded to tell her what had upset me, her ignoring me ect. She said she didn't have to talk to me, then I told her I didn't feel comfortable around her, that I was doing things for her I wasn't supposed to, and she said she didn't want to talk, ect. until later and she was going to bring this all up with our boss. I proceeded to tell her that I was sorry I didn't mean to go to the boss about this but I didn't feel comfortable talking to her/didn't think she would want to talk to me. She was like well I've had nothing but good things to say about you, but you shot me down the other day and I didn't like that ect. I apologized to her and she said well that's all you ever are is sorry. Then I left and never came back. I called my boss later and didn't meet up with the two to talk because I didn't want to deal with her accusing me of being nuts. So my boss placed me as a float, and always treated me different from there on out. I'm still peeved about this...I ended up leaving because it wasn't enough money and I thought I was being given the lower hand in whole situation. I didn't feel like she trusted me. I felt as if she trusted the other person more because she saw her more than she did me. I'm still completely confused about what had happened that day that made my coworker treat me differently. If she kept telling me I was doing good ect. Why would she all of a sudden ignore me and not talk, but make me do all the work for her? I tried to be a peacemaker in this situation and talk things out but she was all about getting rid of me and making me look like the worse person.

POST A COMMENTtwiz(02/02/2009)
She may have felt threatened by you. It sounds as though she was trying to make sure there was a clear line between you and her, and that she was the boss.

From your recap, it does not appear there were too many times that you got along with her... So you probably did the right thing in getting moved to be able to work with other people.

Her boss needed to know about how she treats folks... You did the right thing in my opinion. The next time she does this to the next person, her boss is going to think twice about it because she'll start to notice a pattern. And hopefully your efforts will have helped make a difference and maybe improve the lives of those poor kids stuck with her.

SouthernProgrammer(02/02/2009)
It sounds like she wanted you to basically do part of her job as well as your own. Then, when she felt threatened, for whatever reason, she felt the need to 'pull rank'.

I doubt if it was anything you consciously did, there are a lot of people out there with chips on their shoulders and a lot of people who are nervous about their jobs these days.

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