Starting Work Placement at a Playgroup (I'm terrified)

At college my attendance was bad in my childcare class, so they removed me from the course, but have still offered me the chance to get some work experience at a playgroup. I'm supposed to start on Monday next week and I've never been so uneasy.

Everybody I know has pushed me towards working with children for reasons I have no idea. Guess it's just my face. I don't think it's something I want to do for my career but it'll be a good experience and if anything a good back up plan if my original one doesn't work out.

I am a carer for my little brother who is currently 11 and has autism, so I suppose I'm not completely inexperienced, but other than him I've never been around children. I don't know how to interact with them and as someone who's very sensitive I don't know how I'd deal with bad behaviour directed towards me. Not to mention I barely look my age and it's not uncommon for people not to take me seriously because of it.

I'm quiet and bad at conversing with people I'm not familiar with and it takes me an incredibly long time to become comfortable. My anxiety has improved over the year by so much and I maybe am underestimating myself here, but I'm still terrified. I don't know what to do with kids, I'm clueless and honestly they scare me, and it frustrates me because everybody seems to have it in their heads that I'm amazing with them!

I can understand being anxious. I worked as a nanny for just over a year. I had no training and no experience working with kids, other than being around my cousins.
Sounds like you have similar issues to me, being quiet and sensitive and bad at conversing. I was very anxious when I first started but it does get easier. I was always uneasy when dealing with upset children and did feel useless but I did really enjoy most of it.
In my experience, I am always way more anxious and terrified before I start something but usually calm down once I am there.
Good luck and I hope you get some positive out of it. Even if you don't like it, atleast you gave it a go

I used to work with children as a preschool teacher and I enjoyed being around them. They don't care about all the things that teenagers and adults care about, and I could be myself and not feel anxious the way I would around older people. Children are really very good for people with social anxiety. All they want is want your attention, your time, your smiles, and your help when they need it. They are eager to learn and eager to please (although they do need correction sometimes and you have to be firm). They don't judge you based on how you dress or whether you're popular or anything else fickle. They judge based on how you treat them. I think that working with children is very rewarding.