Going From Part Time To Full Time

[Country Kids]

OK I've been doing childcare close to 17 years. Started doing it to stay home with all my little ones and actually fell in love with teaching the preschool part. Did full-time for several years till some personal matters made my husband and I look at me working at doing childcare part-time. This worked out wonderfully!!!!! Still did pre-school but was able to enjoy my own children so much more and do things with them in school and such.

Hubby lost job this year after 17 years with same company! They closed down the company here in this area. Luckily he found something after two months in a totally different field but was a paycut. Although he has just had a promotion already but it will still take him 10-15 years to make what he was making at his previous position.

I went from taking care of 1 child to 6 in a matter of 3 months. We were so excited because we felt blessed since he had just lost his job. There though the nightmare began! The families are great but I just can't seem to get a handle on these children and it has been almost a year.

The loud voices, no napping, fighting, crying, telling me no constantly is making me very tired and wornout. If I have four happy there is two unhappy, if 3 are happy 3 aren't, etc. I'm losing all my love for teaching and feel that I do it because the parents enjoy me doing it with their children. We had free play today, that was a wreck. I'm not sure if I should just be honest and tough with these parents (who are great) and tell them everyday what their children are doing or just try and keep working it out myself. I feel if I complain to much they may leave or be very suprised because I try not to say anything unless it major but this is getting to be a daily thing.

So my question for other providers have any of you HAD to for financial reasons go to fulltime and then found out it wasn't working. What did you do, how did you handle it, any secrets out there? We have had a TON of changes in our family this last year and that is probably part of the problem but I have to be able to help out my husband and this is the only job I know where I can financially do that.

[wdmmom]

I have 5 kids of my own to I thought taking on 5 or 6 littles would be no big deal. I was wrong!!! I knew soon into it that I needed an assistant. She works about 3-4 hours every morning and 2 afternoons per week. It has helped immensely.

If you can afford it, term 1 or 2 of the kids if you think the group will be happier or hire an assistant.

Look back and see if you can think about the "good ol' days" and what made them so good. Are you exhausted because of the kids or the additional hour or both? Would changing their diet, daily schedule, etc. change anything?

If it's already been a year, I'd probably evaluate the situation and decide what needs changed and go with it. If that means letting a kid or 2 go, I'd take the loss in income over the loss of sanity any day!

[daycare]

First off, I would try to pinpoint what it is you want out of your DC.

Example you want to teach. Are these kids teachable? Are they of the right age for the materials you have? HOw do they respond to your teachings?

Then indentify all of the problems you are having, tackle one at a time. Get very strict with your routine.

I tell the parents. If you cant follow my rules, how do you expect me to be able to do my job. I need all parents to cooperate with all of the rules and polices in my PHB so that I can do my job the right way. There is only one of me and I can't do it with all of you doing your job too. If the parents aren't doing their job by foll0wing all of the rules, then let the door hit them on the butt on their way out.

Also, don't stress out if you don't get all of your lesson in. Let the kids lead. If they are having a great time keep going, if they are hitting each other or are taking off to do something else follow their lead.

I usually have 6 kids all between 20 months to 5 years every day. Somehow I make it work. But of course I have my bumps

[Country Kids]

What I always enjoyed the most was being home with my own children and them being with their friends every day. They each had a very happy group to play with as they grew up. I also homeschooled one of our children and had to enroll her in school this year because it was to much for me to work fulltime and homeschool plus this bunch is loud!!

Right now, I still have one that would need childcare and to be honest my heart is not into putting them into childcare. In two more years they will be in middle school so we would be childcare free.

We have looked at me loosing one or two kids but financially couldn't do it. In the next year we have some big financial things coming up-graduation and then starting college for one of our children. I hadn't had a call for fulltime childcare for several years but that was ok because we were working for me to work just parttime. Then to get 5 calls in a matter of 3 months was a blessing so I feel that I can't be to picky as we have the highest unemployment in our state. Jobs are just not there in our area. Also, all my parents are professionals and have nice set schedules so I really enjoy that-very routine everyday.

Sometimes I wonder if its my age but then I see some of you are my age and are still loving it! Maybe I'm starting to hit the change of life age so everything is out of kilter. Who knows but I wish I could find a fix for it. Maybe I need to go talk to my doctor and have a physical to make sure everythings ok!

[Michael]

More Part time to Full time threads:L https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...e+to+full+time

[Cat Herder]

Sometimes I wonder if its my age but then I see some of you are my age and are still loving it! Maybe I'm starting to hit the change of life age so everything is out of kilter. Who knows but I wish I could find a fix for it. Maybe I need to go talk to my doctor and have a physical to make sure everythings ok!

I don't think it is your age. The kids HAVE gotten more difficult to manage over the last 5 years. The threshold of what is "age appropriate" behavior is laughable compared to what that was then.

I swear, without my room set up the way I have it, there is no way I could keep all these little guys physically safe from one another (not even mentioning teaching them something ) 50 hours a week and still be sane.

I asked one of the ladies at a training the other day what theme her 2 year old class was doing this month (looking for inspiration) and she looked at me shocked and said "meeting basic needs would be good enough for me" . She was serious. She deals with so many disciplinary issues that she can barely serve a meal, do a potty round or get anyone down for nap.

[daycare]

I had a new kid start today that gave me a run for my money. But he did not defeat me. screamed lots, but learned that children in my house who don't listen, don't get to have any fun.

I think I had to separate him 2 times today to alone play to see that I mean business.

I had to have something ready for him non-stop. During class time we had to create a picture of what the cat looked like that we saved from a tree during dramatic play. We had tons of materials to do it. Within 30 seconds, he was done, started to run around the room and go crazy.

The rest of my class was amazed at his behavior. So he got to go play in the baby room with no cool toys.... within one minute., he must have asked me 5 times, can I come back to class. I gave him a good 5 minutes to cool off and then let him come back.

I don't know if I could do a whole house of kids like this, so thank god the other kids are trained.

Maybe you can let go of one or two kids. Train the ones you have the way you want them to behave and then add one more. Train again and then when perfected again, add one more. This is how I have been doing it for years. I will leave at least a 3 month gap between openings if I have more than one so that they have time to settle in. Then when a new one comes, all of the kids will show the new kid on the block how we behave here and just how we do it.

If you get a ton of new kids at one time, they really don't have anyone to shadow that already knows the routine and models great behavior.

One of my kids today that can be a bit of a handful was actually showing off his great behavior today to the new kid. I was so proud of him and asked him to buddy up with the new kid and show him the ropes... It seemed to ease things

Just my thougts

[christinaskids]

Maybe you could try getting a mentor to help you out and show you how to coordinate the ropes. A few children is a WHOLE different ball game then a group of fighting two year old that cant go one second without fighting over a toy. This job is definetely not easy, i know i am done once my schooling is.