What Were Your First 5 Kids Like?

[cheerfuldom]

Did you have a good experience when you first started? Or were you like me and had literally the worst kids and worst parents right from the start?

#1 Super, super high needs baby (who I believe had some delays). I had her from a few weeks old to one year old. I could never keep her happy in all that time and finally had to term when my own baby was due soon. Parents were ok but had no clue and did not care as long as I figured it out on my own.

#2 Aggressive little boy that I had to term at 10 months old. Major tantrums and hitting with a closed fist! His dad was a bully and I thought he was going to hit me when I termed them. It was bad.

#3 Toddler of a friend of mine. She did not know how to do ANYTHING but dump stuff and make messes at 18 months old. Cried, wanted to eat all day, was not interested in anything. Let go after a few weeks.

#4 Another high needs crier baby. I still have her and only held out because her parents are awesome. She is now almost 3 and does have noticeable delays which are being addressed. I hope that she goes to preschool in the fall because I really need a break from her!

#5 Baby that ate ALL the time. He was over 25lbs at 9 months if I remember right, maybe close to 30? and very delayed in physical skills. His mom got upset because he was crying ONE time at pickup and this was after me caring for him for months. She tried to sneak out with no notice, no pay claiming that we did not like him....I got me two weeks pay eventually.

Now, my current kids are delightful and easy as pie. Even the babies. I dont know what happened when I first started but its shocking I made it for five years doing daycare after this intro!

[youretooloud]

My first five kids are all grown up now! Oh how I loved them!

1. Matt and Jenny. Twins... they were sweet, well mannered and had big brown eyes and long lashes. They were four when I started watching them, but I'd known them through church since they were babies. I lost touch with them.

2. Thomas. He was a former student of mine. Also four. He had obvious learning problems, but was probably my favorite kid. I was very attached to him. He died recently in a motorcycle accident.

3. Taylor. Very little and lovable. She was obsessed with Ducktails. She is a professional dancer with a certain basketball team.

4. Samantha. A tiny holy terror. 18 months old and had entire long drawn out conversations with anybody who would listen to her talk. She drank a whole bottle of triaminic and her parents were looking forward to a quiet night, instead she threw up all night. (no idea what happened to her)

5. Michael. Brilliant, weird, and talkative. He is still very brilliant, went to a very prestigious college.... I always knew he'd do well.

[sharlan]

#1 - 5 yo girl, high maintenance, high strung. She didn't give me too much trouble, but got into trouble a lot at school. Parents were good and worked with me.

#2 - 1 yo girl, easy, easy. Sister to #1. I hated to loose them 2 yrs later.

#3 - 1 1/2 yo boy. Great kid, but a foul mouth until I called Mom at work and told her I was going to slap his mouth right in front of both parents. Horrid drop-offs turned peaceful the next day. Great parents after that. Never early, never late, never complained.

#4 - 3 yo girl, horrid child, horrid parents.

#5 - 6 mo boy, brother to #4. Cry, cry, cry. I was more than happy to term both of them at the end of the school year.

I'm still in contact w/#1 - just got her master's in nursing, has 2 kids. #2 is a fashion designer who just moved to London.

Also in contact w/#3's parents. He's an asst football coach at a university in OK.

Never had contact with #4 & #5 after the day they left. I don't even remember their names, or the parents names.

[AnneCordelia]

First five?

1: Still with me. Sweet, gentle girl who came at a year and quickly fit right in. Parents are always trying to do right by her and me, so that's nice.

2: Still with me. Active, robust boy who came at a year and took 3 months to finally learn to nap. LOL. Once we figured that out he was golden! Parents always willing to do anything to help. Respectful and kind family.

3 & 4: Needed to fill a spot (hadn't signed #2 yet, but #2 started a month before 3 & 4). Mother was throwing red flags of thinking she's the boss, trying to control my house, sending sick kids, guilting me for not accomodating extended hours, nickle & diming over everything that was already laid out in my contract. Ended up costing me $600 before I term'd. Teacher who didn't want to pay for Christmas break dispite it laid out clearly in contract. Boys were very much like her...demanded too much for group care, and required lots of intervention to keep them from bullying each other. Ages 18mo & 3yo.

5: Very picky choosing her, after the experience with #3 & 4. Wonderful family. Beautiful little girl who is quiet, always happy, and a great fit to my group. Parents are respectful and honest.

[renodeb]

My first 5 are in in grade school now. The parents were great. Two of those families eventually had second babies which I got to care for. Good experience.
Debbie

[Hunni Bee]

I dont know if I could answer this, but ill take a crack at it.

When I first started, five years ago this month actually, I had school agers, which I hated. Not the individual kids, just working with that group. Then I floated for the next nine months.

My first real class I inherited from the very neurotic preschool teacher. I can remember most of them.

1. 3 year old boy and girl. A set of fraternal twins. Cute. Parents were from Africa.

2. 4- 3 year old girls. All cuties. One still attends, a second grader.

3. 3 year old boy. Whiner, spoiled, cried alot. Baby of the family.

4. 3 year old boy. Holy terror. Said curse words, threatened to kill everybody, beat the kids up, smeared poop on the walls. Termed after spitting into the directors face.

5. 2 -2 year old girls. One was really obese, I'm talking a 60 - 70 pound two year old who wasn't potty trained. She was precious though. The other was tiny and a handful, very verbal.

6. 4 year old girl and boy. Girl was really high strung, ridiculous tantrums, never played well the other kids. Eventually termed for bad behavior. Boy was sweet, very intelligent. Brother to first two year old, nearly 5 years old and NOT potty trained.

[AfterSchoolMom]

My first two were infants - one who only napped for 15 minutes at a time and wouldn't take a bottle. The other wanted to eat constantly but was a BF baby and Mom couldn't provide enough to keep up. The former lasted two weeks, the latter one week. It was the worst two weeks of my life! That experience was what drove me to SA's, .

The next group was all SA's. Awful, awful, all of them. The batch after them was great though, and it went well for a long time after that.

[jojosmommy]

#1 girl same age as my son. Biter. Bit for months. I termed. Still a little terror.

#2 Boy. Started at 18 months. Still have him here. Wish I didnt though. Very difficult. Needs one on one care.

#3 was a 2 yr old girl. Mom babied her. Still nursed her at 2.5. Very bright, but strange. 12 yr old big brother had autism, think she had tendencies too. Mom didn't pay as agreed 1x and I kicked her out (first backbone experience ) Friend works with the mom, she is different.

#4 3 yr old boy. Mom was crazy. I was desperate so I took them even though they had tons of red flags. Came from 10-2 three days a week but paid full rate (:confused:???). Just didnt show up one monday. Boyfriend called looking for them that same monday. Never heard another thing about them.

#5-9 were family of 4. Had them for years. Left because mom wanted to stay at home. Would take them back tomorrow. Kids are adorable.

I have been WAY more picky since the first few turned out to be crazy.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

My first 4 were an absolute delight and are still here. My 5th is a hot mess. Same with that child's parents. They're still here as well (and as I reflect back, there were NO red flags prior to them starting ... I wish there had been ...).

[spud912]

I was a nanny for a family of 7 for one summer many years ago. I don't know what they are up to these days because I had to end the agreement (parents would take time off constantly without any notice, which made it hard for me to pay bills since it was all unpaid). I learned soooo much from that job, more than any other job I've ever done in my life! I wish I did know what the kids are up to these days because I think about them frequently and hope for the very best.

9 month old girl: sweetest baby ever! She was so charming and laughed so much! She loved to be held and never wanted to be put down, which is probably why she was a late crawler (actually, she ended up walking at 12 months old and never crawled while I was there).

2 year old boy: also another sweetheart! He would just run around and laugh at all of our silly games without ever knowing what game we were even playing.

4 year old boy: he liked to test his limits and see how far he could push me. I spent a lot of time gaining his trust and he ultimately became my favorite (maybe because I spent the majority of time working with him).

7 year old girl: she was a little diva and fought vehemently with her older brother. However, she was always so helpful and really looked up to me. I loved having her around!!

11 year old boy: also another favorite of mine. He was super helpful and such a good boy! I was always sad when he would go to a friend's house.

[Abigail]

I just opened this year, but had no experience "being the boss" always worked for someone else and had very little interaction with the parents. I have four kids now. I would have had 6 kids but I termed a family after 6 weeks. I wasn't supported by anyone for "giving up" so soon, but my husband needs to sleep during the day and the screaming wouldn't stop and I HATED my dream-job. Over the last few months it's turned around and I love it and am more confident.

I just hate to think about how I did my first tours showing people a half-finished house telling them it could be ready in a week when really it took two months of work to get it decent. I was already licensed, but who wants their kids in a "it could be" kind of place. They want to see a daycare in action not a pile of toys on the floor and bare walls. ::

I'm excited tonight and tomorrow I have two more tours and I really hope one of them enrolls. I'm excited to give tours another go. Have not had a decent one since February/March. They have all been no-shows, at least the last three of them were.

[Kiki]

#1-Still with me, has been for almost 2 years now. Wonderful child, very well behaved, and has an extremely contagious laugh. I've also had her since she was 10 months, so I'm pretty attached to her.
#2-6 month old girl. Girl was wonderfully easy to take care of, parents were extremely flaky with payments, and pick up/drop off times. They were the ones that pretended like they didn't know I was going on vacation last fall; I termed them once we moved.
#3-18 month old boy, had quite a few delays, couldn't speak more than 2 or 3 words, and refused to do anything but cling to his brother all day.
#4-4 year old boy, brother to #3, even more delays than his brother, and extremely aggressive. Jumped on top of DD one day with his hands around her neck. (They didn't last long at all.)
#5-Cute as can be 2 year old girl, loved to eat ANYTHING I gave her. She left after about a month because the parents separated and she went with mom to another city.

[MyAngels]

My first five were nearly 20 years ago, and I don't remember them being difficult, except for one. The little guy was 4, cussed like a sailor (his mom and dad thought it was cute ) and was deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner hose :confused:. I found out later that the grandma that took care of him before me would hit him with the hose . Poor kid.

[Sunchimes]

I've just been doing this for 16 months, so I haven't had 5 kids yet.
#1 came to me at 6 months and is 22 mo now. She's a complete doll. Very funny, very smart, and a complete joy, even though we are starting some Terrible Two things now. Her mom took advantage at first, and I let her because I didn't know any better. I found this forum, learned a lot, dcm and I had a long talk, and I made a phb and contract. Things are much better now. I think she may have talked to some other moms at her baby shower and learned that she has a pretty good deal here. We are getting along just fine now.

#2 Dcg came to me at 10 months, she's 21 months now and still here. She's a little more challenging that #1, but just as adorable and precious in her own way. I just have to use a little more finesse with her. Her mom is a mess. She has her life completely twisted in knots and is always trying to make her problems mine--partly because I let her at first. Again, thank you for the backbone. We are working toward getting the money part straightened out--might work it all out by next week if dcd pays his child support.

#3 Dcg came at 11 months and I had to term her after about 6 months. She was a sweetie and her mom and dad and grandma were the absolute best! The only problem was that she was here 12 hours a day and cried for most of them. Towards the end, it had gotten a little better. I am only allowed 3 kids, and when DCM #1 had a baby, I termed this one to make room. I hated to, but I wasn't willing to loose dcg#1 so that I could keep this one. Although honestly, the crying and clinging was really wearing and I was sort of relieved.

For those 6 months, I had 3 little girls all within a month of each other in age. It was wonderful!! I loved it and was really looking forward to this summer when they would turn 2 and we could really start doing some fun things. Didn't work out though.

#4 is the new brother of #1. He is 4 1/2 months old and has been here since he was 6 weeks. It was rough at first, he was colicky and cried all the time. I don't know anything about babies and never wanted to know anything, so there was a big learning curve. Mom said "You'll be fine, don't worry about it." She's pretty relaxed and trusts me. He is starting to cry less since he is getting baby food now. He still requires a lot of attention and it takes away from the things I'd like to do with the girls. It's not as much fun as it was before he started.

[Springdaze]

1. 2 yo had young mother but they were both sweet! remember I could not remember the kids name (not sure why that first day i didnt have registration for filled out) anyway. all day tried to figure out how to ask, then said "how do you spell his name?" Luckily it wasnt Bobby!

2. his little sister was born and started watching her at 2 weeks old a few half days a week. had them until she was 4

3. first full timer I had for 2.5 years and she is still besties with my DD. she's 11 now.

4. little girl who used to do some kind of voodoo witch dr dance that I had until she was 5 who is a completely changed kid now and also bff with my dd.

5. boy who was barely 2 and would scream and cry and bang his head. the mom was always late and I had to fight for payment. had him until I put him on probation for behavior for 2 weeks, halfway through I told his dad I was done because he threw a chair and almost hit my at the time 5 month old son.

mix of good and not so much since then. the daycare world is a good representation of the real world I think!