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I'm new here and have thankfully found a few awesome solutions to past questions via browsing the forums. Now, however, I have some more questions/rants about things happening.
A little background, I'm a 26 year old (well, in two weeks) stay-at-home mama to a 12 month old girl. I've always been a little interested in watching kids at my home. I've done daycare center (at my university) childcare, and also childcare as part of another job with a women's shelter. I babysat when I was a teenager and I'm the oldest of four kids. SO, I have had my fair share of experience watching kids, providing guidance, troubleshooting, etc.
Right now I'm providing daycare for both of my sisters-in-law. I watch my nephew (3 1/2) and niece (7 months) 4 days a week for 5 hours. I also watch my other niece (2 1/2) on Wednesdays for 5 hours. My hours are from 7am to noon.
I have some major gripes right now and I need some suggestions on how to approach each situation with understanding and maybe find a solution.
I go to my sister-in-law's house to provide daycare. My sister-in-law is sleeping while I am there (she works until 2am) and up until recently the 7 month old was asleep with her also.
Major problem is that their house is constantly messy. As in they don't sweep the floor, the husband leaves his beer can from the night before out, etc. Light sockets and power strips are also uncovered. And my nephew has those darn Squinkies and Zinkies. I absolutely LOATH those things. Since my niece and daughter are both young babies I must be constantly vigilant because no matter how hard I try to explain to the 3 year old that he can't have his tiny toys outside of his room they still end everywhere. Even if I pick them all up and put them in his room, in a bin, up on a shelf he will a)find a way to get them down and dump them all over the floor or b) his dad will let him take them anywhere in the house. I am at the point where I'm going to start throwing them away because I'm so annoyed over the fact that I've pulled them out of my daughter's mouth countless times and now that the 7 month old is crawling I've pulled them out of her mouth too. And it isn't that I'm not paying attention, but when you have two babies, one walking in one direction and the other crawling you can't catch everything. :| AND not even two weeks ago the 3 year old brought me his toy with a mousetrap on it. I asked him where he found it and he showed me it had been behind the couch. Within easy reach of ALL of the kids. Frankly their house is just dangerous to have my daughter in and I'm constantly stressing about it. My house is way out of their way to bring the kiddos to though.
The second thing is the 3 1/2 year old is not potty trained. He's honestly closer to 4 years old. I feel like a lot of it is that the parents are super inconsistent with the situation. I showed up late one day (after a snow storm the night before) and my sister-in-law informed me that she decided to be lazy and put the 3 year old in diapers for the day. Had I had no self control I'm sure my jaw would have been on the floor. :| Yesterday the kid pooped in his underwear three times in the four hours he was awake. THREE. TIMES. And he knows when he has to go. I wanted to cry by the time I left after scrubbing poop out of the bathroom rug.
Aaaaaand now for the 7 month old. I've been watching her consistently now for about a month. She's been getting worse and worse about being fussy, and it isn't just with me, its with her dad at night too when her mom goes to work. Yesterday she cried nonstop for 3 1/2 hours until she finally fell asleep. No matter what I did, she wasn't happy being held, being on the floor, being played with (I tried a variety of things), nothing. Today she cried even harder for nearly 2 hours before I finally got irritated enough that I took her in to lay down with her mom. She must have exhausted herself and slept for two hours. I feel terrible because I'm very much an attachment parent so listening to her cry while she crawls around looking for her mom is heartbreaking and super stressful for me. On top of it her brother is making terrible high pitched laughing noises at her because he thinks its hilarious that she's crying/he's probably uncomfortable with the crying and doesn't know how to cope. That also drives me freaking crazy. SO I'm stressed, her kids are stressed and I know my daughter is stressed because she starts signing that she wants milk and gets really clingy.
And finally, back to the 3 year old boy. He had a terrible diet, full of sugar. (I have to bring food for my daughter and I because we don't eat 95% of the items they have in their house.) Now I'm not going to poo-poo on anybody's diet choices but I notice HUGE differences between when I feed him breakfast and when his mom feeds him. If she's feeding him he gets a granola bar (with chocolate chips and sugar galore) and chocolate milk for breakfast and he. Is. Insane. When he gets frustrated after he's eaten this way he simple can't seem to control his hands or focus when I'm talking to him. Like his really...violently? wiggling and moving his hands and arms? He jumps all over the furniture. Ugh.
When I'm there I give him plain milk and a piece of fruit and he is still an energetic kid but he is a lot less aggressive towards my daughter and a lot less crazy.
He really can't focus at all on anything, I'm sure because of his diet. I can't do activities with him. My 1 year old daughter has a longer attention span than he does. :| All this kid wants to do is watch t.v. and jump on the couch.
We go to a music class on Fridays and as energetic as he is at home when we are there and he's supposed to be following along with the teacher he just sits there staring off into space.
I am at my wit's end. I have until the end of May before I am done and I need some suggestions on how to deal with these issues before I throw my hands up and quit. I really love these kids but oh man, I dread going over to watch them every day. Any advice at all would be most appreciated.
A little background, I'm a 26 year old (well, in two weeks) stay-at-home mama to a 12 month old girl. I've always been a little interested in watching kids at my home. I've done daycare center (at my university) childcare, and also childcare as part of another job with a women's shelter. I babysat when I was a teenager and I'm the oldest of four kids. SO, I have had my fair share of experience watching kids, providing guidance, troubleshooting, etc.
Right now I'm providing daycare for both of my sisters-in-law. I watch my nephew (3 1/2) and niece (7 months) 4 days a week for 5 hours. I also watch my other niece (2 1/2) on Wednesdays for 5 hours. My hours are from 7am to noon.
I have some major gripes right now and I need some suggestions on how to approach each situation with understanding and maybe find a solution.
I go to my sister-in-law's house to provide daycare. My sister-in-law is sleeping while I am there (she works until 2am) and up until recently the 7 month old was asleep with her also.
Major problem is that their house is constantly messy. As in they don't sweep the floor, the husband leaves his beer can from the night before out, etc. Light sockets and power strips are also uncovered. And my nephew has those darn Squinkies and Zinkies. I absolutely LOATH those things. Since my niece and daughter are both young babies I must be constantly vigilant because no matter how hard I try to explain to the 3 year old that he can't have his tiny toys outside of his room they still end everywhere. Even if I pick them all up and put them in his room, in a bin, up on a shelf he will a)find a way to get them down and dump them all over the floor or b) his dad will let him take them anywhere in the house. I am at the point where I'm going to start throwing them away because I'm so annoyed over the fact that I've pulled them out of my daughter's mouth countless times and now that the 7 month old is crawling I've pulled them out of her mouth too. And it isn't that I'm not paying attention, but when you have two babies, one walking in one direction and the other crawling you can't catch everything. :| AND not even two weeks ago the 3 year old brought me his toy with a mousetrap on it. I asked him where he found it and he showed me it had been behind the couch. Within easy reach of ALL of the kids. Frankly their house is just dangerous to have my daughter in and I'm constantly stressing about it. My house is way out of their way to bring the kiddos to though.
The second thing is the 3 1/2 year old is not potty trained. He's honestly closer to 4 years old. I feel like a lot of it is that the parents are super inconsistent with the situation. I showed up late one day (after a snow storm the night before) and my sister-in-law informed me that she decided to be lazy and put the 3 year old in diapers for the day. Had I had no self control I'm sure my jaw would have been on the floor. :| Yesterday the kid pooped in his underwear three times in the four hours he was awake. THREE. TIMES. And he knows when he has to go. I wanted to cry by the time I left after scrubbing poop out of the bathroom rug.
Aaaaaand now for the 7 month old. I've been watching her consistently now for about a month. She's been getting worse and worse about being fussy, and it isn't just with me, its with her dad at night too when her mom goes to work. Yesterday she cried nonstop for 3 1/2 hours until she finally fell asleep. No matter what I did, she wasn't happy being held, being on the floor, being played with (I tried a variety of things), nothing. Today she cried even harder for nearly 2 hours before I finally got irritated enough that I took her in to lay down with her mom. She must have exhausted herself and slept for two hours. I feel terrible because I'm very much an attachment parent so listening to her cry while she crawls around looking for her mom is heartbreaking and super stressful for me. On top of it her brother is making terrible high pitched laughing noises at her because he thinks its hilarious that she's crying/he's probably uncomfortable with the crying and doesn't know how to cope. That also drives me freaking crazy. SO I'm stressed, her kids are stressed and I know my daughter is stressed because she starts signing that she wants milk and gets really clingy.
And finally, back to the 3 year old boy. He had a terrible diet, full of sugar. (I have to bring food for my daughter and I because we don't eat 95% of the items they have in their house.) Now I'm not going to poo-poo on anybody's diet choices but I notice HUGE differences between when I feed him breakfast and when his mom feeds him. If she's feeding him he gets a granola bar (with chocolate chips and sugar galore) and chocolate milk for breakfast and he. Is. Insane. When he gets frustrated after he's eaten this way he simple can't seem to control his hands or focus when I'm talking to him. Like his really...violently? wiggling and moving his hands and arms? He jumps all over the furniture. Ugh.
When I'm there I give him plain milk and a piece of fruit and he is still an energetic kid but he is a lot less aggressive towards my daughter and a lot less crazy.
He really can't focus at all on anything, I'm sure because of his diet. I can't do activities with him. My 1 year old daughter has a longer attention span than he does. :| All this kid wants to do is watch t.v. and jump on the couch.
We go to a music class on Fridays and as energetic as he is at home when we are there and he's supposed to be following along with the teacher he just sits there staring off into space.
I am at my wit's end. I have until the end of May before I am done and I need some suggestions on how to deal with these issues before I throw my hands up and quit.
I really love these kids but oh man, I dread going over to watch them every day. Any advice at all would be most appreciated.
My guess is you will make more money too!
MnMum married to DH 9 years
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