If a SA Wants to Call Their Mom/Dad...

[AfterSchoolMom]

I've allowed older to text their parents from my phone when they've been upset or missing them. I just have the child tell the parent it's them and then send a couple lines. Texting is (usually) less intrusive to the parent's work but still allows the child to connect to their parent if they feel they need to.

That's not a bad idea. I'll do this next time (though hopefully we won't have a next time).

[Play Care]

I agree that you did the right thing. It's not a typical request, and the child seemed upset. I do agree that you should talk to mom and dad and develop a plan in case this happens again or starts happening frequently. I care for several SA's so I can totally see it becoming a "monkey see, monkey do" situation.

I was friends with a girl growing up and she and her siblings would call her mother several times a day at work - usually if they were arguing/fighting and wanted her to intervene I'm surprised the mother didn't think that maybe the kids (they were home alone) could have been sent to a day camp or something for better supervision (she was a social worker) or that she wasn't fired from her job as it was BAD

[AmyKidsCo]

I think you did the right thing. You could tell something was off. I think that's one of the nice things about having your child in a home daycare.

I agree. And 10 is old enough to understand the difference between a habit and a special circumstance.

[AfterSchoolMom]

I was friends with a girl growing up and she and her siblings would call her mother several times a day at work - usually if they were arguing/fighting and wanted her to intervene I'm surprised the mother didn't think that maybe the kids (they were home alone) could have been sent to a day camp or something for better supervision (she was a social worker) or that she wasn't fired from her job as it was BAD

I had some siblings with their own cell phones a couple of years ago that would call their parents several times just in the 3 hours that they were here with me in the afternoons. Both parents had office jobs, I have no idea why they didn't get in trouble for taking so many personal calls. However, they told me up front that it was perfectly fine with them for them to call...in fact, they encouraged it. They even went as far as telling me that they got them their own cell phones because they had to be in afterschool care. In retrospect, that should have been a huge red flag, but I didn't catch it. Now, I know better.