I'm At My Wits End - HELP!

[crazydaycarelady]

21mo dcg come 2days per week and started a month ago. She is here from 8:30-11:30 at which time her mom picks her up and takes her home to breastfeed her to sleep. She brings her back around 2:30-5:30. Dcg drops off just fine but once the other parents start to pick up she LOSES IT! She bawls and bawls and bawls. Pretty much nothing makes her stop except me holding her which is just not possible at that time of day and for the entre 1 1/2 hours I have parents picking up.

So pick-ups have been rushed and miserable with me trying to talk to the parents over her screaming. It makes it seem chaotic and crazy here and I am sure I appear frazzled which is not the impression I want the parents having. Today I just don't want to deal with it anymore.

Any ideas on what I could do? I have tried laying her down thinking she was tired but she absolutely went insane bonkers when I left her in the pak-n-play in the other room alone. I have tried having her sit in our "take a break" chair which can work momentarily but then she just starts up again.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I had a little girl do this too. I have a school age girl who comes in the afternoons. She is 7 and loves the Littles. She would distract the little girl when she saw a parent coming. It..worked! She stopped after about a month. But she is full time.

[daycarediva]

OUCH! Stranger anxiety? Hopefully it is just a phase, have you asked dcm if she does this when they are out?

[nannyde]

I would charge a fortune to do two arrivals and two departures a day. I hope you are making bank for that level of work.

I would give her a chance to be out in the common area and free play while leaving you be while you do departures. If she needs to cry during that I would have her go nap at the furthest possible spot away from the door.

Some kids just need time to bust a cry. I wouldn't take it personally and I definitely wouldn't try to intercede to get her to stop. She has a right to express her little feelings. She just needs a location to do that where those around her aren't disturbed.

[UtahMomma]

I had a 9 month old DCG that did that every time a DCD would pick up other DCK. She is TERRIFIED of men. It wouldn't stop unless I was holding her. It wasn't working out and had to let her go.

[blandino]

I had a 19 month old DCG who did the same thing. It was as if every parent she saw reminded her that her own mother was not there. DCG was only in care for 8 months, and by the end of 8 months it was sometimes still going on.

I would also venture to say that her being part-time, and especially the coming and going twice in a day are MAJOR contributors. Her schedule is very confusing to her, and to me consistency is vital to a child adjusting to childcare.

Also, that doesn't sound like NEARLY enough sleep for a child her age. At 21 months a lot of my kids are still coming down off 2 naps per day and are sleeping 2-2.5 hours daily. With her current schedule I would imagine she gets home, settled, and then nursed to sleep - probably asleep by 12:30 and then she comes back at 2:30 - so maybe wakes up at 2 ?? That's only 1.5 hours, and I could see why that would be causing her to be very emotional.

I would tell DCM what stress the schedule and lack of sleep seem to be causing her. Is DCM doing this because she feels DCG needs to nurse in order to be able to sleep ? I bet after a few weeks, DCG would adjust to napping at daycare without being nursed to sleep. Those few weeks may be rough - but not any rougher than her (and your) afternoons are now.


On a side note, I don't know how you do it. I could never be able to cope with a parent doing that schedule.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I had a 9 month old DCG that did that every time a DCD would pick up other DCK. She is TERRIFIED of men. It wouldn't stop unless I was holding her. It wasn't working out and had to let her go.

I have nothing to add to your post. I just wanna say "HEY! THAT'S THE DELICATE ARCH!!"::::
I've never been there! My 3Rd grade son was assigned the Delicate Arch as a research project and I helped him make a model of it out of clay. :::: I stared at pictures of it for days. I do sand sculpture, so I took the Delicate Arch model waaaaay too seriously! ::
Sorry for the blatant hijack.crazydaycarelady!