Speaking of The "Sweet Spot"...Yeah, I Am Not In It Anymore LOL

[cheerfuldom]

This fall's schedule and group of kids are driving me nuts LOL I had a really easy spring and summer with only a small group of kids plus all but one were walking and over 2 years old. We actually left the house on a fairly frequent basis and the weather this summer was very mild and beautiful on many days.

This fall is CRAZY.

I lost a 3 year old to preschool and had to replace her with an 8 month old when I swore I would not take babies again LOL He is doing okay with the transition but is horribly sleep deprived and now I have him on two naps a day.

I lost a 4 year old since a mom decided to stay at home and replaced her with a 14 month old who likes to get into everything. No toys....just opening cabinets, pushing furniture, grabbing non toy items and lots of crying before naps.

I have three older kids going to preschool/kinder and the school drop off was a nightmare. The younger kids HAVE to be walked into the school and I seriously overestimated taking my whole group (6 or 7 kids) in for the school drop off.

Right now I have two under 1 year old, a toddler and then the kids are 2, 3, 4, 5.

My two year old is in the throes of the terrible twos. This is my own bio child. Her behavior is horrendous right now. Hitting and crying....a lot of crying.

but the happy note to this is that most days, I am done by 4! glooooriious! and those other days, it is one kid here till 530 but she is my best daycare kid ever. totally dont even care that she is here. one of the very few kids that I actually would watch for free, ha ha. She keeps my older girls busy and that is a big help to me.

[Blackcat31]

HUGS!! :hug:


I am on the opposite side of the street right now. Counting down the days until school starts and some of these kids move on.

I am looking forward to my teacher kids coming back on a regular basis and hoping my group of littles are better behaved when the bigger ones aren't in the picture any more.

Sometimes the change in the kids brings a welcomed new dynamics to the group.

[cheerfuldom]

HUGS!! :hug:


I am on the opposite side of the street right now. Counting down the days until school starts and some of these kids move on.

I am looking forward to my teacher kids coming back on a regular basis and hoping my group of littles are better behaved when the bigger ones aren't in the picture any more.

Sometimes the change in the kids brings a welcomed new dynamics to the group.

the last of my older kids start school on Monday and hopefully these little ones will continue to progress with the transition. Its just been a looooong time since I have had to deal with so much crying so its really taking a toll on me. I am also looking into paying someone else to do the school dropoff. I just have stretched myself past the limit and thats the only option i can think of.

[Blackcat31]

the last of my older kids start school on Monday and hopefully these little ones will continue to progress with the transition. Its just been a looooong time since I have had to deal with so much crying so its really taking a toll on me. I am also looking into paying someone else to do the school dropoff. I just have stretched myself past the limit and thats the only option i can think of.

It's great though that you can and do recognize when you are being stretched too thin. I think a lot of issue arise with providers when they are stressed out and need to scale back but they either don't want to admit it to themselves or they think it is required of them.

Learning that it's okay to say no is such a HUGE benefit to not only my body physically but to my psyche too.

I recently took on an infant in July. I have already termed them. It wasn't that I didn't like baby or family or that they broke any rules and the baby is fantastically behaved but I came to realize about 2 weeks into it that I am just not that "into" babies and providing care for them is so exhausting (to me) and not really something I enjoy. So if I can't go to my job each day WANTING to be there and really enjoying my work...why go...kwim?

I am taking a pay cut but I KNOW I am gaining much more in return by simply having a smaller group where the ages are closer together. Plus only having 2 in diapers (out of 11) is FANTASTIC!!!

I hear you about the crying too....that quickly gets under your skin and becomes like finger nails on a chalk board. When the littles get to lots of crying here... I usually find myself in the bathroom counting to 10 a lot more than normal.

[cheerfuldom]

I appreciate the support BC! I did ONE dropoff and then called my hubby and said "ummm....yeah, this is totally not going to work!" he has a bad habit of trying to talk me into things and acting like every reaction is from emotions so of course he tried to convince me that things would be better but when it takes you almost 30 minutes to load kids into a car and get one mile from the house, its just plain out not going to work. and i also have a preschool pickup and an afternoon school pickup so that is just too much for me, too much for the kids. i am on the hunt for a backup plan!

[Meyou]

I feel for you! This time last year I had all 1's and 2's and had an afterschool run to make that happened to be during naptime. I had to shift my nap back almost 1.5 hours and it was not the best time. I walked with most of the kids in a wagon but it was slooooow going. This year they're all 2's and 3's and things are much, much better but I'm looking forward to the break when they're 3's and 4's next year. Hahaha!

I hope you can work out a plan!

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I appreciate the support BC! I did ONE dropoff and then called my hubby and said "ummm....yeah, this is totally not going to work!" he has a bad habit of trying to talk me into things and acting like every reaction is from emotions so of course he tried to convince me that things would be better but when it takes you almost 30 minutes to load kids into a car and get one mile from the house, its just plain out not going to work. and i also have a preschool pickup and an afternoon school pickup so that is just too much for me, too much for the kids. i am on the hunt for a backup plan!

That SOUNDS exhausting! :hug:

[butterfly]

:hug: