Not Loving Today

[MsLaura529]

I would just like to curl up in a corner and cry.

It is definitely a Monday ... a Monday after a very rainy Sunday when all the children were stuck inside. My very loud non-napper is here. My tornado of a boy whose goal today is to tick all of the other children off is here. My new DCG who doesn't respond to anything I, or anyone else says, is here. And all of their lovely little quirks seem to be multiplied to the extreme today. And they all want nothing to do with me.

Curling up into a corner now ...

[Tdhmom]

I feel for ya! I hate Mondays!!! Hope it gets better for you

[daycarediva]

Monday reconditioning is in FULL SWING here, too. For me AND the kids!

In all seriousness, they are being good for a Monday.

[Heidi]

OMG!

I swear, none of my kids slept or ate all weekend!

I'm sure they did, but they sure aren't acting like it!

Here's my morning so far:

Toddler came at 7:01-in a happy mood...ready to chase my not always trustworthy Shih Tzu. Took him to the play room (still in sound and mostly in sight). No complaints!

14 week old came at 7:03. Greeting and cuddles, put in exersaucer (he loves it and he's very strong). Content until 7:25. Then scream fest just as...

9 mo arrives at 7:28. Happy as a clam. Get her settled in playroom while other guy is still yelling. Talk to mom, get screamer out of exersaucer. Stops screaming (guess what mom does all weekend?). Put him to bed. Goes right to sleep. Everything is quiet for a few minutes.

10 mo arrives at 7:40. Get him settled in playroom, go get my coffee, sit down with them and play for a few minutes.

8:00 go get things ready for breakfast. At this point all h*** breaks loose. Toddler decides to bean 9mo with a toy. Remove toddler, set at table in booster with toys. Go soothe 9mo. Interest her in a toy, leave to put toast in and make 3 different containers of formula and 1 milk. 9mo screams at gate, 10 mo decides that he's going to join in, so now 2 are crying and baby wakes up. Run in and give pacifier in hopes that it'll hold him off a few minutes. It does not.

8:20, put everyone at the table with toys (actually, toddler is still there because I never had time to take him back).

8:25 bored with toys already, both older babies are crying, and toddler is yelling at them to stop.

8:30 breakfast is finally ready. Whole wheat toast with fruit spread, blueberries, milk/formula. Give everyone their plates. 10 mo doesn't want what HE has...he want my yogurt. I try to eat my breakfast, manage both babies, and feed the little one at the same time. 10 throws cup across table, essentially saying "I don't want this F'n cup!", and the same with his toast.

Put baby down, take 10 mo to nap early (and I managed to do it kindly), because he's clearly not hungry. Hugs, binky, goes right to sleep with no fuss. ya!

Sip coffee, get toddler down from table and settle with his blanket and Team Umizoomi. He gets to watch tv for a little while when the other take a morning nap.

Give baby rest of bottle while 9 mo finishes her toast.

Put baby in excersaucer to burp, clean up 9 mo, check on toddler, take 9 mo to bed. Settles right in. Grateful to be in bed at last!

Get baby out, change poopy diaper. Lay him on playmat. Screams his head off.

Try other excersaucer in front of mirror. Screams his head off. Yawns.

Swaddle, in bed. Cries 5 minutes, goes to sleep.

It's actually quiet now! It's also only 9:25 AM!

[Moppetland]

OMG!

I swear, none of my kids slept or ate all weekend!

I'm sure they did, but they sure aren't acting like it!

This is usually what happens to me on Mondays.

Their schedules are off. Parents keep them out all weekend and they are fed late.

Potty learning get put on the back burner, so when they come back on Monday, they act like they don't remember.

Parents let them run the coop all weekend because they are too busy trying to do the things they couldn't do all week for being at work.

Then comes Monday, and we have to get them back on track.

The life of a child care provider::

[Heidi]

I'm definitely thinking about making some changes to my schedule here. Earlier breakfast, then a mid-morning snack. I've asked everyone to give their kids breakfast before coming, but somehow every day, someone just gets a bottle, and then arrive starving and/or tired.

[Cradle2crayons]

I'm definitely thinking about making some changes to my schedule here. Earlier breakfast, then a mid-morning snack. I've asked everyone to give their kids breakfast before coming, but somehow every day, someone just gets a bottle, and then arrive starving and/or tired.

I used to have that happen until parents dropped off one morning and I say "I'm glad you fed them breakfast, because we have some things to do is morning and its a long time until their next meal" and e parents TRULY realized I wasn't going to enable their laziness anymore....

And finally they took care of breakfast before arrival.....

[Heidi]

I used to have that happen until parents dropped off one morning and I say "I'm glad you fed them breakfast, because we have some things to do is morning and its a long time until their next meal" and e parents TRULY realized I wasn't going to enable their laziness anymore....

And finally they took care of breakfast before arrival.....

I'm half tempted to make every one of my parents spend the first 2 hours of a morning here. I really, truly don't think they have a clue what it's like when FOUR children are crying at once. I also don't think they get the whole "schedule" thing.

In theory, we should feed infants and toddlers on demand. I get that. In practice, though, I can't do it. I feed littlest one on demand, but that means somehow, someone is always going to wait. It would be absolute chaos.

[Unregistered]

I used to have our Mondays all planned out,preschool story time at the library,etc.
After 10 years of putting up with parents and the after math of their weekends.
Here's how my mondays go now.
Kids arrive,eat breakfast,under 18 months directly back to bed.
Older kids read quietly for an hour.
9:30a.m.-Morning nap over,play outside,lunch an hour early at 11:00a.m. and everyone bact to sleep from noon -3:00p.m.
I used to feel bad but the kids can barely function.They are starving for healthy food and sleep.That's all they really need and they are back to their sweet selfs by Tuesday.
I use the time to get caught up on everything I didn't get done on the weekend.
It's a win,win situation!

[melilley]

I feel ya! I have a child that I call my "tornado". He was gone all last week and it was so calm here. Well now he's back and things are loud again...it's mostly him too. He scream/cries and never stops going!

Then at 5:30 am, (an hour and 15 min. before I get up) I get a phone call and didn't answer, it was a weird number. There was a message left, but I didn't listen so of course I kept thinking about the message and had a hard time going back to sleep. (Turns out it was.from my dd's school saying there is a 2 hr delay).

I finally doze off and 2 minutes later, my ds woke up crying.

Ahhhhh then the tornado/screamer gets here.

Then a dcp comes in and goes in my MESSY bathroom with her dd so I was embarrassed. We have a shower tower in our tub and it fell down and I didn't replace it yet so all of our shampoo and body wash was on the floor on a towel. I apologized though.

Mondays are not fun!

[My3cents]

I would just like to curl up in a corner and cry.

It is definitely a Monday ... a Monday after a very rainy Sunday when all the children were stuck inside. My very loud non-napper is here. My tornado of a boy whose goal today is to tick all of the other children off is here. My new DCG who doesn't respond to anything I, or anyone else says, is here. And all of their lovely little quirks seem to be multiplied to the extreme today. And they all want nothing to do with me.

Curling up into a corner now ...

sorry your having a bad day, hope it gets better

an idea for your non talker- try a little signing with her. basic signs, then if she chooses to not talk she might show you what she wants. Do it with everyone. More is a favorite of mine. I put my thumb and pointer and other digits come together in a pinching and tap them back and fourth all while saying more. I also use stop or No a lot. I make a t with my hands and say Stop or NO or time out- usually Stop.

I thought signing was the ding dongest thing going until I started using it more with my kids and seeing how it helped to carry over the verbal. I don't do anything fancy and I don't pressure the child to get it right or perfect. I just use a few basic signs. Do a google for some great resources and posters. Baby signing is great for not just non talking babies but also toddlers that are shy or just going through a phase of I am not going to talk. I only know a few basics but again really helps with kids and I was the one that was like this is just to out of the box for me and weird.

Prep for rain days, take out stuff you don't normally do and when it is really bad and you just cant cope- PBS can be your friend and has great learning programing.

Hope this helps and again hope your day gets better. Find the good in it for sanity's sake

[My3cents]

Monday reconditioning is in FULL SWING here, too. For me AND the kids!

In all seriousness, they are being good for a Monday.

love this, thought I was the only one that said Monday reconditioning....

[My3cents]

I used to have that happen until parents dropped off one morning and I say "I'm glad you fed them breakfast, because we have some things to do is morning and its a long time until their next meal" and e parents TRULY realized I wasn't going to enable their laziness anymore....

And finally they took care of breakfast before arrival.....

Food Program

I do breakfast. I know everyone is full and ready for the day-

[melilley]

sorry your having a bad day, hope it gets better

an idea for your non talker- try a little signing with her. basic signs, then if she chooses to not talk she might show you what she wants. Do it with everyone. More is a favorite of mine. I put my thumb and pointer and other digits come together in a pinching and tap them back and fourth all while saying more. I also use stop or No a lot. I make a t with my hands and say Stop or NO or time out- usually Stop.

I thought signing was the ding dongest thing going until I started using it more with my kids and seeing how it helped to carry over the verbal. I don't do anything fancy and I don't pressure the child to get it right or perfect. I just use a few basic signs. Do a google for some great resources and posters. Baby signing is great for not just non talking babies but also toddlers that are shy or just going through a phase of I am not going to talk. I only know a few basics but again really helps with kids and I was the one that was like this is just to out of the box for me and weird.

Prep for rain days, take out stuff you don't normally do and when it is really bad and you just cant cope- PBS can be your friend and has great learning programing.

Hope this helps and again hope your day gets better. Find the good in it for sanity's sake

Signing is very helpful and children seem to pick up on it very easily! I do simple signing as that is all I know, but I've had kids as young as 10/11 months old do it!

[My3cents]

I'm half tempted to make every one of my parents spend the first 2 hours of a morning here. I really, truly don't think they have a clue what it's like when FOUR children are crying at once. I also don't think they get the whole "schedule" thing. I hear you, but why would they? They are not providers, they have jobs to deal with- I don't want to torture my parents with, See what I deal with? I don't want to be tortured with what they do either- I have hard working parents and parents that are good caring parents.

In theory, we should feed infants and toddlers on demand. I get that. In practice, though, I can't do it. I feed littlest one on demand, but that means somehow, someone is always going to wait. It would be absolute chaos.

planning. pre-plan as much as you can. This helps. Set up the older child and then fead the infant, but make that set up as quick as possible. I say yes to a schedule but with flexibility, I say yes to on demand, but with common sense and pre planning and moving towards a schedule. I say let it all fly out the window when nothing is going your way and go with the flow of the day-