The Roll of Your Own Children in Your Daycare

[misol]

My dd is 2 and my ds is almost 4. Our house rules are pretty much the same as daycare rules so there aren't really any adjustments that they have to make during daycare hours. Any personal toys that they don't want to share must remain in their rooms during daycare hours. If a toy comes downstairs it is fair game and they must share. DS has access to his room any time he wants. He just has to tell me that he is going upstairs so I know to listen out for him while he is up there. I keep dd with me. I keep my own kids on the same mealtime and rest time schedule as the dckids.

[ddnanny13]

I have a 2 year old boy who is allowed to keep several things in his closet that only he plays with. He knows they are there and if e wants them he tells me and he can have them. There are other toys in his room that the other kids play with as well since he is not old enough to retreat to his room alone. As he gets older that will change a bit I'm sure. The only other "privilege" he has is that he doesn't have to share his bike. Obviously don't put that in his closet but he obsessed with it even though he cant even pedal it yet. Got it for his b-day so I told the dck's they couldn't ride it.

[DCMomOf3]

I have 3 of my own, 6, 5 and 3. My 3yo I do treat as a DCK, it's too hard to give him special treatment. My 2 school age kids I let have a little more freedom on the days that I don't have SA DCKs but on the days that I do, I treat them as SA DCKs until my other SAs leave.

[SunflowerMama]

REALLY??? If I understand you correctly, your own girls cannot access their own room during daycare hours? That seems absolutely absurd to me. Nothing towards you, TwinMama, but I'd be up in arms if the state was trying to tell me my own children could not access their rooms during hours. I understand they count toward your numbers, but they are YOUR children who should be allowed to go into their rooms whenever they want to. Where do they take their naps? Where do they go if they need some time to just cool down by themselves or if they want to be alone? These might not be issues yet b/c of how young they are, but in about a year or two, this will definitely be an issue!

That was my main gripe with the State when I was first licensed. Before they came out the girls would nap in their rooms and the dcks downstairs. Now the State requires my girls nap with the dcks downstairs. They came out and told me the girls could sleep in their rooms at night (thanks so much State of Texas) but as soon as they woke up and it was during dc hours they had to come and stay downstairs. I was livid but what am I going to do??

[Blackcat31]

I probably do not even have 2 cents worth to contribute to this because I bought a separate house to do child care in just for all the reasons listed in the above posts. My kids were 3 and 5. They came to daycare with me and had to follow the same rules as everyone else. I was probably a lot harder on them when it came to breaking/following rules because they were/are my kids and I know they know better. My husband grew up with his mother running a 24 hour 7 day a week daycare and his biggest concern was lack of privacy and sharing personal things for our own children. (Hence the separate house) He said it was sad that he had to share his mother (LOL!) but the DC kids broke his things or had to sleep in his room for naps etc. and that bothered him. He was #4 of 5 boys in first place. So when my kids were young, they were at daycare just like any other kid and when they got old enough they went home (Husband works in shop at home). It was a wonderful solution but I do have to say I was a lot harder on my kids in the behavior expectation area and discipline area than DCK's because I never wanted a family to feel as though my kids got special treatment. Doing child care is definitely full of pro's and con's but I guess we just do the best we can. We, our kids, the dck's and their families all have to take the good with the bad.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

mine ar e19, 17 , 12 and 9 . They have always had special things they got to do,.. they are allowed to watch tv. in my room, on my bed, play in the back yard, and if 17 or older they can swim during dc hours. (or if their 17 or older sibling is swimming with them. They can ride their bikes outside the gate with their friends, they get to have ice cream when the dc is napping, they get to stay inside when the dc are outside and do whatever they want. They do occasionally,.. watch them while I potty. I mean a quick 45 second,.. can you stay in here so mom can potty? and then I open the door tell them ok,.. and wash my hands. They help put toys away in the afternoons, sing with the kids, 9 yr old plays guitar and 12 yr old piano and trumpet for the kids. !7 yr old does flute clarinet and piano. 19 yr old brings his ibook out and records them singing and plays it back with funny mixes,... They help anytime I need it. The older two often watch the dc kids on weekends in their own homes.

[countrymom]

first, wow there are alot of moms with 4 kids.
Ok, I have 4 kids too dd (12) dd (10) ds (8) dd (6) they follow the same rules as the daycare kids, any toys that are special to them, stay in their rooms and they can go to their rooms whenever they want. The only thing I'm having a hard time with is that my own children love to snack esp. when they come home from school, I find that I yell at them for snacking because I don't have enough or don't want to be feeding the daycare kids more food. My own children don't count in my numbers and they all go to school except in the summer, then I bribe them to help me out.
I find that sometimes my own children need a break from the daycare kids so they go to their room, twinmama do you find this with your kids since they have to be with them all the time?

[countrymom]

mine ar e19, 17 , 12 and 9 . They have always had special things they got to do,.. they are allowed to watch tv. in my room, on my bed, play in the back yard, and if 17 or older they can swim during dc hours. (or if their 17 or older sibling is swimming with them. They can ride their bikes outside the gate with their friends, they get to have ice cream when the dc is napping, they get to stay inside when the dc are outside and do whatever they want. They do occasionally,.. watch them while I potty. I mean a quick 45 second,.. can you stay in here so mom can potty? and then I open the door tell them ok,.. and wash my hands. They help put toys away in the afternoons, sing with the kids, 9 yr old plays guitar and 12 yr old piano and trumpet for the kids. !7 yr old does flute clarinet and piano. 19 yr old brings his ibook out and records them singing and plays it back with funny mixes,... They help anytime I need it. The older two often watch the dc kids on weekends in their own homes.

thats funny, my older girls play clarinet and entertain the kids too, my son plays the recorder (its a music class here) and my girls teach the kids to dance (they take dance lessons) its so funny, my oldest started babysitting the kids on the weekends in their homes too, so it works out pretty good.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

I think its awesome, all the kids know my kids, they feel part of our family and when one of my kids shows up at their house to stay with them it is a party! . The parents know my kids really KNOW their kids, they trust me, and I raised them so they must do things similar to me. And they know if something made them think,.. huh? they would call me. .

[boysx5]

15 b
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None of my boys count in my daycare numbers and they enjoy the daycare kids they get to do and go where they want during daycare since they are older and my older boys help their younger brothers so its not so bad

[DCMom]

When my kids were younger they did pretty much what the daycare kids did, however they did get some special priveledges, like maybe watcha movie in another room at nap/quiet time, not much when they were younger mainly because they wanted to do everything. As they got older gradually they got more priveledges well I wouldn't call them priveledges, just they didn't necessarily follow what the daycare kids did, and now they are 13 & 18 and they "help" me at times mainly my 18 yr old daughter but obviously they don't do what they do::
Oh and most of their toys was kept seperate, they just weren't allowed to bring them out during daycare hours to play with in front of the other kids. I never had issues with my kids ever during my daycare years.

This is how I handled it also. My boys were 2 years old and 6 mos old when I started my daycare; my daughter was born into it 4 years later. They followed the same rules as the daycare kids, but they had more freedom.

Of course, over the years there were always the dc kids/parents who would complain about my kids getting to do things that they/their kids don't get to do...my answer? My house, my kids. They get the same freedom in their own house as you/your kids get in yours. That usually put a stop to the complaints.

My kids are 23, 21 and 18 now and the daycare is just a fact of life to them. We have always treated the daycare as 'my job' and like every other working mom, there are challenges and rewards.

[Unregistered]

Nope, my kids are daycare kids...nothing special for them! My boys are 4 and 18 months. They have always gone to a center, and it's just recent that I am home with them. They are used to being like everyone else at "school," and I figure it helps to keep things fair. My daycare is entirely in my basement, and it's set up somewhat like a center. I do not allow my kids to go upstairs without me because they are young enough that I don't want them that far from me anyway. Their toys stay in their rooms, and all of the toys in the daycare are separate. They sleep on cots in the daycare area at naptime (the younger used to sleep in a crib, separate from his crib in his bedroom). When we go to the park, people always ask if any of them are mine. When I tell them, they always say something like "Wow! You treat them all so well I didn't know if they were all yours or none of them..." I take that as a compliment. I really want things to be fair. I figure that I can spoil them outside of daycare hours, but as far as during daycare, they are just part of the crew. For me, it's enough of an honor that I get to be their "teacher" instead of paying someone else to do it, so I guess that is their special treatment. They think it's pretty neat, too. We'll see how things change as they get older, but I'd like to keep it this way as long as possible.