advise?

[melissa ann]

Parents need to feed their own kiddos breakfast everyday. No matter what. I understand that parents need to get to work on time...hey all of us moms are super busy...that is no excuse. parents should set their alarms for a half hour earlier wake their child up and feed them. A hungry baby is way worse off than a baby who got a half hour less sleep.
I would make it clear with the parents that baby has first bottle before arrival at your house.

I agree 100%. My kids have never been in daycare. But before we left to go anywhere, even to relatives, I made sure they were fed, changed, etc. Do people not get it that things change when they have kids? No more sleeping in, etc? I had dcks who came in the morning with their diapers still on, hanging to their knees. I got sick of it. I handed out letters saying that I will no longer tolerate diapers that have been on all night. Had one dcb when he was 3 1/2-4 yrs old come in with a diaper that was on all night, g-pa would put underwear overtop and not take off the diaper in the morning.

[momma2girls]

Pry was meant for me, which is par for the course here.

I will say, that my own two kids went to daycare for 8 years. I was up at 4:30 each and every morning to get myself ready for work, got my children up at 5:30 to hold and feed them before we left the house to drop them off at daycare at 6:30. I never would of thought about leaving my home and taking them out of the house without changing them and feeding them. It never happened. It was my responsibility as a parent, not the responsibility of the daycare.

I agree!! I am so busy in the am. I am getting my own baby fed, changed, etc. then I have 4 parents arriving- 2 babies, sometimes both babies are not fed. Then I have 3(one being my own) school aged kids, ready for the bus, make sure they have all their stuff on, and stuff in their backpacks, etc. I do not have time to feed both babies that are screaming their heads off starved. I only have 30 min. by the time I open and 4 families showing up, greeting them, making sure their children are set, then fedding my own 2 yr. old, changing her, and making sure everyone is set to go out the door. I had brought my children to daycare for 15 yrs. before I quit my job. I would have never brought any of them (when they were babies especially) not fed, changed, etc. I need to add something in my contract for next yr. to make sure your babies are fed, changed, and dressed before coming to daycare. I just don't really know how to word it. Do any of you's have it in your contract? If so how is it workded? THanks!
There have been a few times when both babies came in just screaming wanting fed- I am only one person to do everything!!! I didn't get to the first bottle til 8:15. Then it takes 20 min-12 hr. til I can feed the next one.

[BentleysBands]

so glad to see others feel the same way...its so hard when paretns think WE r their kids parent. if i wanted more than 4 kids i would have had them myself LOL

ok, so mom picked up early today...was a hard conversation but i just explained that i have other families dropping off and getting my own kids up and ready that i just cant get to the baby and sit for 30mins right when she arrives. she completely understood and then laughed it off that she feels the same way in the mornings i was stunned she said it.

hopefully next week will be better

[marniewon]

I have, in my section under Arrivals and Departures, one simple sentence: Children must arrive clean and fed and ready for the day (unless arriving at mealtime). That's all I have, because honestly, it never occurred to me that any parent would bring their child unfed unless they knew it was right at my mealtime. I've never had a parent not feed their infant before bringing to me. My kids start showing up at 7:45am - most infants are up way before then! Plenty of time to feed your child - especially if it's an infant and it's just a bottle!

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

I dont serve breakfasts,... so they either feed them or the children wait for snack at 845-9 ish.

[momma2girls]

I dont serve breakfasts,... so they either feed them or the children wait for snack at 845-9 ish.

I don't either- I have a snack between9-9:30 for everyone. So technically I already have it in my contract already.

[broncomom1973]

One of the nurses who I worked with before I quit my job to start a daycare had a baby a little over a year ago. She started bringing him at 3 mos and she would bring him hungry. It was so awful listening to him scream while I was trying to get my dd ready for preschool. I finally told her that on MWF (the days dd had preschool), she needed to bring him fed because it wasnt fair for everyone to listen to him screaming or for me to literally have heart palpitations from it. I will say that from then on she did try to some extent to give him at least a couple of ounces to hold him off. I eventually terminated him because he cried, no screamed, much of the day when I was too busy trying to take care of the other 5 toddlers feeding meals or changing their diapers. I didnt have 10 hours to tend to him soley. I absolutely see nothing wrong with asking parents to feed their own children before arrival. Dh took our kids to daycare when I was working and only my 2nd went to daycare as an infant but he never took her hungry.

[Unregistered]

...these moms with babies most are still waking up through the night, and it is hard to drag yourself out of bed ...

You bring up a good point. I hadn't thought about it this way when I read the first post. I remember when my oldest was an infant and I had to get him to day care. It was hard to get myself up in the morning to get ready for work. I was absolutely exhausted every morning because I was up with him all night. (He was born with club feet and wore casts that I'm sure made him feel uncomfortable and unable to sleep well.)

That said, I can understand the frustration of the OP. When you have a houseful of kids and you're trying to settle everyone in, a screaming, hungry baby does make for a stressful morning. It's made even more difficult if you have to cook breakfast for kids who have had to wait for the baby to be fed and are now cranky and hungry, too. As exhausted as a new mom is, it really is her responsibility to feed her child in the morning before arriving at day care. I would try to accommodate the mom if I could and I can understand oversleeping and rushing to drop the baby off on rare occasions but when it happens every day for a week and it's causing problems for the child care provider, I think it's a good idea to speak with the parents so they can hopefully understand the stress their behavior is causing. Hopefully in this case, the parents will be able to make some adjustments to their own schedule (going to bed a little earlier, maybe?) so that everyone's mornings are less hectic.

[Unregistered]

its in my contract

I tell my parents that their children need to be fed before they arrive period! I have two children of my own, that need to be fed and dressed before they go to school. Do you think that the school would be ok with me dropping my children off and saying ooops we woke up late/ or I wanted to let them sleep, and didn't have time to eat.

come on really???? my children both sleep walk, and most nights I am getting up with them as well. but that DOES NOT mean that I don't account for the time in the am to make sure they are fed. My children, my responsibility.

I understand that there will be alot of opinions that are not the same on these boards. And mine is not sugar coated, its a simple statement of how it goes here,

If I were to feed the baby I watch in the am, while trying to take care of my own, we would be late all the time. I have a 9 month old dcg and When she is feed it takes a good 20 minutes or more of my holding her close while she eats her bottle. Doesn't leave much ability to do more than that.

If I grow more arms, I may consider feeding in the am.. :-)