How Much Time Do You Spend Actively Playing...

[tenderhearts]

I do much like the others. I don't necessarily "play" on the floor with them or I'd be a "jungle gym" (seriously) but I help with puzzles, or put together train tracks, read, when the babies nap we play games, like alphabet bingo, penguin pat, memory, hi ho cherrio. Usually it's letting them play dolls or cars together, I don't do that haha.

[momofboys]

Maybe 1/3rd of the time I spend actively playing & by that I do mean we play some board games or I sit & do Legos with them or read books with them. The rest of the time they play on their own.

[AfterSchoolMom]

My situation is this: I have drop ins, so one or two at a time. They're usually 2 or 3. Should I be expected to constantly entertain them all day?

[laundrymom]

I would think it would depend on how you personally run your program. How you structure their envionment. I dont think there is a "one right answer". (that didnt help did it? ,.. sorry)

My situation is this: I have drop ins, so one or two at a time. They're usually 2 or 3. Should I be expected to constantly entertain them all day?

[Unregistered]

I never really thought about it...

I always watch for the cues that let me know that they want me to play with them. I do play with them every day, but I also know when to back off and let them play. Some days I play with them more than other days.

Today I played on the floor with them and I had to be the patient and the 2 older girls were the doctor and nurse. Apparently, I was in rough shape and needed a lot of "doctoring". Part of the treatment included having my bare stomach scrubbed with one of the toy hand brooms, ! I was glad when I got a clean bill of health from them, because I'm not sure how much more stomach brushing I could have handled!

For drop in kids and for days that I am low on number, I have found that the kids do want me to play more with them. I try to get a variety of activities for them to do so that they have more to do than just play with me. It ****s trying to make lunch, feed a baby a bottle (a real baby that is!) and change the doll's diaper all while trying to read a book to another kid! I'm pretty good, but I'm not THAT good! Those days are the days that "GO PLAY TOYS" comes in handy!

[MommyMuffin]

I only have 3 dck and they play with each other, I try to help them play with certain toys that they don't quite understand yet. I will cuddle and tickle and read stories but when I try to sit by them when they are playing they tell me to"go away" . My daughter says " go in the kitchen mommy"

[SilverSabre25]

I spend very little time playing with the dcks. Usually I'm changing diapers, getting lunch/snacks, tidying things up. My DD is the oldest and she plays pretty well by herself. The others are all pretty independent and don't require much. I will do puzzles, help with certain things, talk someone through something (like helping with a shape sorter), read books (although reading to a group this young drives me batty), and eat pretend food someone brings me.

[nannyde]

My situation is this: I have drop ins, so one or two at a time. They're usually 2 or 3. Should I be expected to constantly entertain them all day?

For me it would depend on what I was being paid. If the hourly rate was minimum wage or higher per kid I would play with them some towards the end of their time and do activities. If the wage was just normal three/four/five dollar an hour I would have them go play.

What are the parents paying you per hour for the drop in?

[AfterSchoolMom]

$25/day per child for one family, $30 for the other, so only $2.50 - $3.00 per hour. Unfortunately, that's all I can expect here due to so many discount providers. That's for another topic, though.

[nannyde]

$25/day per child for one family, $30 for the other, so only $2.50 - $3.00 per hour. Unfortunately, that's all I can expect here due to so many discount providers. That's for another topic, though.

Oh yeah then I would have them play toys with each other. That's just a fee for supervision and their housing expenses that day. You could offer activites to the parents for additional fees but my guess is they will be happy to get such a great rate for just supervision and daily cost.

[misol]

We do preschool so I have a lot of interaction with the kids but not a lot of active play (with me involved). Generally I spend about 1-1.5hrs of each day actively playing with the kids and it's not necessarily a consecutive 60 minutes either. During free play, I usually wait until I am "invited" which doesn't happen often I have three 4-yr olds who do a great job of playing with each other and entertaining themselves. I just hang back and step in occasionally to make suggestions or stop a disagreement. Most of my active play is with the 15 month old and sometimes my 2yr old (she prefers to play with the older kids).

[QualiTcare]

nobody ever played with me when i was a kid and i would've never even thought to ask or want them to. it's not something i missed.

i don't play with my own kids either. i'll read them stories. i'll take them places. i might push them on the swing or play whack a mole, but that's about it. i'm not coloring (i'll help draw something) or playing barbies or anything else.

[laundrymom]

I do play with my own too. Barbies dollies cards board games coloring singing skating hiking swimming laying on the grass watching the clouds. We do everything as a family.

[nannyde]

nobody ever played with me when i was a kid and i would've never even thought to ask or want them to. it's not something i missed.

I asked my Dad one day (he's seventy) if he has a single childhood memory of an adult playing with him as a child. He said not a one. I asked his sister that... she is two years older than him... She said not one.

I don't know WHY this generation of children are so unique to the thousands of years we humans have been raising babies. I don't see how in just a couple of decades we've set some natural normal idea that adults should be playing with small children. Some how... some way.. this got tacked onto child care thru the guise of "education" and "developmentally appropriate activities". Nobody on the ground actually caring for groups of children was asked whether or not they wanted this or if they could get customers to pay for this... but put into our regs and the mindset of the parents it be.

I have been doing this for so long that I actually watched and recognized the societal shift as it was happening.

[AfterSchoolMom]

My parents didn't play with me either, or any other adult for that matter. I remember having one or two babysitters (a teenager on an occasional day or evening) that did crafts with me/us, and once all the kids on my street went out and had a "hay fight" in the hayfield next door - those were such rare instances (literally 2 or 3 times during my whole childhood) that I remember them now, even though I couldn't have been more than 4 or 5. I was an only child for the majority of my childhood, and I remember playing alone or outside with neighbor children for HOURS. It never even occurred to me to ask an adult to play with me.

That's the thing - I don't think it's my job to be entertainment for the kids. Do I love reading to them, feeding them, and caring for them? Yes. Do I want to sit on the floor and speak in a cartoon voice and dance toy farm animals around all day long? NO! I've been feeling some guilt over this - like if I'm NOT doing that, I'm not doing a good job or doing what the parents expect me to do. Nannyde is right, though - for two-fifty an hour, can parents really expect me to do that?