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Yeah - that's way long. I thought most states have a limit, like 10hrs. You have to set your hours and stick to them...unless you have staff with shifts. But at any rate - that poor kid. I think people don't realize that even though the child should like daycare - it is still not "home" and staying there all day is hard.
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In Calif. the max a child can stay in licensed daycare is 23 hours,
I do have 2 kids that stay long hours too, I have a single mom that works AND goes to school at night .She has no family support . They are here 14 hours a day(most days). I give them baths at night and take them everywhere...gymnastics, ballet, church. They love my house and get excited when mom comes but they love being here because I don't treat them like a dck . They are like extended family. We never talk about money or arrangements in front of them.
Dad is not in the picture at all , she is an awesome mom and they are VERY well behaved. I taught 4 year old to read , and 7 year old is in all advanced classes.
The alternative ??..tell mom "sorry but everybody says that these hours are not good for them, so you have to stay in your dead end job forever and not graduate from college, keep living in the projects,and stay poor...hey but your kids will be happy to see you more everyday!!"
This is just temporary and I know that doing this will better their lives, which is one of the reasons why I do daycare.Comment
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See this is what I don't get.
You stand firm that develomentally approriate programs are what all programs should be. You have shared that you are an evaluator of programs as a part of your living.
How can you suggest that it is EVER developmentally appropriate for a developmentally appropriate program to ALLOW eleven hour days? Doesn't that completely defy developmentally appropriate?
Where is it on your evaluation tools that asks "how many hours per day does each child in this program attend?". Shouldn't that be the FIRST question? Shouldn't that be more important than whether or not their is a sand and water table? Shouldn't that matter more than having comfy seating or a "quiet area" for privacy?
When are we going to recognize that it is impossible to be developmentally appropriate when a child is away from their parent that many waking hours a day? When are we going to take a stand and tell parents we just can't do it? It's too much.
There are only twenty four hours in a day. That can't be cheated. If a kid is in your home eleven hours and has transport time home with parents there is no possible way for them to have any substantial DAILY awake face time with their kid.
I do nine hours max. You allow eleven. Just think about the last two hours every day in your program and imagine every single kid being home and awake with their parents.
Now you tell me that you wouldn't prefer that? You tell me it wouldn't make a HUGE difference in the quality of parenting and the quality of YOU and your work?
This isn't something that needs researching... it's plain simple common sense. Children need TIME .... awake TIME.. every day with their parents.
I won't be a part of any care that means that at the end of the week the kid is in my care more hours awake than they are in the parents care a week awake.
I'm not talking about sleeping times... I'm talking about awake hours. Not counting nap... not counting sleeping at night... AWAKE hours.
We need to be the ones to take a stand and say we won't do it. We won't be a part of any system that promotes that much time in care. Sure people have busy lives .... they have to work... but the message needs to be sent before the kid is even conceived that the "BEST" child care won't allow eleven hour days because the best know it's not in the BEST interest of the kids.
I AGREE with Nannyde on this one 100%!Comment
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long days, working/commuting
Here is the problem. Parents will piece together care with a sitter or nanny for the hours surrounding FCP and Center care if they have too. Its not that parents plan to have children in care that long, it is simply not a choice. Frankly, choice, when it comes to parenthood is becoming less available every day. If you don't want to provide care for the hours a parent needs, that all that needs to be said. Many parents work more than an hour from their homes or care centers, few workplaces offer on site care, and often the choice of a one hour commute with child and near care to work is not available. Maybe this is a regional or cultural problem.
Offer what you want to offer and feel comfortable with.
Let parents make their own best decisions in the care and support of their children.
And - for the poster with a friend who grew up in China - things have changed all over the world and many parents do work world wide, full days, with long commutes and not all grandmas are retired either.
I understand most FCPs here made the career choice to be able to be with their own children. Not everyone has the gifts and talents required to take that role, and some parents have necessary skills (like pediatrician, nurse, police officer, shift worker) that do require them to be away from home for longer than is ideal.
I know many parents who could support their children if they were only paid what is covered in child care assistance. That is just not an option.Comment
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How long is too long?
I can remember when my DD was in daycare and those were long days. Long commutes are the worst. She was in daycare from about 7:15am until about 5:45pm, Monday through Friday. It couldn't be helped at the time. The alternative was not working and trying to scrape by on my husband's income alone. That was not going to be a viable option because we had too many expenses at the time. I think that we made the best decision possible for our family at the time. Do I wish that I would have had more time with her? Yes, but in the long run it would have created a lot of financial problems.
As far as public assistance goes, there are people who abuse it and there are people who don't abuse it. It's a sore spot for me because I have sisters who have managed to turn public assistance into a way of getting by without working. It's especially difficult when one of my sisters acts like she's the World's most loving mom because she was there for her kids. I have had to learn that not all people on assistance are like my sisters, but it is a work in progress. It takes time.Comment
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I've worked in corporate and I've worked at home so I can see both sides of the coin. I didn't really "weigh in" on this thread because it seemed to have gotten hurtful to people along the way.
I really like how you worded your post. Very non-judgmental and understanding of both sides....thank you!
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I have been thinking about the posts that were going back and forth and thought about it to the point that I went back and read from the start.
I want to apologize to anyone that I may have offended and this was never my intention. I did make the mistake and not explain myself well and I “bunched people into groups”, which was not fair.
WE all know that no two people have the same story or the same life. And I think that as American’s it is great that we are FREE to voice our opinions, good or bad.
I don’t want to comment on this subject anymore, buy I was feeling bad that I offended some people and needed to apologize. I am very sorry to those that I may offended.Comment
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Late Pick Up - Late Fee
My wife runs a daycare (10-12) kids and she has people show up late at least once a week. Life does happen, but, daycare providers are in a unique situation where when "life happens" - it affects them as well. Other times, she feels like people just aren't considerate enough to make an effort at showing up on time. Some people like to wait till the last minute of everyday and are late quite often. So she has a late fee to help enforce the time policy, but when it actually comes time to tell someone they are late - it's harder - especially when they are only like 5 minutes over. So - I created some software to help this problem. It's main purpose is to manage the time records, eliminate the sign in /out sheet - and most importantly notify the parents when they have violated the time policy. I've just launched the site - called checkinkids.com - and I'm offering free lifetime usage to the first 20 people that sign up, use it and give feedback. I have 7 sign ups so far.Comment
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Wow
I work 2 jobs and my wife is a nurse an hour away from our home . 3 days out of the week my child requires 11.5 hour days at daycare. I wanted a daughter, I will not be a dirtbag of a human being dependent on welfare, and I will work my ass off to provide for my family. The extra money destroys our debt, saves money for my daughters college/wedding/future house. Yes it’s a long day for anyone to do and guess what I did think about providing for my daughter when I thought about having kids. Anyone who say you should have thought about that before having children either does not have children or completely relays on free handouts I.e. government assistance, stay at home mom, or still live with your parents. Some of us have to work our ass off to survive. Until you have been in our shoes you can promptly stfu.Comment
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Law Enforcement
Firefighters
EMTs
Paramedics
Dispatchers
Nurses
ER Drs
all work 12 hour shifts here. Most of them 3-4 days a week. Our sheriff's dept is so under staffed right now that they are all working 5 and 6 days a week. None of them had kids or started that job expecting to work 5 or 6 12 hours shifts a week. But it is what it is, and they need child care.Comment
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What's with all the new unregistered posts? Did I miss something?Comment
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Most parents can stagger their hours so they don’t leave their kids in care for those hours. I can see some people truly needing it but most don’t.
Almost every single daycare ad I have seen in the past two years is for a minimum of 10 hours a day. The last family I interviewed needed my full day of 7am-5pm eventhough I asked both of them what they did for a living and there was no reason they could not stagger their hours like some of my other families. The couple across the street from me both work the same job as my husband but both work 10 hours to his 7!
Some people are making those choices.Comment
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I am curious as well.
Also, as a double paramedic/firefighter family (DH and I), we make the choices we can live with. Our kids have not been in daycare, our bills are paid, we paid for their college and are now funding our retirement. My time on shift is the easy part.- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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