Any suggestions????

Hi! I am just wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how I could make this situation easier for parents? I am going on Mat leave in a few months and we are also taking that time to move! We need to install new floors before we put the house up for sale. I use the main floor of my home for daycare. This will take 2 or 3 days to complete. So my problem is what to do with day care kids during this time. I only have 2 brothers plus my own daughter. I don't want to make the parents find other arrangements as they wonderfull and sticking with me until I close! We could play upstairs in my daughters room. Would it be weird to offer to go to their house and watch the kids there ( bringing food etc.)?????

Personally if it was me I would never offer to go to their house. It would just be awkward and they might not want you in their space. It seems somewhat unprofessional to me because it is something that a babysitter would do rather than a daycare provider but that is just me. It all depends on what you feel comfortable with.
I would either close for those 2-3 days or else stay upstairs or another floor of the house. You could spend the mornings at an early years program or outside at an indoor playground so that you wouldn't actually be in the house much or go play outside more.

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Originally Posted by Emily3

Hi! I am just wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how I could make this situation easier for parents? I am going on Mat leave in a few months and we are also taking that time to move! We need to install new floors before we put the house up for sale. I use the main floor of my home for daycare. This will take 2 or 3 days to complete. So my problem is what to do with day care kids during this time. I only have 2 brothers plus my own daughter. I don't want to make the parents find other arrangements as they wonderfull and sticking with me until I close! We could play upstairs in my daughters room. Would it be weird to offer to go to their house and watch the kids there ( bringing food etc.)?????

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If it's only for 3 days I would plan outside outings for the morning, lunch and then come home for nap and pick up. How old are your kids? Early years centre would be great for the morming. Pack a lunch and maybe eat at the mall food court & or Zehrs as they have a cafe. Go to the library and see if they do storytime etc...

Thanks ladies! The main problem is that we are in suburbs with nothing 'indoor' within walking distance and I do not drive with day care kids. Brothers are 4 and 20 months and my daughter is 22 months. Summer would be no problem.....outside all day!!!

You could always turn your daughter's room into the temporary play room?? Move some of her things that aren't for play with everyone.
I myself would not go to someone's house..but it's all about your comfort level and the relationship you have with these people.
I'm with Spixie33...for me, going to someone's house is like babysitting. I work hard at my job and hate being called that. When someone asks me if I am a baby sitter ~ my response is that I don't sit on the babies!! But then..I'm a little sensitive with that one :laugh:

A lot will depend on the layout of your house and how easily you can move from room to room without being on the area being refinished. Can you get from the door where families would enter to the stairs to go up to the bedrooms and then into the kitchen without having to walk on the floors. Think also about how to handle meals and snacks. Anyone I know that has redone floors was told to have the family move out while it was done due to noise and smell so that might be one need to look into.

Also have you talked to your realtor about putting the house on the market with the floors not refinished. Even if you do them now they could easily get damaged by the kids again between now and summer. If you made it a condition of your contract that you agreed to have the floors refinished prior to the new possession date and the realtor explained it was because of the kids you might still do ok in the sale depending on where you live.

You could also see about only having one day off if there was a way to do the floors in stages so you could move room to room and then eventually need to be out for a day. Even if you took a Friday off and used Fri/Sat/Sun or wait to put the house on the market till after easter and use the Good Friday - Easter Monday 4 days to do the floors but then when the kids come back limit what they do in the sense of use the time from now till then to box up part of the toys, etc. Also from a timing standpoint if you are expected to leave the house during showings which is preferred you want to wait until it is warm enough to walk around the block go to the park etc.

Probably after going to all the trouble to redo the floors and get the house ready to do showings it would be best to move play to your daughter's room anyways since it leaves the rest of the house ready for company.

If you are comfortable with suggesting to the family of going to their house I dont' see the big deal nor do I see how that would possibly make you a babysitter, thats what Nanny's do and I really doubt they appreciate being called a babysitter anymore than we do. In December I came home Sunday night to a notice of no water due to a waterline break on the street, I had to walk down the street to get to a trailor to fill a bucket or jug with water can you imagine running a daycare like that!! Plus my house was a diseaster as it had been a busy weekend of some activities withh my children, I had planned to clean that night. I called the one parent and since I do drive the kids came for the hour before school runs and than we spent the rest of the day at the one families house this was with my daughter, her daughter and another child.

I had new floors installed on my main floor last year and I took a week of vacation because there was no way I could run the daycare without my kitchen. If you have to close for a few days or a week just give your clients lots of notice. Families can find alternate care when given time to do so. You wouldn't want to try to care for children in a construction situation that wasn't safe.