Originally Posted by
Inspired by Reggio
Agreed Treeholm ~ stereotypes and generalizations do no one any good at all ... a best match is about so many varied things between client and provider than just if they are a parent or not and how old their children are ... I agree that the fact I have no young children of my own is a selling feature for some who feel that indicates i am in this for the long haul and not just while my own are not in school, that yes I might be more well rested and less likely to take time off work and so forth however I am sure there are just as many others who read that on my website and choose not to contact me cause 'having wee ones' is a must have attraction for them.
I have seen what Serendipity is talking about first hand when I worked in centre care ... RECE peer who are awesome 'providers' in a group setting but their 'parenting' did not reflect the same best practice to say the least ... they are not able to put into practice things like consistent behavior and guidance, consistent expectations around resiliency, empathy and equality between kids that they do naturally with kids who are not theirs as a result the centres they worked at had to move them to alternate rooms so they were not working directly with their own children in a 'work setting' ... that does not mean that ALL RECE in a centre setting should not be able to have their children in their own program because many are and were awesome at balancing both roles ... like anything in life it is a SKILL and one needs to hone it and pay attention to their effectiveness at it.
Another reality is that there are two ways to approach having your own kids in your program specially when you are working from home and determining how daycare children should be treated verses how children in their own 'home' should be treated ... many providers do not think if their children as IN a daycare but rather in their home and therefore they are allowed to do things that the daycare children are not cause well it is their HOME and if they want to go up to their room and be alone so be it, if they want to go up to the kitchen and get food on their own so be it and so forth while there are others whose children are expected to follow all the same rules as the daycare children during mama's working hours cause while it is their home the provider feels she is still working so to speak and it is just easier to have everyone doing same thing including her own children .... IMO these are things that clients seeking care should consider and ASK how the providers own children are integrated into the program that way there is no 'bad experiences' cause you can choose someone whose values you share around these scenarios.
Communication is KEY for both parties for sure specially if you've had a bad experience somewhere so you can head off a second one by asking the right questions and so forth ;)
