Errands

I wasn't feeling very good this morning and didn't know how I was going to get through the day. I'm just a bit burnt out from the school kids being here all summer I think, it's not the flu or anything. I let the kids play first thing in the morning and I relaxed and watched a documentary on cruise ships. That's way better than closing for the day and making parents scramble for daycare. I will now make it through the end of the day feeling much better :) Anyone who can be 'on' every minute they are open deserves a medal cuz it sure gets exhausting at times. That's why I don't make a big deal about parents dropping their kids off on their days off anymore since I know the feeling when you just need a break. I know we are getting paid to be 'on the clock', but it works out to $2-3 per hour per child. Being able to enjoy life is important too. That's the main reason I get chores/errands done during business hours, so I can be free on my off time. I don't want to be scrubbing my toilet on a nice sunny day, I want to take my dog to the park! When I browse through ads for local daycare, I always seem to see new daycares pop up. Older daycares must get burnt out and close down I'm thinking. I've seen 2 daycares close down just in my area since I opened. That's why I like to have a balance of child-adult interactions and peer-peer interactions so I don't deplete myself to the point of no return. Burn out is a serious issue for daycare workers and we need to take precautions before it's too late. I'd have no problem running my dayhome like a classroom from open to close if I had the holidays like a teacher to recharge. But when my dayhome is open for 10 hours and I only take a week off per year (and stats of course) that is not going to happen. All my family and friends wonder how I have been doing what I do for 6 years since they understand how exhausting kids can be. Sometimes you just have to take care of your own needs and that's how I do it. I wouldn't be doing this still if I was 'on' all day. I hope to be one of those rare people (that I have noticed anyways) that can say they have had their dayhome for 20 years + so can't get burnt out.

I don't go out with my children as I have 4 infant/toddlers but I understand why someone would and yes I agree with all of you who do, as we only have so many hours in a day and if you can fit a bit of shopping in the day that helps free up your time when you are off the clock

http://www.daycare.com/nannyde/trans...ycare-kids.htm

That was a really good thread but what works for someone may not work for someone else. Reading through this thread and the past post I fee like a lot of people complain about being stuck in a house and doing daycare related activities/education all day long. I don't get it because I use to be a police officer in the past and I use to see they worst of the worst on a day to day basis now that job was hard and exhausting. Give me some crafts a pepa the pig and we are good for the day! Our jobs a really amazing and compared to other jobs that people do it's really not that bad.

I think it's awesome that people run errands if they can get away with it. But for me there's no way I am going anywhere! I love working from home and the thought of driving around with 5 kids gives me shivers ugh!

I know some people say we work really long hours. I work a 12 hour day and yes it is long but it use to be the name thing in my previous jobs when I worked 7:30-4:30. With getting ready and transportation and dropping kids off to daycare than picking everyone up it was all in all around 12 hours once again!

It was a very one sided view on it though. I think a better article would be from someone who has done both and could provide pros and cons to both sides of the coin. JMO

I'm sure there are providers out there like the article talks about but I do really believe (or maybe hope!) that most aren't like this. We do a bit of outings (car outings definitely more in the summer) with the odd errand thrown in whereas the article is talking about a provider who does errands with the odd dc outing thrown in.

Just an observation I've noticed....dcp's who use vehicles don't really care if those who don't, don't but the ones who don't use vehicles are so against those that do.....reminds me of when parents talk about breast feeding or bottle feeding lol

Keep in in mind the article was written 8 years ago