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If your fortunate enough to have a lot of choices in who comes in, is gender one of your criteria. Do you like to keep it mixed, do you prefer all girls or all boys? if you have mostly girls and a client come in with a boy are they usually put off that he might be the only boy (or other way around)
curious if you sometimes pick children based on gender
I'm not really that picky on gender since I only take them till school so about 3 1/2. At that age if they started in my care as babies they are used to and comfortable playing with ALL of the centres in the room.
I think it is more the parents that are interviewing that are concerned about their child having at least one other same sex "friend" at daycare.
Right now I have 2 girls in care, a girl starting in Oct and interviewing for another girl this week. The chances then of getting a boy to fill my fifth spot are dwindling. I had three boys leave to start school. It seems to go in waves back and forth for some reason. All but one call so far have been for girls and I don't put in my add what genders I have in care so just luck of the calls.
At the same time I am looking forward to doing more princess type stuff and less pirate and cars type stuff for a little while.
Right now I have my son and another boy and 2 girls so I am a 50/50 mix. I really don't care either way though. I think my mix is appealing to parents because they think thier child will have a playmate of the same gender however the children seem to play boy/girl boy/girl haha.
Until recently I did have another boy but he never played with anybody, he preferred to be on his own.
I pick the children I accept into care based on thier personalities and the personality of thier parents. Gender has very little to do with it.
Not really gender, but i do stick with age relation. I just reccently had a mom call for care for her daughter who is 9 years old, she didnt seem to care of the age difference, but I do. I told her I have all younger children ranging from new born to about 3. some 5's but going oof to school soon, she didnt have any issues but for me I have a few, one is to keep ALL kids happy. I find the older they are the more bored (of course) they will get with a younger croud, not to mention that is more on your plate to keep ALL happy. too much work. IMO. not to mention, from a parents point of view I often wonder if they are not turned off more by the age difference rather than the gender difference. I would be concerned if there was a child quite a bit older than mine in a daycare setting for many reason. girl boy shouldnt make too much difference though especially at a young age, they all ussly learn to play together quite well, although.....if I were a mo0m looking for care I guess I would hope there would be at least one other boy or girl for my boy or girl to play with. i.e. what does one 3yr old boy do with say 3 yr old girls all day long? it just would be nice to have a good mix of both gender. :)
I prefer girls to boys, but wouldn't not take a child based on gender. I have 3 boys and 1 girl right now. I find the girls progress a little faster, listen a little better. It may just be my experiance with girls though. I have to admit, when i am advertising and I have a client looking for care I tend to get a little more excited if I know it's a girl.
I personally don't have a preference for ratios or genders but I do find that with girls I tend to have to deal with more emotional issues (separation anxiety, being hurt that someone's playing with a toy they wanted, etc and boys are more into everything so there's more issues in ensuring that they aren't doing anything too crazy and dangerous. Right now i have 4 boys and 3 girls and a 5th boy joining us in September.
I do prefer girls right now soly because ll I have are girls and I'd feel bad for the little boy playing cars by himself while everyone else is having a tea party & being a mommy LOL
I know that they'll play with eachother in "boy or girl" toys so thats not really a BIG concern but I know it will happen and I don't want to hurt the little guys feelings. Also boys tend to be a bit rougher and with my group of whiney-girls he'd think it stinks! :D One more Iif I had a mix I'd have no choice but now it's easier not having to rotate ALL the toy bins :laugh:
I have right now a 5yr old, 3yr old, 2.5yr old & 9mos old all girls!
I prefer to keep a good mix and I've been lucky to have 2 boys and 3 girls or vice versa and when a boy is leaving I'm happy to bring in a new baby boy, etc. But I really encourage all the children to play together and not have them think that they have to play with gender specific toys. I get the boys to carry the purses to shop at the stores (my toy cupboard) and the girls play with the parking garage and that sort of thing.
I would love to have a mix at all times to balance things out, but I don't choose based on gender unless all else is equal and I have that choice available. I've had 4 boys plus my own son and my daughter for the past year...I find it a bit too rough at times. I am now starting almost over again due to a move and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a nice mix ;) However, if that doesn't happen, I'll just roll with it :)
I don't choose based on gender but when I started it was all boys and then in Jan I got a girl .... She had a tough time at first cause she was the oldest and she came from daycare that had all girls so this was definitely foreign to her. I had a 9 month old girl start in feb but that didn't help much as they were totally different age groups. She has had my daughter to play with all summer and they are only 9 months apart and then she goes to jk in two weeks so it won't be an issue any more. I have a new almost 2 yr old girl starting next week so that will be great for the youngest one who is now 16 months. Would like to get one more and I'm not fussy about the gender. It seems to go in waves though.
I wanted 50/50 but I ended up will all boys. Just the way it worked out. But I love it. I honestly don't now if I would add a girl into the mix. I am currently looking for October, but I am looking for a little boy my son's age to replace the little boy my son's age who will be going part time. If it were different, I dont' think I would be too concerned about the genders, but I really do love the atmosphere of having all boys. Although, having a few girls to play girlie toys with would be fun ;)