Quote Originally Posted by jec View Post
I've always included my own kids as part of my numbers in my daycare and always super excited when I was able to bring on another to fill their spot while at school.

Yikes playfelt- your brave I'm not sure I would take them on that young. Your right, that is a lot of work at 4- 6 months.
I've only ever taken them from 1 year - and been crazy busy in winter getting them all dressed but, just did it one at a time and i'd be working up quite the sweat. It was my winter work out!!
I've never taken into consideration the extra work done at times and just considered it part of my job.
You have to remember I started daycare back in 1985. Back then very few moms worked right up until delivery day and only had 6 months off from the time they left work not the time the baby was born. So it was common to have kids come to care at 4 months old. Good thing is mom provided bottles and they slept a lot.

Just for curiosity when did the one year maternity leave start.

In the last few years I have had a few that came to care at 8-9 months because the parents shared the mat leave with the dad taking some of it at the beggining at paternal leave - they can do a total of a year between them.

The biggest advantage of getting the babies was that they were off the bottle, used a cup and fed with a spoon around a year old. Were almost always walking and saying a few words. They were around the other kids all day and my expectations were that they would keep progressing. Enter one year mat leave and is it any wonder kids under age 2 are considered babies.