How many toddlers 12-24mths do you normally care for, and feel comfortable handling?

[playfelt]

Between the one year mat leave and full day JK all of my kids fall into the aged 1-3 catagory. The under age 2 rule is a misnomer in a sense that to me if you want to pin point infant to toddler it would be between 15-18 months. By then they walk, follow simple instructions sometimes such as come here, sit down. I have 4 kids of my own although they are all out of the house now except our youngest who has special needs and will always be a "toddler" in our midst. I have always taken on my allowable 5 daycare and any age mix works for me.

When I was living in London I cared for a toddler that would have turned 2 in November and her mom gave birth to triplets in early August. So for that span of time she had 4 kids under 2 and 3 under a year. She sent most of her help away except for a bit of feeding help. Left the older one with me till Christmas mostly till she got her strength back and then she took care of all 4 of them herself. I visited often - always enough babies to go around - and saw her setup and routine and that showed me that it can be done. It isnt' so much the age of the children as much as it is the needs of each age group and how you are set up to handle them. An efficient diaper changing place makes it go a lot smoother than having to grab each child's bag and set them up etc. Feeding the same. If they are all eating the same foods then you make batches of food not having to cook three different things or prepare it three ways - puree, chopped, whole depending on group.

My point is don't discount any child just because of their age. As far as safety goes in an emergency any child under 5 isn't going to react they way you need them to so again a child that sits and waits for me or someone to get them can be safer than one that runs and hides and ignores my pleas to come.

Also realize they develop quickly so a non walking child might be walking within weeks of starting and that can vary as some walk at 9 months and others 16 months.

I would prefer to have them all as close together as possible but do try to watch my birth dates so there are at least two groups leaving for school a year apart - some summer/fall birthdays and some with winter/spring birthdates which means they don't all leave the same year.

I am losing three this summer either moving or school and anticipate filling the spaces with one year olds (ideally starting a month apart between July and October) and I will have two left in care - turning 2 end of Sept and turning 3 beginning of Nov.