I've posted questions here before, but haven't had the time to write anything recently. I have been reading though, and some answers have helped me tremendously with the way I run things here. Even though I have read a lot of posts lately, I need some advice on a few things happening with my daycare children and my daycare business in general.

My first problem: -I have a 2.5 year girl in my daycare who is very sensitive and cries when I tell her not to do something. She also sticks to me all the time. She will only eat at the table if I sit with her. Otherwise, she will eat a few bites and tell me she is all done. At first, I thought she was doing this because she did not want to eat at the table. I learned recently that it is because I am not sitting at the table with her and allowing her to sit on my lap to eat. Unfortunately, I am running back and forth while the children eat to get things for them and get things ready. When she first started coming here, she would refuse to nap unless I was with her and she would cry all day for her mom. She also refused to take part in any activities and would just cry. Her crying made all the others cry too. I stuck it out though and she is doing a lot better now. It took a few months but I finally got her to nap without any problems. The only problem that remains is getting her to stay asleep during her nap. She doesn't wake up to sound or me walking in to check on her, but she does wake up to something. (I just don't know what). She wakes up after 20 minutes. At first, I thought that was all the sleep she needed, so I'd let her come out and play a quiet game with me. This would only result in her being extremely tired toward the end of the day. (when she is tired, she cries and sticks to me even more than she already does). In the last 2 months, I've been getting her to stay in her cot and to go back to sleep. It requires a lot of reminding. Sometimes I have to take away her stuffy, her blanket, her pillow...etc... If she does end up napping more during our nap period, she wakes up a very happy and different girl than she was in the morning. I only get to see her good side in the last hour that she is here. She is such a happy and playful little girl in that last hour. Before this, she is whiny and cries about everything. Any advice? I don't want to terminate her contract because I adore her very much. I am determined to make something work. I need to figure something out quick as I will need her nap area to become a shared nap area.

Now I have an 11 month old and her 4 year old brother that just started here 2 weeks ago. The 11 month old is very easy to care for when I don't have any other children. My youngest son is just over a year and they follow eachother around. It is so cute! I've never had this baby during nap time, and I am dreading it. The first week she was here, she came without her brother. She was here for 3 days and only for 2 hours, as her mom was still on maternity leave and wanted to test her out first. This week, she and her brother came. Their mother is back to work and had promised me that I would have 15-20hrs per week with her children. Last week, I had 4hrs. I didn't even have time to do anything fun with them as they were dropped off around 2pm and picked up just before 4pm. When they get here, it is still nap time for the others so we cannot do anything loud. I allow the 4 year old to play quietly with the train set and the baby crawls around and plays with toys in the living room. Then, I have to put her in a playpen so that she is safe while I get the other children up around 2:30pm. I give everyone a snack around that time. It is usually 3 or 3:15 by the time snacks are done. 3:15 is when my pickups begin. By the time the first wave of pickups is done, I only have 15 minutes left with these two. I hope their mother didn't expect me to do an activity with them. No time! I am very disappointed in the lack of hours and am hoping that they will be here more next week. They are taking up 2 daycare spaces that I could have filled with two other children. I am giving them until September for the hours to pick up. If I do not have more hours by then, I will have no choice but to let them go. I will give a warning first. My other issue with the 11 month old is that she needs to be held when she is tired. She will not go to sleep in the playpen. She needs to be held and sang to. Her mom was very sure that she would easily go to sleep, and that she may only need her paci and a light blanket or stuffie to cuddle. Is she too young to let her cry it out for a bit? If so, I need to find another nap area to place her in. So far, she hasn't even been here for nap times, so I guess I don't have to worry about that right now.

My 3rd problem is with my own 1 year old. He currently has a shared room with our oldest 4 yo son. My 4yo son can't sleep in there because our 1yo doesn't sleep sound enough. He wakes up to everything. He even hears us moving around in our beds. I've put a fan on to drown out other noises, and he still can't sleep with our 4yo in there. We've also allowed our 4yo to sleep in our room for too long, so it would require sleep training him to sleep in his own bed, in his own room. (which he also cannot do if his little brother is screaming and crying. Our 1yo also will not nap or sleep anywhere but in his crib. So....At nap time, our 1yo is in a nice big room all to himself. I have one dc kid who can sleep in there because we put him to sleep before our 1yo son and make the room dark. Our 1yo goes in and cries his head off for 15-20 minutes before he goes to sleep. This does not wake the dc kid. Thank God! lol. So far, he is the only dc kid who can share a nap area with my 1yo. The other nap room is our toy room. I currently have my 2.5yo dc kid sleep in there on a cot. I can fit another playpen in there, but I am afraid that with all the crying and waking up that she does, the other one that would be placed in there won't get a very good nap. I could put the 2.5yo in my living room, but my 4yo son plays quietly or watches a movie in there. He can't have anyone around to play quietly. The second he sees someone, he is trying to get them to play. Once he goes to school in the fall, it will be easier. lol. My dining room has room for 1 playpen, if needed...but it has to be quiet in the whole house for the one that gets stuck in there. I have very limited space in my home. Spaces I thought that I would be able to use, I've learned that I can't. Should I maybe try to get my own 1yo to learn how to nap in a playpen? If I do this, it would free up the extra large room he is currently in for other children to have their daytime naps. I don't know that it will be successful though. My son has never ever, not even as a baby, slept anywhere but in his bassinet or crib. He has never been one to fall asleep in our arms or in the car for a car ride. And to fall asleep in his crib, it has to be pitch dark and there cannot be any noise or people in there. lol

My fourth problem is finding people to fill my spots. It seems there is always something working against me. A lot of people approached me before I was ready to take in children. (My daycare officially opened in July, even though I have been caring for two children since Feb and March.). I figured I'd still have a lot of people looking by the time I was ready to take children in. I started advertising in May for July openings. I interviewed for 3 families in June. One family already had a sitter and were thinking of switching to be closer to work. They decided to keep their current sitter as they didn't want their children to start over. The 2nd family I interviewed decided to go with a daycare closer to their home. The third family chose me. Other than that, I've had many people call me, schedule an interview and not show up for the interview! Even after confirming the night before...they would not show up! Last week, I missed my son's soccer game because of a no-show! All of these no-shows have made me step back and stop advertising. I no longer receive calls, but I honestly don't even want the stress of it...especially if it is for nothing.

My 5th problem...or question. How many pages are in your Parent Handbook? Mine is 8 pages. Is that too long? I still don't feel like I've covered everything. My Handbook not only lists my policies and procedures, but I also list the items they need to provide me with. I have a chart in there that shows how many hours of sleep a child needs based on their age...etc... I cover all...or at least...almost all my bases. I still feel like I need to cover more. I am always making changes because I never feel like it is good enough. Sometimes I make changes because I feel like I am too 'strict'. The people around here don't seem to respond well to rules. Knowing that, I am still not a fan of being walked all over. That is one of the reasons I left the work place to stay home.