What the ..... Friday venting

[mlle.coccinelle]

Ok,
I just gave one of the parent their final strike...

remember the 3.5 year old finger sucking DKG.... well today during nap... she went in OUR washroom ( i have a separate washroom for the dayhome) and has put poop ALL OVER the toilet, wall floor.... she stepped in it.... walk all over my bedroom with her feet covered in poop... all that while i was having a snooze on my couch... I guess i wont be taking any naps anymore!

I also told her about the fact that she need to bring winter clothing... she said that it was ok for her daughter to go play outside... without her snow pants, gloves,hat, scarf and coat! she only has a fall/spring jacket.... I answered that next time she comes, if she is not dressed correctly, i will refuse to take her for the day... and she got offended.... Listen lady, you were wondering why your daughter is always sick... I have the answer for you....

I reminded her that we will be re-signing our contract the first week of January and that there will be a slight augmentation of price ( because i was new, I had no idea what to charge and realized that i am not charging enough at all!!) and she said that the price i gave her is too high for her budget and that she will have to think about it.... Well lady, if you leave, good luck finding someone that will pick up your child's crap for 25$ per day!

....Sorry for the bad words... this has been the worse week/day since i've started dayhome

[angelina]

*hugs*

oh my, i would have a rough time with a kid like that.

parents like that - i have spares at home, so everyone is well dressed for the season. i cannot put up with parents that are not dressing their kids right and i tell them -------- i got out daily and i have clothing for your kids, if you don't have any. thankfully, most of my parents bring winter coats, snow pants, good mitts when I ask them.

yes, here in ottawa $25 is too low.
my area, the low end is like $35 per day. I am at $40/day now with my toddlers.

angie

[Smitty]

oh I feel for you! how horrible! I am new at daycare. I have been caring for kids for three months and I am quikly learning from my mistakes. Geez I thought there wouldn't be any drama working for myself at home. So far I have delt with late payments, no payments, forgotten payments, NSF cheques, full timers turning into part timers, people taking surprise vacation days on the actual day, supposed toilet trained dcb pooping his pants EVERY DAY, my house getting distroyed, etc, etc,etc. I need to change policies but i am afraid i will loose clients. I dont charge enough for part time and before/after care kids. Not sure how I can change policies when it has only been a couple of months but I feel like i really need to.

[Momof4]

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, poor you for having to clean all that up! I hope you made that child help you!

mlle. do you really only charge $25/day? We need to talk! I started out charging way too little and realized that I attracted the wrong kind of clients. I'm glad you have a contract because I started without one and that was a big mistake too.

I know there are a lot of other caregivers on this site from Alberta. You should talk to them before you get your contract changed so you attract the right kind of clients from now on.

[Other Mummy]

What a crappy way to end the week (pun very much intended)

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. At 3.5 she should know better than to smear feces all over the bathroom. How did DCM react to that news?

She is in for a rude awaking if she decides to shop eleswhere when you raise your rates. Newbies often make the same mistakes (charging way to low).

[gravy_train]

oh gosh.. that is really horrible. like everyone else is saying, don't sell yourself short, ever! i every walk of life people will take advantage of you, and this profession is no exception. you have to treat your business with a business mind.
personally, i would terminate if a child ever smeared feces all over the place. i couldn't deal with cleaning it up and part of having my ow business is that i don't have to. YOU call the shots here! embrace that power!

[treeholm]

This is indeed awful, and I'm very sorry you had a bad day. I have to say, though, that I'm stuck on the part where you say this happened while you were napping! I can't imagine allowing myself to doze off while running a daycare; it sends shivers up my spine imagining the mischief a 3.5 year old could get into if left unattended. I barely have time to go to the bathroom. Maybe I'm a paranoid newbie, but I don't let the children out of my sight for longer than the time it takes to pee, and for nap time, they are either babies in pack n plays or they are older ones (I have two 3.5 year olds) who nap where I can see them. If my child did something like that at daycare, I would ask the provider where she was when this was happening, and if she told me she was having a nap, I would be shocked. I don't mean to offend you, I'm just surprised that someone would think of taking a nap while at work.

[Momof4]

Treeholm, you are new so don't judge too harshly! I have to admit, even in this open forum that parents read, that I rest and read and sometimes doze off for 1/2 an hour or so during naptime. Hey, I'm honest and I deserve a break. The children sleep for 2 hours and I'm in the room for the first 1/2 hour while they fall asleep and the last 1/2 hour when they are waking up. They don't miss me. My dckids sleep on my main floor in my dining room and living room which are also my daycare rooms. So I go to my bedroom upstairs when they sleep.

If I stayed downstairs I would wake them up earlier than they should wake up. I would love to be able to do dishes or some other chore during naptime but to tell you the truth I'm super happy that I'm forced to relax. I stay here in the room until they are asleep and I hear the first sound out of them thanks to my Mom's ears even if I do fall asleep for a bit.

I've never had a child take off their diaper as mlle described, but I'm back down here at the first peep as I said. But my dckids wake up noisy so I'm back as soon as I hear a sound. Obviously mlle. has a sneaky girl who wakes up quietly. Extremely Yuck, but we can't judge each other!

[cfred]

Hey Treeholm....easy on the judgement calls there. This is a tough job and for some of us it runs for 12 hours/day. I've had my own kids get up and get into mischief whilst I slept. It happens. Her little poo stomper is obviously very quiet. Personally, my dcks sleep in pack and plays in separate rooms and I am NOT with them. The point of quiet time, aside from children having their sleep, is for me to have a good break. Quite frankly, we all deserve it. I might suggest that a monitor is in order as it will amplify sound, making it a little tougher for things like this to happen. I have them set up on both floors the kids sleep on. I like my kids separate so I don't have to do the whole 'settling everyone in thing'. We all have cribs in our bedrooms...kids don't like it, but they have to take one for the team After a bad night's sleep or if I'm ill, I've been known to doze too and I make no bones about that with the parents. If you are watching the children CONSTANTLY for the whole time you're open, you're pushing yourself too hard. YOU need a break too...or burnout will catch up with you.

And Mlle....yeah, definitely charging too little. Bump it up about $10-$15.....still not what we're worth but on par with most others.

[cfred]

Ummmm.....amendment. ...by my own kids in previous post I actually meant my OWN kids...biological... ..