My daycare is taking over my house!

[Sandbox Sally]

HUGS! I get it. I really do! I so wish some days that I had a walkout finished basement for my daycare. How ideal would that be?? I try to encourage the kids to play only in the play room (which is my dining room). And I know it's a pain, but I force myself to take down the play pens every night after the kids leave. Sometimes, I'll let the babies play upstairs while I take them down directly after nap time. It takes five minutes, and it makes such a huge difference when I finish my day and go back upstairs to the solace of our private bedrooms.

It's the little things.

[gcj]

My daycare uses the entire house, but it really only seems to show in the basement where the "official" playroom is. They sleep upstairs, but I made a promise to myself that when my kids get home their rooms look only like their rooms so the 3 mats I use (crib mattresses) fit perfectly under my bed and the playpen is always folded up at the end of the day.

On my main level they have 2 wicker baskets...1 with books and 1 with individual quiet toys like the good old Leap Pad and Winnie the Pooh phone....stuff they sit and play by themselves. This way when they are upstairs, while I'm preparing meals or clearing away after, they are playing nicely.

I do get tired of gates and locks on everything, but I try to deal with it. I try to think about going out and getting a job instead. Then I don't mind....too much