My daycare is taking over my house!

[apples and bananas]

I'm so frustrated lately. Everywhere I go in my home there are daycare things!

2 of my bedrooms have playpens all the time in them. The playroom has a playpen. My Christmas tree is only decorated on the top half so kids dont pull off my decorations. I have baby monitors in my kitchen. Baby gates on the stairs and accross my dining room entrance way. My coffee table is a plastic picnic table right now. It's just everywhere!

I think I just really need a couple of days off to slide this stuff away. It's just really getting to me lately.

I do not have a big house, but it's set up perfect for a daycare. However, sometimes I look at the space I'm using and think... what else could I be using that space for.

I really need to look at the set up in the bedrooms over the next couple of weeks and reconfigure so i'm not tripping over playpens every morning.

I'm going to move one more kid into the playroom for sleep after the holiday's. That would only leave one upstairs. It just means my quiet time shortens slightly as this one doesn't sleep as long. Some days I get amost 3 hours! (I know it sounds selfish, but I love it)

[Bookworm]

I feel your pain A&B. My husband hates the fact that there is always a playpen set up in our bedroom and tells me everyday! I have been slowly reorganizing things in my house to make better use of it in regards to the daycare. I think I am going to attempt to have all my dck's sleep in one area just to reclaim the bedrooms.

Hope you get a few days of rest during the holidays to put that stuff away.

[kidlove]

Our bedroom is now officially OFF LIMITS due to the fact that my husband already complains of the daycare "invasion" and he is home for the winter due to a seasonal job, so, to make things less dif between he and I I opt out of having anyone in our room for the winter monthes. I also use my kids rooms for nap time, which I didn't do the first handful of years but have become a little more "selfish" as well, with my peace during nap and really enjoy being able to do housework and such with out worrying about waking the beasts. ha ha ! I know exactly what you mean when you say your home is taken over, mine too! I do not have the luxury of even a play room, it all blends into our families personal space and at times it feels a little over run. The one thing I have learned over the years is, kids don't need an abundance of toys to have a good day. So, I will allow them to pick from the MANY daycare toys I store in the basement each day when they come and other than that, I will ussauly have a few things brought up from down there, alternanting to always keep the kids entertained with new things....and I ALWAYS clear it all away and send it to it's hiding place in the basement EVERY friday afternoon during nap. By the end of each week, my home is my home and no one would guess it was a daycare filled with brightly colored toys and noisy kiddos all week long, and I return to some form of sanity for a few days before the rat race begins Monday am. i fell your pain my dear, we are in the very same boat!!!!!!!

[sweetness852010]

I too is having a hard time with our space being our i feel like the daycare is taking over our space. Im looking to revist the space make all the kids sleep on the playroom. Take the playpens out of our rooms. I noticed this when my 6 yr old kept bugging me when are they leaving? I was like oh boy he needs to have his space. For me i think in the new year im going put the daycare downstairs and then we will have our space.

[loulou]

My house isn't too bad most of the time. I am so looking forward to my week off though!
We have no DCK's upstairs ever, 1 baby gate on stairs, 1 playpen and wooden toy box on main floor, basement has playroom, rec-room with 1 playpen, and the kids bathroom. I hate how I'm always finding paint on random walls and pencil crayons on my furniture though

[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.

[angelina]

oh A & B, i think you are not alone.

my daughter as my DCK, so...when are you leaving?

ops!

i too live workspace for a daycare. a 3 bedroom town home with finished basement.

with daycare space, it is the living room, dining room and basement. living room is where everyone sleep & quite time. yes, i do open and close 3 playpens everyday - now, it is 2 cots and one playpen.

every interview, i showed the parents that a toy organizer blocking the stairs. I say, upstairs is 3 bedrooms, FOR MY FAMILY. I said out loud, to myself and to my husband who complains that we got no big couch in the living room. I told him he can bring a big couch in our bedroom if he wants.

my living room is daycare, even on weekends. i give kiddie chair to my friends visiting here. LOL now, we will be eating our christmas dinner in this yellow ikea table with kiddie chair.

[cfred]

Oh, you're not alone! Ugh....I'm sooooo sick of children's things being in every line of vision! I've just moved into a townhouse and my daycare is in the living/dining combo, with playpens in all 3 bedrooms and 2 in the basement. The basement is our 'family space' for evenings and wknds but is under a very slow renovation. It's fine to sit and watch tv, but it's not lovely to look at by any stretch. I was nominated to do a Girls' Night...not sure where to put everyone. Oh well, a bottle of wine solves all problems on Girls' Night AND now, I'm torturing myself with the notion of a Caribbean camping holiday in April as I cancelled my one for next week (still weeping openly about it). If I go, will delay reno by few months. If I don't go, I may be a totally nutter in the near future.....hmmmm.... tough call.

[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

[Momof4]

I was feeling that way too, especially because my living room is my daycare room. I rearranged the furniture so I don't see daycare things as much in the evening and weekends. Cupboards with doors on the front helped me.