I wish it were fun again....

[playfelt]

Daycare has changed so much since I first started. Part of it is the parents that think of themselves first and their work second, their kids a distant third and us caregivers barely if at all. It is hard to take ourselves seriously when others don't.

As much as I love babies I miss having them actually grow up into preschoolers that will benefit from my circletime and lesson plans. I have put a lot of time, effort and money into learning to teach and I miss being able to teach in the same way.

My life is consumed by diaper changes, naptimes and feeding kids, and yes reffing their interactions with each other - all the things that used to seem like incidental parts of our day in years past. But kids stayed in care till they started school at age 5 missing usually no more than a few months during a mat leave. They were potty trained, feeding themselves and napping only 2 hours in the afternoon by the time they were age 2. Oh how times have changed. I have some that have barely achieved this before heading off to JK despite my best efforts.

It has been a long winter with lots of illness and now is a time of transition that isn't going fast enough. I want to be outside but the soggy yard is so not toddler friendly.

I have been working on some little changes like taking a toy they just seem to dump instead of play with and putting it away or at least some of it so they have 10 cars not 25 even though when they play with the cars nicely they line them all up and play parking lot and love all 25 but it is the other days when they don't play that way I need to be concerned about.

Just know that we feel your pain and where you are coming from.