Total burn out

[playfelt]

The group of kids we have in care can so make it not fun and there isn't always something we can put our finger on either that is the issue. I know when we went to younger and younger children I missed all of the preschool circletimes and crafts and games and discussions and learning I had been doing but then Jr Kindergarten became mainstream and parents putting their kids into daycare centers for nursery school year meaning my home was only appealing to the infants and toddlers left. It took me a few years to come to the realization that ok I needed to ditch any previous notions and methods and just accept my new reality and embrace it and eventually I started to see the miracles of a child putting things in and out of bins and making a tower of blocks 4 high instead of 3 but it for sure did not happen overnight.

When we have a parent that is annoying us that makes it tough too. The last couple months I have found the kids to be more tired, more whiney, more grumpy, more demanding and not sure if it is weather/seasonal or not but I have talked to a lot of caregiver friends feeling the same things. For sure this could be part of your problem too - again that you are dealing with a less than ideal group situation.

I think too when we have our own kids and stay home we do not get the breaks we got when working outside the home. Even if it was in daycare it didn't include your own kids in the same room usually and for that you get that mental and physical break from them. Otherwise it seems like your kids are stalking you - even when you try to escape to the bathroom.

Make sure the demands you are putting on yourself are reasonable and if it comes down to deciding you need to make changes then that is what you should do. Your happiness matters too.