Feeling a bit bored?

[bright sparks]

I have been attending night school to get my grade 12 as I graduated high school in the UK which is at a Grade 11 equivalency so I need to upgrade in order to meet my UNI admission requirements, and honestly it makes a big difference to my day. I am undeniably more tired being out twice a week at nights until late. I finish daycare at 5:15 and have 30 minutes before I have to leave the house to be at night school on time and am there until 9:30 and not home until at least 10, but the very next day I feel like I am functioning on all cylinders. Unfortunately it tends to be short lived so I make the most of it. I feel less fatigued and more enthusiastic about my job although nothing really changes. I finished my last course in June and 2 weeks after completion I was back to feeling like a basket case lol I'm not sure if there is any way around this other than the fact that long term, this is not where I see myself permanently.

In the meantime though, I have dropped a day. Come September (I have kids going into JK), all my families are Mon-Thurs and on the Friday I will be doing a combination of self-study courses, again to get my Grade 12 done, volunteer work hopefully with youth within the LGBTQ... community, and also for self-care. Time for me is something that has never existed and I am that caregiver who burns out on average at the moment every 8 weeks because I am busy caring for everyone else and always give 100%, all of the time. To prevent this I now turn every long weekend into a 4 or 5 day weekend so I can immerse myself in being ME as an individual, versus me who has the roles of being a mother, wife and daycare provider. I find it helps me to maintain consistent exceptional care for my daycare children when I put THAT "hat" on.

[Momof4]

Good for you for going back to school brightsparks, that's hard to do.

[bright sparks]

Good for you for going back to school brightsparks, that's hard to do.

It is hard just getting to the point where I can just get there let alone be in school. That being said, just having the short term goal to go ignites the passion I need to drive me to do it. I CAN"T WAIT!!!

[Daycare123]

Well, it sounds like I am lacking balance. Hard to find Balance when the days are so long but it's not impossible!

[Daycare123]

Bright Sparks- good for you! That's wonderful!

[playfelt]

Well, it sounds like I am lacking balance. Hard to find Balance when the days are so long but it's not impossible!

I think this is for sure the problem we have. All day we care for other people's kids and at night we still care for our kids and well a lot of hubbys are just big kids with even bigger needs. We sort of cease to exist when we do daycare because our life doesn't change. When working outside the home someone else does the daytime care for us and we have our own time. Not that we enjoy the work either but it is our time.

If you can get hubby on board or hire someone to do part of the daycare for your kids in an evening or a weekend then you can find that I am really a separate person time - even just going to the mall and trying on a new outfit that you can't imagine yourself wearing just for fun. It doesn't have to cost anything it just has to be alone or with someone not connected to your day.

A lot of caregivers take evening or weekend workshops dealing with childcare not because they care about the information but because they just want to be around other women that understand what their day was like.

[dodge__driver11]

My husband for the most part is a great help, and we are ok, but since we have gotten back from the in-laws he has been horrible in regards to picking up after himself...etc....

So he is working weekends this week, and I am sending ds to a friend's and just going to do something other than stress about his non-sense!

Good luck!

[Daycare123]

My husband is amazing- he is supportive and very helpful and it really does help when I have had a long work week

Had a great day with the kids today-feeling less isolated from talking to all of you!

thanks!

[Momof4]

Well, it sounds like I am lacking balance. Hard to find Balance when the days are so long but it's not impossible!

Oh, I think you pinpointed the problem. That's the solution! In my daycare business experience so far I've been exhausted, happy, burned out, relaxed, over-stressed, couldn't fill spaces, full and happy again, need to fill spaces again.......it's a real roller coaster ride.

But with time and practice you figure out how to make it work best for yourself, how to cut back on crafting or whatever isn't your favourite thing to do and just let the children play. That's ok you know, children SHOULD play. Also, as the groups change and the ages change you have to adjust and go with the flow. I've found my groove I guess so I'm not overworked and dying at the end of the day the way I was when I started out.

[Rhonda]

We sort of cease to exist when we do daycare because our life doesn't change. When working outside the home someone else does the daytime care for us and we have our own time. Not that we enjoy the work either but it is our time.

Ah now this describes me! I don't have younger children, my youngest is 15. I am not bored with daycare, love it, been doing childcare for over 20 years (if I include the 2 years I was a live out nanny and the one year I worked at a centre). I love working from home, not having to travel to work, being able to be my own boss, etc.

I know we all have our own opinions, this is just mine ... I'm frustrate with today's parenting trends, frustrated that I feel like I have to baby sit the parents, the children I have had in care for 2 years are horrible nappers so I'm also burnt out, I have only about 30 minutes where children are napping and to get that I have to spend an hour+ watching over them, few of my parents will help in the learning process, my children aren't taught self help routines at home, but the one thing I am so tired of is changing bums and parents not helping with potty training. I have 2 children that should have been trained almost a year ago, but excuse 'weekends are too busy'! But like I said this is just me, parenting 15+ years ago was so different than now, and I have had a hard time moving forward with the trends and I know I am burnt out.

I'm in Ontario so not having play dates has been a bit depressing and has added to my frustration. I miss the social interaction, the shared activities, the big parties for birthdays and special events. Throwing a birthday party with 5 kids instead of 15 isn't as fun.

But daycare frustrations aside, you hit the nail on the head with me. Because I work from home with the younger ones, my schedule is different than my friends so I don't get to the park the same time to have those stolen moments of social interaction for me, I don't have school runs. I attend field trips, but I am always so busy watching and helping my group enjoy the event that again I miss the stolen moments of adult time. I also find I'm in a hard age, most of the people I know who are my age have young children, so I find after work, I don't get the same social interaction because I spend my days with younger kids and in the evenings or weekends I don't want to. I don't get to take care of me! The only time I do, is those few times I can afford to do a photo shoot with a group of people, but then we are so busy taking pictures sometimes there is little time for socialization. Oh, I should add I'm the Mommy of a competitive dancer, who dances 6 days a week, being a single parent a lot, all the chauffeuring falls on my shoulders unless my oldest is kind to me. Right now, between chauffeuring and work, I'm on the go from 7 am to 7 pm, by the time I get 'home' I'm exhausted.

The main reason why I'm ready to close down daycare is because I want to find out who I am, I want to have some me time and take care of myself, get into photography, lose weight, etc I would in a heart beat if the budget allowed.

I would love to take just a few months off daycare, I know me, all it would take is 3 months and I would be ready to go back to work I'm just burned out and frustrated. Bored, is generally not in my vocabulary.