Feeling a bit bored?

[Daycare123]

Hey Everyone!

I am just wondering if the lack of adult interaction is hard on anyone else? Don't get me wrong-the kids at my daycare are quite funny and great little people!And I love being home with my own children!

Thanks!

[playfelt]

Cultivate some online friends you can chat to during naptime and well forums like this let you know there are other people out there.

Some find another caregiver in their area and go for walks together if kids young or meet at the park if older. Just going for a walk and seeing people driving helps to feel a part of the real world even without speaking to them.

I know it is hard when your own kids are little but if you can join a club or activity with other adults that helps too. Also a hubby that understands and lets you ramble on about your day is good.

Even having the radio on - talk show type station on in the daycare room while kids play is like having other adults around.

[Judy Trickett]

Daycare IS a boring job - especially if you have been at it for years. You will find, after four or five years, as your group turns over that you are doing/rotating the same themes, crafts etc. It is also boring from the standpoint that there is a lot of "down" time. And by that I mean time where the kids are just playing and you are watching and supervising.

Daycare is not a job that requires a lot of constant brain function. Lots of providers won't admit that because they feel the need to justify their fees and their job. But the simple fact is that, yes, daycare IS boring many days. No adult interaction, saying the same things over and over from day to day (don't snatch toys from your friends, good job putting on your shoes by yourself, stay seated while eating lunch, don't run in the house etc etc) doing the same routine. Yeah.....boring..... ...

When I am bored I think about how it could be on the flip side - running my butt off all day and trying to pretend to be busy during slow times at any out of the home job. THAT would suck way more!

[Momof4]

I'm really lucky that I can travel to our downtown library where I meet 2 other caregivers with our daycares every Monday, then I travel with my group once or twice a week to meet other caregivers at parks or playgroups. I love it! Lots of variety for the children and some adult interaction for me. It IS important.

We also have two parks close to my home so we can go there and I always talk with the other Moms, then they start asking about my daycare and advice on how I make the children behave so well, ha!

But I am rarely bored. I plan something different every day including one day of theme of the week lessons/crafts/learning and I love being self-employed and working at home. Now, mind you I spent all my life working for other people and being a # in large companies where nobody cared about anybody else so that's the reason I love being my own boss now and working at home.

I'm the opposite of Judy in this case! I usually agree with her 100%.

[Daycare123]

Thanks Everyone!

[playfelt]

Actually I am with Judy in the boring category. We pull out the same things year after year and well let's face it kids love repetition much more than we do so the third or fourth day of playing the same game or singing the same song does get boring. And my group plays so well by themselves that I do spend more time in the background during freeplay instead of hovering over them and constantly interjecting myself into their play.

This is when I have to remind myself that freeplay means I am free to play too so that is how I can be on here right now checking emails while they play and then we will do a group activity and then.... the day flits back and forth between me with them and them without me.

I try to keep a basket of things to do while they play nicely to fill the voids where I am just standing around lost since they don't need me - mend a pair of pants or fold a tub of laundry, empty the dishwasher, glance through a magazine.

Also remember at least here in Ontario while having visits and playgroups in our home are not allowed we can have a mom and her children visit us. So to get the adult interaction you are craving you could advertise for a mom such as one home on mat leave interested in bringing her child over to play. As long as the mom stays apparently you are legal since the mom is in charge of her own child not you. It is only another person's daycare children you have to count in your five.

As Judy pointed out it is the standing/sitting around waiting for the children to need you that is the boring part and what makes the day seem long and as if we have no purpose.

Momof4 it is great that you can get out as often as you do. I just find with my young group the getting there hassles negate anything positive that happens once there and we all just end up miserable so while I have little ones I stay closer to home - as in at home unless we are walking the neighbourhood.

For mental boredom what about doing the crossword puzzle or suduko from the newspaper while the kids play.

[Daycare123]

Judy- I gotta say I agree with you on a lot of fronts. I do find that there is a lot of "down time" where I am supervising and while I do look for those teachable moments I do think tht the children do need to play together as a part of a healthy development.



I do agree that there are tons of perks to working the job that I do but I just miss having adult interaction!

[Daycare123]

thanks everyone!

[playfelt]

One trick to the repetition is to change it up such as a nursery rhyme but have it available in several formats so you can do each one but what they are really doing is the same song 5 times. Such as pictures you have coloured and made into a book, done as figures to use on the feltboard, smaller figures to use in a pocket chart or on a table to put in order and then sing the song and so the children can act out the song too, figures on sticks as puppets, done as hand puppets etc..... when you vary the technique used you get bored less and the kids get what they want in the repetition.

[bright sparks]

Boredom really isn't how I would describe it. I have been doing this for just over 7 years now and while themes are the same, I never do the same activities twice and over the years of surfing the net and especially since Pinterest and so many great homeschooling blogs have surfaced, there really are an incredible amount of activities that can be done. For me, it's the lack of intellectual stimulation which slowly has my brain dying. A portion is obviously the lack of adult conversation but I have managed to get a great circle of friends to socialize with outside of work and as my kids get older I am now able to have some adult time without them having to come with me everywhere.

I am very intellectual, and I don't mean to be arrogant when saying that. I crave knowledge and love to learn so to be in this job where I am SO isolated, and the learning plan is so mundane and basic, it really takes its toll on me. I am an analytical thinker and can always see the bigger picture and love complex and multilayered subjects, so simple concepts that can only grow minimally bore me quickly and under stimulate me.

It is my intention over the next year or two, to adjust my family's lifestyle to be able to pay everything except our house off, learn to live MUCH more frugally and be in a position to live off one wage and go to university to study Psych and Sexuality. Because I have this short term goal it keeps me motivated when things seem a little stale and repetitive. It also forces me to savour every moment with my daycare kids as I know that I will never get these moments back and when I become a student I will miss the two hour nap breaks in the afternoon when while I am generally busy I still have the option of saying screw it, and putting my feet up and watching some daytime crap with a cup of tea and some biscuits :-)