Errands

[adaycarelady]

I wasn't feeling very good this morning and didn't know how I was going to get through the day. I'm just a bit burnt out from the school kids being here all summer I think, it's not the flu or anything. I let the kids play first thing in the morning and I relaxed and watched a documentary on cruise ships. That's way better than closing for the day and making parents scramble for daycare. I will now make it through the end of the day feeling much better Anyone who can be 'on' every minute they are open deserves a medal cuz it sure gets exhausting at times. That's why I don't make a big deal about parents dropping their kids off on their days off anymore since I know the feeling when you just need a break. I know we are getting paid to be 'on the clock', but it works out to $2-3 per hour per child. Being able to enjoy life is important too. That's the main reason I get chores/errands done during business hours, so I can be free on my off time. I don't want to be scrubbing my toilet on a nice sunny day, I want to take my dog to the park! When I browse through ads for local daycare, I always seem to see new daycares pop up. Older daycares must get burnt out and close down I'm thinking. I've seen 2 daycares close down just in my area since I opened. That's why I like to have a balance of child-adult interactions and peer-peer interactions so I don't deplete myself to the point of no return. Burn out is a serious issue for daycare workers and we need to take precautions before it's too late. I'd have no problem running my dayhome like a classroom from open to close if I had the holidays like a teacher to recharge. But when my dayhome is open for 10 hours and I only take a week off per year (and stats of course) that is not going to happen. All my family and friends wonder how I have been doing what I do for 6 years since they understand how exhausting kids can be. Sometimes you just have to take care of your own needs and that's how I do it. I wouldn't be doing this still if I was 'on' all day. I hope to be one of those rare people (that I have noticed anyways) that can say they have had their dayhome for 20 years + so can't get burnt out.