Am I crazy?

[MsBell]

Completely Crazy!! lol

For sure there are many many pros for doing daycare out of your home, but sometimes what we think will be a wonderful benefit, is actually not that great. Yes I am home for my kids, BUT I can not really spend more time with them. For example, my daughter is in grade 9 with a mountain of homework every night, I can not sit and help her until all the daycare kids are gone which works out the same as if I worked outside the home. I can not go on school trips with my son unless I book a whole day off, doctor appts, dentist, etc same deal. With Bill 10 in Ontario, my son cant even have friends over after school (unless daycare kids go home early) So I really don't get to do more with my kids, especially now that they are growing.
I like a clean house too, but with day care, you will clean endlessly, it is so much more then for your own family. There is constantly dirty fingers touching everything. your washroom will soon become a public washroom, with little ones that canmt wipe their bums clean before they slide off the tiolet, leaving a poop trail. Or I had one little guy that insisted on taking his pants right off, then sitting on my bathmat while putting then back on, everyday there was a poop smear. Toys will invade a lot of your home (unless you are lucky enough to have a completely seperate area) Your home with take a real kicking, chipped wall paint, stained carpet, scratched hardwood, broken door knobs etc
Those healthy meals you love to cook (I do too! ) the kids I have will all just turn their noses at it and say yuck.
And lets just touch on the parents that you will have to deal with (put up with!) the ones that dont pay on time, pick up on time, dont provide the basic supples for their kids, want this and that and the moon, whine about how expensive daycare is, send their child sick, get upset when you then are too sick to work, leave without notice......I am sure the other ladies can add a lot more.
Dont get me wrong, this can be a good gig, but it is also a ton more work then most people think, way less money and it is rare that you feel as appreciated as you should. And I warn, if you are going into this with a passion to be loving and caring and make a big difference in some familys life, you will be really hurt when you dont get that feed back. It always feels personal in this business, and that can be really hard to deal with. I think it would be better to go into it as a business, with as little emotion invested as possible. You WILL be used, and you will feel terrible when it happens
My honest opinion, if I had a job that was okay, but paid well, and had all those perks, I would keep it, try to work with kids some other way (volunteer at a nursery school, library, youth centre etc)