Daycare providers who have young kids

[Snowmom]

I asked because I was curious about what other daycare providers were saying about their own children being allowed to do as they please during the daycare day. I'm pretty much in agreeance with MommaL. My kids even at age 5 did not have free run of the house. It made the most sense to me to have them follow the daycare routine because it was the only way I could actually keep an eye on them. My kids are not allowed to snack whenever they please or have free run over technology or the rest of the house, even now as teenagers there are boundaries but at the ages you describe, they would take part in my day. Not because they had to conform to the actions of the other children, but generally speaking because they were much better behaved when on a schedule and loved to take part in the days activities. If they wanted to go adn play in their room, then they absolutly could, but at age 3, in a two story house, there was no way I was going to leave them unsupervised upstaires for a few hours.

I can understand that your child would be upset by what you described and I think your new approach to finding a suitable daycare provider might be for the best. As each daycare provider will operate differently, each child will require something different. I see nothing wrong with your expectations, and from my experience I found that my own kids much more prefered to be part of the gang doing the same activities. They didn't get the choice to drop out when it didn't suit them.

I think those of us that said our kids didn't have to participate would still be using common sense with our expectations of our own children. Even though I don't force my children to play with the daycare children; they are still respectful of our environment, of me as their parent, to the general rules of the house they must follow as well as respectful of the children who are guests in their home.
I don't think a single one of use who choose this career would choose to ignore our own children's needs or safety.