Wow! Thank you everyone for your honesty and for even posting this thread. I have been thinking about this A LOT too. Especially since I have been noticing more and more behaviour from my own child that I don't like and he only exhibits it when certain children are here (and surprise surprise these are the children who are the ones who regularly behave that way). I've been asking myself if my son is benefiting from this or not. And truth be told, as much as I don't like some of the things that he is learning and yes I admit that at the end of the day I am drained of patience for children and can be a bit snippy to my own family. I know what happens at day homes and I would prefer this stuff to happen under my supervision rather than someone else's. Plus, when I lay everyone else down for their naps I go back into his room and we cuddle and he gets his own special story read to him. It's at that moment that despite all of the frustrations and questions/doubts that I have about this career path go away because I know that I wouldn't be able to have that moment with him if I was working outside of the home. I do think that the longer I do this job (it will be 2 years this July) that it has been getting easier the more that I learn about myself, other children, what works, what doesn't. I also think that a huge thing to learn is to take care of yourself and that changes a lot of the atmosphere too.