Parents Really Don't Understand

There is just so much to write on this subject but I will try my best to get the jist of it in as briefly as possible. Now trying to figure out where to begin. I guess I will start with the first converstation I had this morning with one of my parents. The issue: Dates I Am Closed. First of all, I close on all national holidays and I have a few other days for time to spend with my children. Parents are required to pay even when I am closed. The fees they pay me holds their child's place for when they do not attend and other items/time spent preparing and purchasing items needed to properly care for and teach the children so that they can grow/learn at their fullest potential for entering school. I give them a head start. If you total all the days that I close you will find that I have about 20 days for the whole year. I have a friend that has decided that she will be a back up for me when I close for those parents who need the care. I did not discuss with her about what she would charge because I feel that is up to her and the parents who may call on her. I also give the parents between a two week or more ahead of time notice of the days that I will be closed. One thing that I have recently started doing was giving them a calendar like the school does so that they will know well ahead of time when I will close. One of the days that I will close this October is Friday the 16th. This is fall break for my kids and they will also be out on the following Monday. I told this parent that I was closing this particular day because I wanted to spend special time with my own children. Should be understandable right? This is what she said back to me, "You have the weekend." I could not believe my ears! This is a parent that I have known a long time. In fact, her first child was my first student in my family home child care when I opened! I don't know about you but the weekend is never long enough for me or for them. One day they are going to be grown up and I won't have these younger years (which are the most important by the way) to spend with them. I was in shock at her saying that. I wanted to ask her if the weekend is enough for her. Next, I have a parent who doesn't believe or at the least have her kids on a schedule. I don't understand parents who don't want to use a schedule. You wouldn't believe how much easier it makes the day go by using a schedule. The children are happiest when they know what to expect. There are some days though that you can vear from the schedule and it can become somewhat chaotic if events may not be planned but I believe children learn best when on a schedule. Okay so the issue at hand: Schedule Or No Schedule. The children in question arrived this morning at 7:24 a.m. I open at 7:30 a.m. Maybe you're thinking what's six minutes? My children were just getting on the bus. Six minutes could actually give me enough time to pray/meditate and prepare myself for the rest of the day. Okay so this wasn't that big of an issue. One of the children will be two in October and the other one is seven months old. She started fussing a little (by the way...she is the best baby, very easy going, hardly ever cries) so I figured she must be hungry. I sent her mother a text message to find out what time she had a bottle. She text back 6:00 a.m. So I opened a jar of baby food and was feeding that to her. She also saw her sister eating breakfast so I know that was what made her think about eating too. Her mother texts me and says they eat when they get hungry. There's no certain time that they do this. I text her and told her that I was feeding her a jar of baby food. She text back that they do not have a schedule that they just eat when they are hungry. I wished that parents could realize what that does to a child to go from one environment that is completely unstructured to an environment that IS structured. Like I said, schedules are good because they help the child to know what to expect. It also lessons bad behavior and gives them a sense of independence. I don't think parents realize the work, stress, and rewards included that go into running a child care business. My clock hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. but it doesn't just stop there. There are errands to run and plans to make. I can not even begin to tell you how much time this could take. Providing care for the children of other families can be extremely exhausting and parents just seem to expect that you can keep going like the energizer bunny with no breaks and that because they pay you, that you shouldn't have any time off to recooperate from taking care of their kids! I have a family of my own to take care of. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my work and feel that I go the extra mile even when I don't get recognition for it but I do it because I love the children. It's all about the children! Does anyone else have a comment to make about family child care, my close dates, or schedules? Let me know what you think.

It's the finger again!

It's been a little while since I have posted but I thought I would take time to tell you about this one. Right before school started, my son, Garron had an infection in one of his fingers. He took the antiobiotics and the infection went away. This same finger that was infected has now created another problem. His fingernail had started lifting away from the nail bed. I knew that it was getting ready to fall off but it was still hanging on there and Garron will not let anyone touch it. Yesterday at school on the playground, he came down what he calls "the green pole" and it was ripped off of his finger even more. The nurse calls me to go get him and she placed a bandaid on his finger because it was bleeding so bad. I took Garron to Urgent Care in Dublin to see about his nail. The doctor suggested that we just keep a bandaid on it to protect it and let it come off naturally. He also prescribed some more antiobiotics just in case it set up infection again. You know that nagging feeling you have as a mother that was trying to listen to what the doctor said while your heart is telling you not to listen to him and do what you know is best? Well, gave him the benefit of the doubt and we left with just a bandaid on his finger. After we get home and studied for some tests, Garron was ready to take his bath. He asked if he could take the bandaid off so that it wouldn't get wet and I told him he could. It wasn't long I heard screaming and ran to see what was wrong. Garron couldn't get the bandaid off and it lifted the nail again!!! I felt so bad for him. I couldn't even remove the bandaid. The nurse had put the sticky part down on his nail. I tried to cut part of the bandaid off but Garron was screaming and crying that I couldn't do it for fear that I would actually rip the rest of his nail off. I have called Urgent Care to see if someone would remove the nail. They can but still recommended to leave it on and it will be $200 out of pocket because insurance won't cover it now because of the way the doctor documented it last night that it was still attached. The nurse told me to just soak his finger and the bandaid in warm water and the bandaid will come off. She said that it would tramatize him even more to numb his finger and remove the nail then for it to just come off naturally. Needless to say I am slightly irate about this whole situation!

Two Year Old Singing

This is just too cute not to share. Click on this link and enjoy this two year old singing. I just loved it! http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=91f6aba3ef547be2fd8a

7:30 am!

Okay so it wasn't the superintendent that I spoke with about the bus route. I talked to the director of transportation and evidently he listened! The bus came this morning at 7:30 am. I think the bus driver wasn't too happy with me because she barely looked at me. But I did try to talk with her first before going further. I just did what any other parent would've done in the best interest of my children. I am very happy that the director of transportation listened and made her change her route.

Slightly ill...

New school hours and bus change. We were informed of the new school hours in which the kids will stay an hour longer at school to be used for instructional purposes. For the past six years, the school bus has picked up my children and daycare children at 7:30 am every morning. We have even been through new bus drivers and it has always been the same. Well now we have another new bus driver and she nor the school told us that we needed to be ready any earlier. Monday morning: bus came at 7:05 am and Michalla was outside feeding the animals when she came running in saying, "The bus is here!" Well, needless to say Michalla and Garron both missed the bus that morning. I called the school and spoke with a lady in the office. I told her the situation and explained to her that we are right around the corner from the school and the bus route for previous years. She said that she would talk with our bus driver and find out from her what time she would be arriving for me to call back in a while to see what she had found out. I called back and she said that she spoke to the bus driver and that she said she would be around 7:30 am. Tuesday morning: bus came again at 7:05 am! By this time, I was completely irate. I walked up to the bus driver and told her what the lady in the office told me and she said she didn't tell her that. I made sure she knew that I was ill and that if they were going to change the bus route in the morning that somebody should've told me. I also let her know that I have daycare kids that sometimes need to get on the bus and it has always been 7:30 but she said that she was coming from Montrose and that she could not change her route. I called the school again and let them know that I was ill. A different lady in the office gave me the superintendent's number to call because he would be the one to get the bus route changed. I spoke with him and he said that he couldn't promise anything but he did understand my concern. He took my number and said that he would give me a call and let me know what could be done. So far, I haven't heard anything. You may be thinking what is 25 minutes early? 25 minutes early is a big difference when I use that time to spend in the morning with my children before they go to school. So now if I want to spend a little time with them before going to school, we have to get up earlier. Michalla and I both are not really morning people. Garron on the other hand just pops up like his daddy. I hope that this can get changed! If I have to, I will take them myself before I let them ride the bus that early. Of course, I will have to wait a couple of weeks until the school traffic subsides because my daycare opens at 7:30 am. Parent lines are too long right now. Hope to here from the superintendent soon!

What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Here is a media link that you can go to find out that answer. Make sure you have your Bible with you and follow along. It lasts about 36 minutes but that's not long if you think about it. It would be well worth the time spent! So here it is: http://www.housetohouse.com/MediaPlayer.aspx?media=4996

Pictured above are our two new kids. We just brought them home today (8-16-09). They are about two weeks old and are being bottlefed. The brown with the patch of white is named Mohawk and Garron named him Mohawk because he looks like he has a mohawk with the way he is colored from the top of his head down his neck. The other that is spotted and mostly white is named Smores because he is white like a marshmellow, brown like a graham cracker, and darker brown like chocolate. Michalla and I both named him. They are very sweet. They rode in the back seat in Michalla and Garron's lap all the way home which was about three and a half hours. We were stuck in a traffic jam for about an hour because of a huge wreck. But we made it home okay!

I had four of my preschoolers to graduate today. This is the video I put together for the families. It is a video of their preschool memories. I will greatly miss them. They were a joy to teach and care for. I know that they will succeed in Pre-k and I wish them all the best luck!

Rude Awakening...

Yesterday evening my son started complaining about his left pointer finger hurting. Looking at it at first, it seemed okay. It was a little swollen and red around the cuticle area and I thought that maybe he just had a splinter. Well, this definitely was not the case! Near 6:00 a.m. this morning, he came running into our bedroom crying he couldn't sleep and that his finger was beeping (meant that it was throbbing/pulsating). When I looked at it, the whole tip of his finger was swollen, red, puffy, and the nail bed looked whitish. It was hard from so much pressure because it had become infected. I had planned a field trip for my daycare/preschool kids to go to see horses at one of my school agers papa's house. Garron had an appointment at the doctor to have his finger seen about but he opted to go on the field trip with us even though his finger was hurting. All the kids had a great time feeding apples to the horses, petting the horses, running around, eating a picnic lunch, and riding a horse named Sassy. Garron was fine for a little while until his finger started beeping again and then he was ready to go. He started crying again and kept telling me his finger was hurting. So we loaded up all the kids and headed back home. On the way home though, Garron says, "Mama, look at my finger. What's it doing? It's leaking." It had built up so much pressure that it burst on it's own and started relieving some of the pressure. He said that it started to feel better and that it started tickling. When we got home, I canceled the doctor's appointment with his primary physician because it was at 2:15 p.m. He couldn't wait any longer. He was ready for his finger to be taken care of so his Daddy took him to a place called Urgent Care. He was seen immediately. They squeezed his finger some more to get much of the puss out. I will have to squeeze the puss out for another three days as much as possible. He is also on antibiotics for ten days. I hope that maybe he will be able to get some sleep tonight now that his finger has stopped beeping. I know this article may have been a bit grotesque but these things do happen. I don't know what caused him to get an infection in his finger but I hope it doesn't happen again.

I Thought This Was Supposed To Be Easy...

I have no idea what I am doing. I thought this blogging thing was supposed to be easy. The writing is and probably won't be a problem. I am having trouble trying to figure out how to put my pictures in my blog using my phone. I followed directions but it doesn't seem to work. I also can't figure out how to get my website verified that I added to my google account so that I can add to my blog that way. Why do some sites seem easier to use than others? Can't they all use basically the same method and all be user friendly? Is it just me trying to get used to something new? Has anyone else had this trouble? I consider myself computer literate. I know when I get used to using the page that I will probably wonder why I thought it was so difficult. I know that I will look back at this and laugh at myself for missing whatever it is that I am missing. I do have a tendency to overlook certain things sometimes. Okay enough. I will get it. I know I will. ;)

I am still trying to figure out how to use blogger and learn how to mobile blog.

About Me...

Where should I begin? I have always had an interest in writing and for my first post, let me begin by telling you a little about myself. I am married to a wonderful husband of almost 13 years. We have two beautiful children. We have a daughter whose name is Michalla and she is 10 years old. We have a son whose name is Garron and he is 7 years old. My husband, Gary, works for YKK AP America. He is a Machinist II in lead position on evening shift. I own and operate a family home daycare/preschool. I have been in the field of child care for a majority of my life, but have only been teaching preschoolers in my home for about 6 years now. I really enjoy working with children and they have become a major part of my life. Each child, including my own, are so unique in their own way. Every child that comes into my care leaves a permanent mark on my heart. On the weekends, my husband, our children, and I enjoy spending time together. We learn so much from one another! We have a very small mini farm and the reason I say this is because we are only sitting on a little over a half acre with several small farm animals. We have chickens and ducks. Pretty soon we will be getting a couple of kids/goats/nannies. These animals stay outside of course! We also have a few inside animals which include two birds, a parakeet, and a cockatiel. We named our parakeet, Coconut and we named our cockatiel, Silver. We also have two large fish aquariums that contain mostly goldfish and a couple of large sucker fish. The other member of our little family of animals and he is really a big part of our family is our rat terrier whose name is Captain Jack. Yes, we named him after the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. Maybe sometime soon I will post pictures of him and some videos and you can really see why this name is also a perfect fit! We didn't name our chickens except for one rooster we call Spike. He is a frizzled bantam and he looks like he stuck his beak into a light socket because his feathers are curled up and stick straight out. We did name our ducks. We have five white Pekin ducks whose names are Elvis, Priscilla, Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey. Priscilla has been laying on some eggs and Elvis gaurds the duck house. We are not sure if she will actually sit long enough to hatch the eggs because Pekin ducks do not usually hatch their own eggs. They have to be incubated. That is how we got Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey. But since Priscilla is sitting, we thought we would wait and see what happens. We stay very busy most of the time. I have to make time to do things for me and I don't say that lightly. My daycare/preschool takes up a lot of my time. Balancing my work, being a wife, a mother, and home maker takes a lot of effort. But occasionally I do have to let something go so that I can get my sanity back. This is about all I have time to type for right now but I plan to post again really soon. If you have any questions or would like to know more about me, please don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for visiting!