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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>A Little Bummed :(
SunflowerMama 08:24 AM 05-27-2011
All month we've been focusing on health, fitness and nutrition and have had weekly challenges relating to different things (tv, exercise, nutrition, etc.). I sent charts home for the families but only had one family (out of 6) that really participated. So after the 2nd week I just started tracking everything here for the kids.

Well today we are concluding and celebrating with a Fun Bus party. I rented the bus for an hour and basically they come to your location and it's a gutted out school bus. There are 2 instructors and they basically have gymnastics equipment in there and they do tons of fun activities and sing and dance, etc.

So I told all the parents about everything early in the month and invited all the families to the party today. After the fun bus I'm having some food (fruit and veggie platter) and then giving little rewards to all the kids for participating in the challenges. So guess how many of my 6 families are attending the party/award celebration? None

I'm just a little bummed and the kids have been so excited so I thought maybe a few would attend just to support the kids. Guess not. I have really awesome families too so I'm really surprised.

Oh well it is what it is. On the upside....3 day weekend coming up!!
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cillybean83 08:28 AM 05-27-2011
parents never cease to amaze me...why do these people even have kids in the first place??
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Cat Herder 08:29 AM 05-27-2011
That is awful

I love Tumble Bus!!! We have them here, too. Such a blast.

I just don't get parents.

Are you still having the bus come out for your kids, though?
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SunflowerMama 08:33 AM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by Catherder:
That is awful

I love Tumble Bus!!! We have them here, too. Such a blast.

I just don't get parents.

Are you still having the bus come out for your kids, though?
Oh yeah it's still coming! They have literally been talking about it non-stop since I told them about it. And all of my kids are old enough to participate so it's going to be a blast. It's just sad the parents are going to miss out.
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nannyde 08:35 AM 05-27-2011
Sun

Do your parents live a really healthy life with the kids? Are they nutrition, exercise, low screen time, outdoorsy, kind of parents?
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daycare 08:40 AM 05-27-2011
You know this happened to me awhile back and I was a little upset about the parents not coming to an activity we had.

Then I had a few parents show up for a cookie party we had during Easter....OMG I wanted to just die. SOme of these parents well, DONT parent. I had one kid so out of conrtol, I had to ask the mom to leave and the others were acting up as well. It was a nightmare event.

So I decided from then on out, no more parent invites...its for the kids and I don't and me....lol
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SunflowerMama 08:48 AM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by nannyde:
Sun

Do your parents live a really healthy life with the kids? Are they nutrition, exercise, low screen time, outdoorsy, kind of parents?
I know they all enjoy time outside at local playgrounds, some workout and such I don't think any of the kids have been camping (we've probably been 6 or so times with our girls and they are 4) and most of the kids, from their own accounts, watch quite a bit of tv and know all the different toys that come with the Happy Meal (although we do like our occasional Chik-fil-a fix). We are right outside of Dallas though so I'm kind of a rarity with some of my philosphies and views.

The parents have all commented about how much the kids are talking about eating healthy and exercising at home so I'm thinking some of those things maybe weren't discussed or focused on prior to our study but who knows.
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wdmmom 08:58 AM 05-27-2011
Sad!

I learned after a few fun and expensive activities that parents don't and won't come. Kids are in daycare for a reason. Parents aren't going to miss work to hang out with them any longer than they have to.

Plus, it's a massive hassle to have parents come in and out throughout the day. It just messes the kids schedule up terribly. No more than one departure and arrival per day.
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nannyde 09:01 AM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by SunflowerMama:
I know they all enjoy time outside at local playgrounds, some of the parents workout and such but none of the kids have been camping (we've been about 6 times with our girls and they are 4) and most of the kids, from their own accounts, watch quite a bit of tv. We are right outside of Dallas though so I'm kind of a rarity with some of my philosphies and views.

The parents have all commented about how much the kids are talking about eating healthy and exercising at home so I'm thinking some of those things maybe weren't discussed or focused on prior to our study but who knows.
You may have a deal where what you are celebrating they really just want YOU to do. You do healthy food so they can do McD's. You exercise them outside so they can feel okay about them staying in. You do no TV so they can have a good amount of TV time on their clock.

So if the theme of the party is what they just want YOU to do then they would want you to just do the party too. It's what they hire YOU to do so they don't have to??????????

If you had a princess tea party with party favors and treat bags they would have most likely showed up.
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SunflowerMama 09:11 AM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by wdmmom:
Sad!

I learned after a few fun and expensive activities that parents don't and won't come. Kids are in daycare for a reason. Parents aren't going to miss work to hang out with them any longer than they have to.

Plus, it's a massive hassle to have parents come in and out throughout the day. It just messes the kids schedule up terribly. No more than one departure and arrival per day.
And this is totally why I planned it the way I did. Bus comes at 3p, they are on it until 4p and then we eat and pass out awards right before going home. Some of my parents have today off and others are off work at 3p so I just thought more would come I guess.
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wdmmom 09:12 AM 05-27-2011
That's a huge disappointment!
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PitterPatter 09:50 AM 05-27-2011
Aw that is a bummer!! I'm sorry u were let down but Kudos to u for some good ideas and being a great provider to the kids!!
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snbauser 10:25 AM 05-27-2011
That can be such a disappointment. So far I have been lucky with parents coming to events. Like you I always schedule them for the end of the day so hopefully parents can arrange their schedules and leave an hour early from work to attend.

On a side note, can I ask you how much the Fun Bus cost? I have thought about doing it here for one of our events but you can't get any prices online and I haven't gotten as far as calling them.
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SunflowerMama 10:28 AM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by snbauser:
That can be such a disappointment. So far I have been lucky with parents coming to events. Like you I always schedule them for the end of the day so hopefully parents can arrange their schedules and leave an hour early from work to attend.

On a side note, can I ask you how much the Fun Bus cost? I have thought about doing it here for one of our events but you can't get any prices online and I haven't gotten as far as calling them.
It was $150 for an hour and includes t shirts for the kids and coloring books.
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Sugar Magnolia 04:16 PM 05-27-2011
Oh Sunflower....it sounds like you did a super, awesome, really cool thing for your kids! Yeah, it sucks the parents didn't participate, they have to work, busy, whatever. But forget them!!! YOU made your kids HAPPY! I bet they loved every second of the bus, the party, the awards! You are awesome, the KIDS know it, the KIDS appreciate it! Boom. A stunning success in my book! You go Sunshine Sunflower!!!!
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e.j. 04:36 PM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by SunflowerMama:
Some of my parents have today off and others are off work at 3p so I just thought more would come I guess.
That's too bad. I was going to ask if maybe they all had jobs where they really couldn't take time off or suggest that with summer coming, they might be trying to save vacation time/paid leave for when they need it. If they had the day off or got off work early enough to come and didn't choose to, though, it's too bad. They missed a good opportunity to share some fun with their kids.
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snbauser 07:06 PM 05-27-2011
Originally Posted by SunflowerMama:
It was $150 for an hour and includes t shirts for the kids and coloring books.
Cool....thanks.
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Mom_of_two 08:25 PM 05-27-2011
That is too bad and makes me sad!! I hope your kids, and you, enjoyed it anyway!!

I must say, though, to people who post things like 'why did they have kids anyway' to me that is quite a harsh statement. Parents(who the OP said were 'awesome families') are not able or choose not to attend a daycare function are then designated as a family that shouldn't have kids?
I certainly tried to attend any function for my children at their daycare when I worked outside the home but if I had to miss I would have been heartbroken if someone would have said that about me.
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SunflowerMama 08:37 PM 05-27-2011
UPDATE: Things went so great with the party today and the kids had a blast!!
My families were very appreciative and loved that I did it for the kids.

I'm very lucky to have such great families, even if they couldn't make it today .

I just updated my blog for the families but feel free to check out photos if you have time!

http://littleacornchildcare.blogspot...bus-party.html
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sharlan 09:10 PM 05-27-2011
That looks like you had a lot of fun.
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Tags:neglect, parents - don't want kids, parents - oblivious
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