How many children can you handle (without losing your mind)?

I am not putting an age group on this, because I know there are many of us here who deal with varying age groups.

I have 7 Preschoolers certain days, and I feel like that is my self imposed limit since I care for them and teach them by myself. If I had an assistant, I could handle more.

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It depends on the environment. I used to teach 20 kindergartners in the afternoons.

In my home environment my limit is 6 because of my licsense. If I did not have that limit and all of them where school age per-k or older then I think I could handel 10 if I had the space. 6 is a good number for the space I have in this house.

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I have 3 dck and my own 2. That is my limit. Its probably smaller than most but any more and I wouldnt feel like I was giving them enough attention or have enough time to plan fun things to do.

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It really depends for me too!

Right now I have 4 1yos and that is good for me. That is not including my own 4 children (range from 18mo-8yo). I am comfortable with this group.

My legal limit is 5dcks. I could add one more and be fine. I am advertising the spot now.

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It is much easier to handle higher numbers if they are all closer to the same age groups. I have never had all school agers, nor do I ever want to, but with having a mixture of 5 to 6 infants and toddlers, ANY school agers are too many. I am licensed for 8. My one 18 mos DD reduces that to 7. I dont know exactly how many would be my limit but with my current 7 the ONLY time I have felt overwhelmed is when I add a shool ager to the mix.

Now for infants. I am a teeny-tiny baby type provider. I wish I could have more infants and just do infant care. But our state only allows 2 per care-giver. I could easily handle 4 infants by myself if I didnt have toddlers or school agers. Seems silly I can only have 2 considering the Daycare centers have higher ratios than 2 to 1 in the infant rooms.

I think it is kind of messed up thinking that infants require more than say four 10 year old boys.

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I can have up to 7 (including my own kids). I like to keep it at 6 kids here at one time. I feel okay with 7 or even a few more than that but only if I have enough space for them all the sleep happily and if my assistant can be here more often. I am not licensed right now so no matter what, 7 is the max.

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I live in a townhouse condo so in my limited space I choose not have more than 4 during the day (including my 1yo DS) and once my DD gets out of school at 2:30pm I'll have 5 total. Sometimes I'll have 6 but that's usually only once a week and that's a 5yo SA that's only here for 3 hours and one of my DCK's goes home at 4 anyway. I'm allowed to have 8 total.

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I have, at times, had 10 here during a summer. Age 18 mos to 10 yrs. It wasn't fun. At all. That was my worst summer EVER in 18 yrs of daycare. I won't do it again.

During the school year, I have 6 total, 3 of which go to school, so I have them 1-2 hrs morning, and 1-2 hrs afternoon. That's really comfortable for me. I can handle 6 during the summer too. Probably won't do more than that.

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I have 6 kids under 5. thats it for me....I do 2 weekly field trips and teach, so even if I wanted more, my car is not big enough.....Thank goodness...lol

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I have my 3 home full time, and 4 dcks, all 3-4 days a week. Some days my 3 are too much, then there are other days I think I can handle a couple more. I think it would have to do more with the children's personalities and how they play together more than the sheer number.

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My limit is 4 including my own kid. Right now I have 3 and it's perfect. I can't stand chaos and I like a more calm and relaxed atmosphere. Everytime I've gone over this limit my stress levels immediately go up as well.

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I am not lic. so I can only have 4 children in my home. I won't allow more in my home anyway. All mine are boys under 3 yrs of age. I have 2 children that are in school but when their out of school for breaks that makes 6. I can handle 6. But, it depends on the group I have bc some children are part time and I've learned that when you have part timers, the day is much harder. I also have a couple of infants that come odd days sometimes together. One is 11 mos. and the other is 5 mos The 5 mos is teething big time. The 11 mos is learning to walk...hmmmm makes for a hard day...hahah!!

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It depends on the group. Right now I'm at 6 (including mine), but I have to admit that I run more smoothly at 5. We are fine, but I like to have more flexibility in my schedule and with 6 I have to be fairly regimented. I also like to devote 5-10 minutes individual time per child for "school lessons," and with 6 it becomes very tedious.

In a perfect world where money wasn't the issue, I've found that groups of 3-4 four year old and younger children are ideal for me. We can walk easily, go on field trips, and generally have a lot of flexibility.

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I have 10 kids everyday....for the most part by myself. The youngest is 8.5 mos and the oldest is 5. Two days a week, I have 12 kids with 2 additional kids who could have gone ot Kindy but didn't.

All my kids arrive by 9 a.m. and the first pick up starts around 2:30-3. All but 2 of my kids come 5 days a week.

My kiddos also ALL nap from noon until 2-2:30 every day as well.

99% of my DCK's have been here since birth. We have a wonderful daily routine and RARELY stray from our normal schedule so consistency plays a huge part in how easy it is for me to handle 10-12 kids on my own.

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I have 5 unless school is out. % is all we can have. I am in awe of you ladies that do 7 and 10. I used to have 10 in the summer counting my own schoolagers. Boy that was rough. 5 preschool and toddlers and 5 school age

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SO TRUE

And so is the mix in ages. School agers just don't work out with the little ones. I feel like I can't keep up with them when the babies are around. I prefer just the younger ones and no kids over age 3, then if they are compatable personalities I would do the full 6 full time that my state allows.
My 2.5yo daughter is a handfull, she's mean to the other kids and doesn't listen, so she requires a lot of my energy to keep the peace. Until she goes to K I don't want more than 3 or 4 including her.
I just had a high energy, 4 yo girl leave my daycare. She was SO loud, nonstop chatterbox that she made me feel like I was watching 3 extra kids.

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I am licensed for 12. Currently I have 4 full time, 1 part time, and my 2 school agers. The most I have had is 11 (1 was a sibling of one I keep and the rest their providers were on vaca). Thankfully it was summer so we could be outside more. I couldn't do that all the time. I think my ideal number would be 6 plus my 2. Right now because of some transportation issues, I only take 4. next year when my ds moves on to middle school and can take the bus and my dd can hitch a ride on nasty days with the neighbor, I hope to move up to 6 full time and no part time.

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Sixteen kids.....two providers. (includes 4 infants under two years)

Or eight kids with just me. (includes 2 infants under two.)

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are u by any chance willing to share this routine
I am having a hard time following something, ive seen so many routines but wow 10! And you dont go crazy?! Youre awesome

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The most I've had is 10 - and I was pretty far out of ratio for my state at the time. They were all pretty close in age so it was easy to handle on my own. I generally keep it to 7 if I have any infants, 8 if not.

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our regulations limit us at 5 and when I started I thought that amount was low but now I know that's my limit - I much prefer my days with 4 kids, but I can handle the 5. I usually have one baby, so that with 3-4 toddlers/preschoolers is my limit!!

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I think it depends on the age of the kids. I am at 6 right now, which is my limit since 2 of the kids are 1 year olds and 1 of them isnt even crawling yet. But I could probably handle 10 3-6 year olds, no problem.

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10 under 5.

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When my own SA are home from school & I have EVERYONE here I would have 7 & I consider that a LOT & my SA are almost 11 & 8 1/2 so they can take care of themselves mostly. I prefer 4-5 total, I feel much more comfortable. Luckily the "7" doesn't happen very much for me, about 1x a a month & that's enough for me

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I am licensed for 10. 6 is perfect, 7 is doable, 8 and I start getting stressed out.

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Thanks! I know it seems like alot but in MN 10 children is the norm and most providers here run at full capacity so although, I appreciate the nice sentiment, I am not all that different than all the other providers here.

I will however, type up our normal daily routine and get a copy of it to you and hopefully some, or all, of how we do things will work for you.

oh, and as far as going crazy.....aren't we all just a little crazy in our own way! LOL!

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Word.

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I am licensed to care for 12 children and have done so for the past 3 years. Routine, routine, routine, consistency, consistency, consistency is the answer as to how. It also depends on the ages of the children and the children themselves. I get a helper for the summer to go on fieldtrips, swimming lessons and story hours, but all winter I do it myself. I don't have them all here every day all day long during the winter months, due to school, but during the summer I have a full house! I have 3 children of my own who are included in the 12.

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I think it is important to point out that in MN 10 kids under school-age is the MAX. If we ever have 12 or even 14, those spaces above 10 MUST be school age children. Even if they are not actually attending school, they must be legally old enough to attend.

On the days I have 12, the 2 spots that put me over 10 are kids who are of legal age to attend Kindy but whose parents choose not to send them.

MN providers are NEVER allowed to have more than 10 kids under school age.

In MN, school age is defined as 5 years of age on or before Sept 1st. However, any children who will be 5 this fall, can be counted as school age children 4 months prior to school attendance. I have one littel guy who will be 5 yrs old in August so he will be "school-age" according to the law and I can count him as a school age child on May 1 even though he is still 4.

The providers own child count in ratios and numbers until they reach age 12. (age 11 on the food program). Once a child reaches age 13, they can be counted as a "helper".

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I should add that when my own child goes to school I'll be able to handle many more kids!! I think having the parent/provider balance is quite stressful for me. Being 100% provider will make my job MUCH easier I think.....or I hope!

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I agree- I think being a parent and provider is VERY difficult and draining!

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We are licensed here for 8 kids. But I can handle 16 - I would think maybe even a couple over that. My sister always ran illegal and doubled the amount of kids she had - hence the 16 kids! I used to work for her and handled 16 just fine. When I worked for her, she didn't help me. She was building onto her house and was doing construction all day long while I tended to the kids. Since we had a good routine worked out for the daycare, I could handle all those kids and probably even more.

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would love to throw out a number but it honestly depends on the children at the time. All children are different and the needs they have are different. I also think it depends on the provider. I am licensed for 12. I take what I can handle and what I want to handle to make my days run smooth and nice. I like being able to give to my kids all that I can of myself and if I am overwhelmed that is not going to happen. Some providers have no choice financially.

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Depends on the situation....
Here's a crazy story....One of the center's I worked at (was a big center licensed for 256 children.) The pre-k room had 56 kids...to four teachers. One day the other three teachers called in sick and guess who was stuck in room with 52 children all by herself! Finally after lunch time and I had everyone on cots help came in. Oh the director sat at her desk and watched me thru the window! Seriously and you wonder why larger centers have such a higher turnover rate with staff.
I am only allowed to have 6 but I feel I can handle twice that many.

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I am licensed for 10 with 2 under 2 I tend to use one of those for a p/t child

It all depends on the group their ages and temperments.


I need to add our days go very smoothly but evenings with just my 2 grandkids are something else. THen I feel old

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I've worked in 3 different daycares ( big just as you mentioned your was). Does not surprise me at all! The turnover rate is incrediable at those daycares!!

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