Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
Well not knowing her, I can't say for sure, but I can tell you from my side of things.
First off, I reserve 48 hours before I make a decision about any family. I do this to give me enough time to consider if that family would be a good fit. Also, I don't do business on the weekends if I have no DCK's those days. I recently got mostly away from doing weekends, having that downtime has been a Godsend to me! Every provider needs time away from business or we would go nuts, so she may be waiting for the weekday.
As far as the nap issues, that would be a huge issue for me. I just don't have the space to make sure kiddos can have their own room. And, one child that doesn't nap well easily disrupts the whole group. Tired kids are cranky kids and that makes for long days.
The potty training, well for me it just depends. I am more worried about why they are not potty trained, if they are working on it, a whole host of things there. And how 3 is your 3 yr old? Newly 3 would be less issue for me than almost 4. And, I would want to know you are working on it at home. It isn't my job to potty train kids, and I don't potty train kids, but I do assist with it. I won't take them and sit them every X minutes though, I expect for the most part them to tell me they need to go. So lots of factors there I have no clue in.
As far as the dog, did you speak with her about it? If I saw a "look" but there was no communication it might sway me. Also, what had she told you about the dog being around the kids? If she had told you that never happens and she got a "look" she may feel you don't trust her. Distrust towards a childcare provider is a huge liability for the provider. I handed a parent back money and termed on the spot for her basically saying she didn't trust me. I tell all my parents in the first interview that trust and communication is huge. If I feel we can't communicate well, you likely won't be offered a spot.
Not being at your interview, and not knowing you or the provider I can't say for sure I am just offering from how things work for me.
Thank you for your reply! I completely understand everything you've stated. I thought maybe she wasn't getting back to us because it's the weekend too but then again she just opened her daycare for kids the week of our interview and she only has 1 child and a child of her own, so it's literally brand new. But what you're saying could still be the reason why she hasn't responded but it would've been nice to know she wouldn't get back to us until Monday, even though we were looking to start care as soon as Tuesday that's why I'm mostly being persistent and also because we had another lady we interviewed requesting an update and I wanted to let her know we found someone, if that was the case.
As far as the napping goes, if he is tired enough I'm sure he would fall asleep but it would just make it little harder because she said she would have the older kids (two 3 year olds) laying down as well in the same area possibly with a little tv on in the background. I think that would distract him a lot more than being in a quiet room alone. It was actually her suggestion to put him in another room w/the monitor. It wasn't as if I specifically requested that.
My 3 year old turned 3 in August. He is not potty trained and we've not been actively training him. However, she said she would assist us (again her suggestion) as long as we are following through at home and we had an agreement to that. He also has a speech delay. But he says enough words to be able to understand his needs and wants.
Now the dog issue, we didn't know she had a dog prior to approaching her home and hearing him barking in the yard. We didn't ask in the initial conversation, so that could certainly be our fault. As we're touring her home she shows us the backyard and mentions her dog. He's a larger dog, but she said he was really friendly and he loves being around the kids. So to me I interpreted that as if she planned to have him around the kids. I told her that they've been around a dog before because their grandparents have a smaller dog at their house and they're the ones that usually care for them during the day when we're working. There was no further discussion about this. I'm personally not a fan of dogs, because they make me uncomfortable so I think my fear was mostly for myself. Would I prefer a DCP that didn't have pets? Absolutely. But it wasn't a deal breaker at all.