I had the assistant thing going for a while and I truly hated it! The first one I had brought her 2 kids and they counted in my ratio. Also, she would call off quite a bit. She wanted special priveledges for her sons, too, and that always rubbed me the wrong way. We also had very different ideas about how to provide the best care. She was all about letting them run around, scream, yell and just do whatever they felt like as long as they were happy! I'm all about routine and consistency, which doesn't mean no fun, it just means less chaos. I was losing quite a bit of money by having her because of her kids coming for free. We're still friends, but we probably wouldn't have been if we'd kept working together. Another assistant just downright hated the job. She would go home at night and just be a nervous wreck. She had calling in issues, too. I think that this is a job that can be darn near impossible to do well if you don't have your heart in it! I really started to realize that I needed to be in a position where I wasn't forced to rely on anyone else and I went back to family care. Now I only need me and I know that I won't be calling in! I do have a friend who is a provider who covers for me if I have dr. appointments or the like. She also covers on the occasions when I have gotten sick. She covers my vacations and covers when I just want to take a day to catch up on cleaning or whatever the case may be. We work well together because we both want the same thing. We have the same basic philosophies regarding child care and I never have to worry about her flaking out on me or disregarding the policies that I have set in place or letting the kids break rules that they know are always the rules and that never change. I totally love my new assistant! She rocks! Granted, if she were here everyday then maybe things would be different, but that's why I opted to stay small.

Reply