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Chickenhauler 11:56 AM 04-28-2010
Originally Posted by FrustratedMommy:
Ufortunately, that would mean I would never find daycare. Here for each spot, there are 20 kids lined up for each spot. If your child has any challenges at all, they dump you and find another kid.

What I am hearing from this post is that all daycare providers are like this. None of them actually like children, or maybe they like children as long as they are complacent and easy to deal with.

The provider interviews the child and parent to see if they are easy and complacent to work with, if not, they go to the next in line. If you use cloth diapers, if your child hits, or doesn't want to nap, next in line please.

I also have two children, so maybe I could find a place that is absolutely perfect for my three year old, but would my 18 month old be happy there? Should I leave my 18 month old with this lady for another year until she gets to old for her, and just move my three year old? Then I would be picking them up at two different places, perhaps on opposite ends of the city, and I would have to move the baby eventually anyway since I am sure as soon as she turns 3 the daycare lady will decide she doesn't like her anymore.

What I am looking for, is advice from a daycare provider who perhaps encountered this situation and not run from it. What did you do to fix it? Perhaps there are some ideas I can pass on to my provider in the hopes that she will not kick my daughter out in favour of a complacent, easy child.

You mention contracts in your line of work....when the time comes to line up some new work, and you have tons of jobs to choose from, do you choose the most stress free, profitable one of the bunch, or do you choose the most difficult, hair pulling, demanding, and lowest paying one?


Originally Posted by FrustratedMommy:
That is true, and for not much pay either; however, for some reason people do choose this job. Nobody is saying it is easy.

Although, I don't know what you are talking about with an hour long lunch. Most jobs here are 7.5 hours work, with a half hour lunch or 8 hours with 1/2 lunch and two 15 min breaks. I don't know anybody who has an hour lunch.

Plus if you have ever worked in an office, you sit in a cube all day, half the time you are bored because they don't have any work for you, so you need to 'look' busy. You cannot do anything that even looks remotely like you are goofing off, such as reading, surfing the internet. They walk by and look at your screen. You need to have your compiler up at all times, be in your seat and find something to occupy your mind that is not noticeable. Or you are incredibly busy and working through lunch because you have a deadline to meet, and no, you don't get paid overtime for this. Programmers are generally control freaks, so they fight all the time, misunderstand each other and it is not a fun, loving environment, and the boss rarely tells you when you do good work, but certainly points out when you mess up. This is life. This is the job I chose. I come in every day and do my best.

Daycare providers choose their job too. There are pros and cons to every job and EVERY job is hard. Pick one and do your best at it. Try and work with your boss to make it a good environment. If you don't like your job, you always have the option of doing something else. Yes, I know it is challenging to change careers, that is one of the reasons I am still here. I don't want to take a paycut.

I am sure you get rewards too, like when your kids don't want to go home because daycare is so much fun, or when you were there when the baby walked for the first time and the parents were stuck in a cubicle. There must be a reason why you do this job, or else you wouldn't do it.
Sounds to me like you hate your job, only go there for the paycheck (not because you enjoy what you do).

I was once in your position....great pay, great benefits, hated the job, hated my co-workers, hated the area I worked in, hated EVERYTHING about my career.

I quit and struck out in a new direction. Life's too short to be miserable for a few sheckels in the pocket at the end of the week.

The funny thing is, I did take an initial cut in pay, but 10 years later, I'm making over TWICE what I would have topped out at in my previous line of work. Mainly because I enjoy my work, and it shows.
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