Originally Posted by preschoolteacher:
Another thread about what it's like growing up as the child of a daycare provider got me thinking...
How important is it to you that treat your kids and the daycare kids "fairly"? By fair, I mean things like... if your son is riding his bike, you either make him give the daycare kids a turn or make him wait until they leave to ride it. If your child has a sore throat you give them a Popsicle, you then give all the daycare kids a Popsicle. When is it okay to acknowledge that this is YOUR child in YOUR house, and sometimes a little special treatment from mom is okay? Where do you draw the line?
Recently, I have been feeding my son dinner at 5 PM. I have a few kids who don't leave until 5:30 PM. My son really needs dinner at 5 PM because he has been going to bed at 6:30 PM, and he honestly is just very hungry at that time. (We've been trying to get him to go to bed later, but he just tends to sleep 6:30 PM-6:30 AM no matter what I do.) The other daycare kids occasionally ask for dinner too when they see him eating, and I explain that their parents are coming soon and they can eat at home. Is that wrong?
I was the child of a daycare provider and one of the biggest things I remember was how the other kids were always in MY stuff. Yes there were daycare toys but they would go in my room and take my toys and refuse to let me play with my own toys since they were "cooler" than the daycare toys. I vowed never to force ds to share his toys or room. If he wants to go in his room and play with his toys, I don't make him share his room or toys and while I don't usually let him take his toys out of his room during daycare hours I don't make him share his toy if he does. All the kids have always understood this rule. I tell them that they don't have to share their toys with daycare so neither does ds. Makes sense to them. Also if he is hungry for dinner then he gets to eat...it's not his fault the other kids are here 10 hours a day. If I enrolled him in daycare there is no way I'd keep him there 10 or more hours a day. He still is expected to follow the rules when in daycare space but otherwise even he needs a break from daycare. Often dh will take ds to another room for some special daddy time. It helps. He needs his space or else by the end of the day he is so done with daycare that he literally tries to help the last kid get dressed to leave early and starts waving goodbye before her parent even gets here....