I have a large daycare with about 24 kids enrolled. 14 can attend at one time.

Every year I throw different parties and events. Usually some are pretty big events.

Well a few weeks ago we had a big event that took place where we had just about all of the kids and some of the parents attend. It was on a normal day of operation, Friday.

I was running the show that day and I didn't really have any issues. But after a staff meeting the following Monday, all of my staff agreed that they hated working the event due to the parents that came, they did not control their child's behavior. It was only the kids that had a parent in attendance that were the kids that had issues.

Now for me, I have no problem taking over for a parent if they fail to parent their child. I will also tell the parent to take care of it when they are present. My staff told me they were not comfortable parenting the child when the parent was present. I told them then don't complain if you aren't willing to jump in..Of course they said they shouldn't have to jump in, th parents should. I do agree 100% with what they are saying. BUT if the parent doesn't then someone has to is how I see it.

ALSO, my parents are told before the party that they must parent their child and are given a list of our basic rules an expectations of their child behavior so that they can enforce them when they are with us. Guess that didn't really work.

So now all of my staff says they don't want to do any more events because of this reason. I am feeling conflicted, because this is how friendships are made with the other families and I love doing events.

BUT if I don't have any staff support, what am I to do?

How would you guys handle this? I need to figure something out soon, we have our next big event coming up in a few weeks. Preschool graduation for 7 kids, and all of them have siblings, some that attend our program.

HELP

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