When I first started 10 years ago the parents ruled the roost, told me what to do, when and how and I did as I was so frightened they would leave
4 years in I was broken, I would cry for an hour before starting work and I would cry for an hour when I finished. I hated my job SO much and I couldn't work out how to fix it.
At that time I was working two other jobs so I decided to take a few weeks off from daycare and live off the money from my other two jobs. I hadn't had a break or holiday since I started daycare and I was mentally and physically exhausted.
When I took that two weeks off I literally cried the entire two weeks as I was just so smashed to the ground. I was just coping with living off the small wages from my two part time jobs and I couldn't bare to go back to daycare so I extended my two weeks off to 6 months
I told all my current families I was closing for good and took the rest of the time to change my entire set up, do up contracts and work out whether this was really what I wanted to do 'forever' or if was only until my kids were grown.
I decided I would love my job if I could do it MY way so I reopened with new families, put my bitch pants on and haven't looked back