This is long... I am an assistant at a home daycare. I wanted to mention a few things and get some feed-back from owners as to whether I'm in the wrong and just need to quit if I don't like it.

I have been at this daycare for about 1 year. The owner and I have always gotten along VERY well, and she has always acted very pleased with my performance. Tells me she's very lucky to have me working there, etc. And I have ALWAYS felt lucky to be working for her. Here's the but...: Lately I've been feeling like she's not being considerate of me and the kid's safety. I hardly ever know when she's going to take off at the busiest times, to go to the store, run an errand, etc. We have a 2 yr old we've been having a time with hitting, kicking, yanking toys away from other kids, knocking them over, throwing a plastic child sized chair at them, taking hard objects and hitting them over the head with it (leaving a bump on their head!), etc. No matter what we do it doesn't affect him. What I'm getting at, is this boy has certain kids he bullies the most and it's constant all day long. Cannot take your eye off him for a second. When the owner leaves me with 7-8 kids, including this boy, and I'm hesitant about doing it, am I in the wrong? Am I just not as good with the kids as I should be? I'm afraid of what this boy might do to the other kids sometime, and besides that, even if he doesn't seriously injure them, I don't think it's right for these kids to have to endure that while in care. She won't terminate him, even though by policy and for the other kid's sake, he should have been gone a looooong time ago. There's other things too, though, that have been bothering me with her. Says she'll be back by a certain time (when I have the kids by myself), but doesn't make it by then. Usually at least a half hour late. Always calls to say "I'm sorry I'm running late. But it will be okay. There's only x number of kids." As if I shouldn't care. If there's a day she wants me to close, she "tells" me which day I am closing. Doesn't ask, doesn't say "will this day work for you?" or "Do you mind? I know it's the busiest day". I have always just said "sure" when she asks me to because I'm more than happy to usually. But now she doesn't ask, she tells. I'm always available when she tells me she needs me to work late or something, even if I have to rearrange a few things to do it. My schedule never stays what it was supposed to be that week (she gives me a certain number of hours each week). It changes every week, from one day to the next (except the time I come in is usually the same time everyday). There's days when my scedule is supposed to be up to x time, but then she decides that she wants to leave early an extra day, so she tells me to leave early these days, and stay late this day. I've always been the type who needs a set schedule and routine and knows what to expect from one working day to the next. I'm not talking when it comes to children, I know things change spare of the moment with them. I'm talking scheduling and the owner leaving during the day, even at "bad" times and times she knows are "bad times", but it's as if she doesn't care that they're bad times as long as she gets to go do whatever she needs to. Things that are usually not even related to daycare.

Part of the problem I know is me. I hardly ever tell her no. Even when it's very short notice. Just a few minutes notice sometimes. Since I've always done it and said ok all the time, I would feel like a bad employee now if I said no. Or "I don't want to watch 8 kids with this little boy going around hurting everybody, and the others doing it back to him and each other now." It sounds really bad to say I can't watch that few of kids, but I feel like with this extra difficult child and the chaos his behavior brings, it equals more like 12 kids ages 2-5 (the majority are age 2). It's within ratio, but I think the ratio is too high when you have children like this 2 yr old.

So what are your thoughts? Am I in the wrong? I know she's the employer, and it's her business and she has the right to do what's most convenient for her. We've been working so closely together, though, that this daycare was more like a partnership than employer/employee. Or so I thought. She always treated me like a partner in it, with the exception of her writing my paychecks instead of the parents lol

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