Today I had a mom walk in an hour early. I was not expecting any parents. I was in the kitchen with a child and they were eating snack. I was cleaning up and stuffing a cookie in my mouth. I turned around to do something and got the crap scared out of me. There was a mom standing in my dining room. I did not hear her open the front door. She did not knock, ring the doorbell, or say Whohoa I am here I am early. She quietly walked in, thru my living room, stepped over the gate into the dining room and was standing there looking into my kitchen. My heart about hit the floor, because it startled me.

While I do have an open door policy, I do expect parents to respect my home, and that means if you are going to show up an hour early, call and let me know, so that I can get your kids up and ready to go. Do not sneak in my home and scare the **** out of me. I will be buying some type of alarm to put on my front door so that when it is opened somehow I will be alerted. I am also going to start locking my door after drop offs and unlocking it before pickups. I have 2 families that are taking their kids to "real preschool", and I am going to start making them ring a doorbell instead of getting free reign to just walk in when they come to pick up and drop back off. My daycare room is to the back of my home. You can actually see it from the front living room where parents enter. I normally have a gate at the doorway to keep people from walking thru the house with their shoes on, but some just don't get it.

Reply