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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Assistant or Not
Country Kids 10:25 AM 09-15-2011
I was wondering the following-How many of you are an in home childcare provider and have an assistant that comes and helps you everyday? What made you decide to hire an assistant? How many children do you have and at what amount of children does your state require you to have an assistant? Also, what does your assistant do-help with the children, do things you don't have time for, etc?

For those that don't have an assistant would you like to have one and what keeps you from hiring one?

I know that I don't make enough money to hire an assistant! I'm at my full capasity (10) through out the day but we just don't make the money in this area and really no one does hire assistants for a regular childcare. In my state you have to have 13 children to have an assistant required. There are more of getting to be more of those types but still not that many. I personally wouldn't want that many in my home !

Thanks for everyones input!
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wdmmom 10:38 AM 09-15-2011
Originally Posted by Country Kids:
I was wondering the following-How many of you are an in home childcare provider and have an assistant that comes and helps you everyday? What made you decide to hire an assistant? How many children do you have and at what amount of children does your state require you to have an assistant? Also, what does your assistant do-help with the children, do things you don't have time for, etc?

For those that don't have an assistant would you like to have one and what keeps you from hiring one?

I know that I don't make enough money to hire an assistant! I'm at my full capasity (10) through out the day but we just don't make the money in this area and really no one does hire assistants for a regular childcare. In my state you have to have 13 children to have an assistant required. There are more of getting to be more of those types but still not that many. I personally wouldn't want that many in my home !

Thanks for everyones input!
I have a part time staff assistant that works a few hours each day. She gets about 16-20 hours per week.

I have 3 full time children and 3 part time children.

I decided to hire an assistant because it was getting overwhelmingly difficult to keep up on chores around the house, I wanted the company, and I could afford it.

My staff assistant is responsible for diaper changes, spoon feeding toddlers, vacuuming, sweeping, sanitizing toys, supervising the children, reading to them, and occasionally folding a load of laundry, loading/unloading the dishwasher, mopping floors, etc.
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Cat Herder 10:57 AM 09-15-2011
Originally Posted by Country Kids:
For those that don't have an assistant would you like to have one and what keeps you from hiring one?
No thank you.

Two women in my kitchen will end badly.

Not to mention that I am always getting in my way. I can't imagine two of us in here.

Oh, and here I would only be able to have two extra kids, about $200 more a week. Nobody would work for that amount.

They could keep two at their own house, without registering, for that...
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snbauser 11:00 AM 09-15-2011
Okay 2 part answer LOL!!

Part 1 - When I was "Family Child Care" we were only allowed to have 5 kids. When I was full I hired someone to come in part time from 9-12 each day. It gave me an extra hand during our curriculum time and to help prepare lunch. It also allowed me some flexibility in making appointments, taking a day off, or volunteering at my kids schools or coverage if I got sick. It worked out well because the kids knew her, the parents knew her, and I got to know her well and felt comfortable leaving her with the kids. She even came to my house and kept my dacyare open when I was on vacation so the parents weren't inconvenienced.

Part 2 - Now I am licensed out of my home but as what is called a "Center in a Residence". It is basically what other states call either "Large Family Child Care" or "Group Care". I can have up to 12 kids at a time but have to follow different ratio's based on the age of the youngest child in care. Most of the time we only have ages 2 and up so we follow a 1:9 ratio.

My assistants do whatever needs to be done. They are usually the one's responsible for diaper changes and I have one that likes doing the lunch prep. The rest of the time they help with everything that needs to get done other than paperwork.
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laundrymom 11:02 AM 09-15-2011
Originally Posted by Catherder:
No thank you.

Two women in my kitchen will end badly.

Not to mention that I am always getting in my way. I can't imagine two of us in here.
Rofl!!!!!! Me too!!!

I don't trust anyone with my babies. And they are all mine. From the time they enroll until,... Well I've had babies from afganastan to Cambodia. From the 27th floor board room to the sewer under NYC. All still my babies.
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Sugar Magnolia 11:07 AM 09-15-2011
I am a center, but will chime in anyways! Really, we are not much different than a large family daycare, we just don't live here. We have 15 kids: two 1 year olds, three 2 year olds, the rest are 3-5. Florida law says no more than 6 under two, and ratio for 3-5 year olds is 1:15. FIFTEEN?!? To ONE adult?!?! Crazy! I don't think that's appropriate. My hussband and I are the lead teacher, but we DO have an assistant from 8am-1pm. When the assistant is here, our staff to child ratio is 1:5, which is virtually UNHEARD of in a center. When she leaves we are 1:6 for my group and 1:9 in my husbands group, which meets or is better than the state ratios. So I could operate without an assistant, but I feel its what's best for the kids.
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momofsix 11:08 AM 09-15-2011
I can only have 6 with my registration in MI. Only 2 of those under 18 months. There was a time of about 9 months where my infant ratio was too high to do by myself (3 under 18 months) so I hired one of my dd's to come in during that time. It worked out well for us both.
I would never hire an assistant that was not family-way too much paperwork and things to with payroll/taxes that I wouldn't want to get into. It wouldn't be worth it I don't think.
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Meeko 11:09 AM 09-15-2011
I'm a home day provider. We are licensed for 16 kids. My 26 year old son is my assistant.

We are a family business in very sense of the word. My husband and I and our two youngest children live in our own home. My assistant son lives at our day care home. Because of that, he is the licensee, (but I run the show lol!)

My husband is retired Air Force and now a brilliant stay at home dad who cleans and cooks and runs our daughters to school, activities, shopping etc.

I get to work at about 5:30AM. I get my son up when I get to 8 kids. (I am legal with 8 by myself...he has to be working for 9 kids and above) He is off the clock as soon as I get back down to 8 kids again in the afternoons. For his help, he pays no rent/mortgage etc. He has his own business booting illegally parked cars in the evenings which gives him his cash flow income. It works perfectly for us. If my son has something he wants to do during the day or is sick etc...then my husband comes and helps me.

I get home around 6:20PM to find dinner ready and a spotlessly clean house (military precision!). On Fridays he really deep cleans and gets my daughters busy too. The lawn is mowed, the house is clean and he even has scented candles burning so I walk into a restful haven when I get home.

Works for me!
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cheerfuldom 11:10 AM 09-15-2011
First off, nanny has some really good blog posts on hiring an assistant.

I have a smaller group here (7 kids under 4). I have a college age girl come two mornings a week. She is here for 3 hours per morning. She takes all the kids to the park and then does snack time, feedings for the babies, diapers/pottying. right before she leaves, she puts everyone down for naps and cleans up the playroom (just tidying, no deep cleaning). I HAVE to have this down time because I am also a full time college student and mom to three (one infant that does not sleep thru the night yet) so its a necessity to me. I cannot be in mommy mode 24/7 and thats why i hired her. we don't work together, either she is in charge or I am. We have a dedicated playroom/bathroom/napping room for just the daycare. That keeps the confusion for the kids in check. it took me a while to find her. I went thru several assistants and the big issues are the same ones that nanny has seen, people not taking the job seriously and showing up late or not at all, moms wanting to bring their own child and spending too much time caring for their own kid, people that just plain out underestimated caring for kids and thought it was easy money. the girl I have now has a lot of experience and her education goal is to work with kids. the kids love her and all go running into her arms when she shows up! (including my special needs girl that does not like to be touched!) I cannot imagine doing 10 all day every day by myself and am shocked at those that do it long term with no assistance. maybe it would be different if my kids were older (there's 4 under 12 months).
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laundrymom 11:11 AM 09-15-2011
Originally Posted by Sugar Magnolia:
I am a center, but will chime in anyways! Really, we are not much different than a large family daycare, So I could operate without an assistant, but I feel its what's best for the kids.


And THIS is one of the reasons you rock!
Kids first.
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irishdancer 11:48 AM 09-15-2011
I have 6 kids which is the states limit for home daycare. Our county just started allowing large family but my town zoning is not allowing them. I have an assistant 3 mornings a week. She helps with my learning time and plays with the kids while I prepare breakfast and lunch. Also enjoy being able to talk to someone who speaks full sentences.
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cheerfuldom 11:52 AM 09-15-2011
I think its great that many of you work with your assistants. i just haven't had luck with that. My own two girls get all clingy and whiny when me and my assistant work together. Most of the time there is a reasonable number of kids for one person to handle so it works better for me to leave entirely (leave means I go upstairs and do chores and such) and the assistant take over (downstairs)
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AnythingsPossible 12:33 PM 09-15-2011
I have a home daycare and have always done it by myself and plan to continue that way. I have no desire to have an assistant. I share my space enough with the kiddo's let alone another adult in my space half the day too. I also do not want to have the liability of being responsible for someone else's actions. I know how I care for my children and I know that what I do falls on me. I could not imagine trusting someone else in my home with the daycare kids. I suppose I am a bit to paranoid about it, but that's my opinion on it.
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nannyde 12:44 PM 09-15-2011
Originally Posted by cheerfuldom:
I think its great that many of you work with your assistants. i just haven't had luck with that. My own two girls get all clingy and whiny when me and my assistant work together. Most of the time there is a reasonable number of kids for one person to handle so it works better for me to leave entirely (leave means I go upstairs and do chores and such) and the assistant take over (downstairs)
I don't do side by side working with the staff assistant. I don't have any reason to have someone if I have to be in the room with them. I don't have enough kids to need someone to be beside me working. With eight or less kids there just isn't enough work for two people at the same time in the room.

I don't hire out playing with the kids. They play with each other. Our playrooms are set up so that the toys the kids have access to don't require an adult to be involved at all. They don't have access to anything that would cause the adult to be involved directly.

When they play with something that DOES require an adult to be involved (like painting, play doh, beads... etc) then we have it at a time when my staff assistant has stuff to do that require little attention (like doing laundry or cleaning toys)

My staff assistant does all the physical care and proximal supervision of the kids when she is in the house. I do it all when I'm here by myself. I have her here during both play times (morning and after nap). I have the playrooms on camera so when she is with the kids I can supervise them and her. The only time I'm in the room with her is when I'm bringing work to her, solving something she is unable to do or training. The only exception would be newborn care. I do the majority of that until I get her trained for that specific baby.
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Country Kids 01:04 PM 09-15-2011
Man, I just thought of more question I should have put with my original post.

Where did you find your assistant? Have you had more than one assistant? What do you find hard about having an assistant?
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cheerfuldom 02:43 PM 09-15-2011
well I hire an assistant to play with the kids among other things. they all walk to the park together or use our backyard and I would rather her by pushing them on the swing, catching at the bottom of the slide, playing tag, wearing them out and such then standing around or worse, being on the cell phone. I have known my current assistant since she was a preteen and I really love her. I want my girls to be attached to her and think of her as a friend. They also listen to her though and she is very good at balancing the two items. I think its important for the OP to read numerous opinions about what we all prefer our assistants to do and not do. I know some of you are not into playing with the kids but I do sometimes and my assistant definitely does. I basically want her to wear those kiddos out so they are happily exhausted and ready for naps!
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