Indoorvoice 06:00 AM 12-05-2018
Here is a typical morning for me:
7:15- wake my big kids up and assist with getting out clothes, brushing hair,etc. My 2 year old likes to sleep until 8:30 ish so I try to let her sleep. All families are contracted for a 7:30 arrival. Usually one family comes between 7:35 and 7:50. I try to hold off breakfast until they get here because they have a school ager I have to get breakfast to before I send them out to the bus stop at 8. This family also has a 1 year old who screams as soon as dcd passes him to me. Obviously never know when they're coming and if they don't get here until 7:50 breakfast is seriously rushed. If I feed my kids and then the dck again, then i have a hard time getting the other dck's in the door.
Newest baby (3 months) comes around 7:40 and goes right back to sleep so I'm trying to keep my 2 kids plus the 1 year old and 5 year old dcks semi quiet because that baby and my 2 year old are sleeping.
Then as I'm getting all the school aged kids ready for the bus stop, 8month old arrives. Also loud. Not crying, just a loud babbler.
Lately I've just been putting both babies plus the 1 year old back down as soon as they get here because everyone is just so unhappy and loud and I have older kids to take care of too. But they cry for a few minutes to go to sleep and I'm so worried I seem neglectful if parents walk in and hear babies crying and I'm not comforting them. Also, I DO feel neglectful. Like I'm just putting them to bed for my own reasons and not because they need it.I'm sure the Little ones are feeding off my stress. 1 year old and 8 month old do not need a nap at this time, but 1 year old would sleep all day if I let him so he does go back to sleep and 8 month old also does go to sleep. By the time everyone has arrived and I've gotten the older kids on the bus, I'm shaky and feel sick to my stomach.
Is this typical when you have school agers and I just have to suck it up or is there something I can do better? How do you organize your arrivals so that everyone can be taken care of accordingly?
daycarediva 09:53 AM 12-05-2018
Can you put them in high chairs with breakfast or an early morning snack?
I have a similar issue and the only solution I have found is food for the 'baby', and putting her up, until everyone is dropped off and THEN she goes down for an early morning nap.
Firefly 10:36 AM 12-05-2018
I was in a similar situation with a 12 month old. For about the first month of her coming here she would scream when getting dropped off and was crying as all the other kids were getting dropped off which made it very stressful. She seemed so tired in the morning the only way she would stop crying was if I laid her down for a nap. Then it changed to where she would cry if I laid her down and the other parents would hear her crying. Now she’s better adjusted so I can wait until all the other kids get here before I lay her down. She definitely needs that morning nap. I don’t have any before school kids though. I can see how that would be hectic. I would tell the parent who drops 10 minutes before the bus gets there that’s not enough time for breakfast. Or maybe that child could eat breakfast before they come. I also stopped taking kids under a year old because it was just too much for me.
rosieteddy 01:03 PM 12-05-2018
I would wake your big kids at 7am.Then your 2 yr old at 7:15.Everyone would eat breakfast at 7;30.I would not do a "fancy"breakfast either.I would give the late parents notice that if they are not there at 7:30 breakfast will not be served.If that is not an option their food would be set out they would eat with their coats on.I would set younger kids at table with cheerios and or toast instead of having them crying.I personally would give everyone notice that starting the NewYear no breakfast before school.All children should have eaten before arrival.Then I would feed my own children before they arrived.I did this and then served "breakfast snack"at 8;45am usually infants were asleep at that time way less hectic.I would tell the parents that studies show it is beneficial for children to eat with parents at home Good luck.
gumdrops 03:40 PM 12-05-2018
I'm on team "school agers must be fed before arrival"! There is no reason why children who come after 7:30 can't be fed at home. I also don't have a problem allowing my own children to eat in front in daycare kids. If they've already eaten at home, they shouldn't be hungry, so it shouldn't affect them.
littlefriends 05:26 PM 12-05-2018
Can you tell the parents you aren’t serving breakfast anymore and everybody needs to come fed? Doing away with breakfast and just making morning snack at 8:30 or 9 might help. Also can you have as much set out as possible the night before? Clothes, backpacks etc and your own kids food already prepared so you just pull it out and set it in front of them at the table? When my kids were little I always had baskets in the fridge of foods I had put into servings. So I could just pull out a gallon size baggie and it had something like a yogurt tube, granola bar, orange cup and juice box for example.