How Do Your Older Kids Feel About Daycare?

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

I feel so stressed out lately. First about terminating a boy that was always hitting/throwing...now just about running a daycare.

The kids are all off from school this week, I have 4 of my own girls, 2 school age daycare girls, and a 2 year old daycare boy. Soon 2 more girls will start to make up income I'm losing from terminating the boy.

My older 2 are ages 13 and 11....they want nothing more than THEIR house to be theirs and some peace and quiet. Everytime daycare kids are here it is not quiet, the daycare girls are good girls but they do get hyper and my younger 2 girls get hyped up too when others are here.

I don't know, I seriously think about going to get a job outside of the home because a lot of times daycare is VERY stressful on all my kids, but then my younger 2 will have to go to a daycare during the summer and non school days, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I started daycare to be here for them and give them activities to do.

Do any of you have older children and how do they feel about daycare in their home? I'm having a bad week :-(

[jen]

Originally Posted by My4SunshineGirlsNY

I feel so stressed out lately. First about terminating a boy that was always hitting/throwing...now just about running a daycare.

The kids are all off from school this week, I have 4 of my own girls, 2 school age daycare girls, and a 2 year old daycare boy. Soon 2 more girls will start to make up income I'm losing from terminating the boy.

My older 2 are ages 13 and 11....they want nothing more than THEIR house to be theirs and some peace and quiet. Everytime daycare kids are here it is not quiet, the daycare girls are good girls but they do get hyper and my younger 2 girls get hyped up too when others are here.

I don't know, I seriously think about going to get a job outside of the home because a lot of times daycare is VERY stressful on all my kids, but then my younger 2 will have to go to a daycare during the summer and non school days, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I started daycare to be here for them and give them activities to do.

Do any of you have older children and how do they feel about daycare in their home? I'm having a bad week :-(

My kids are 16, 11 and 7...they ALL want me to stop doing daycare..

[daysofelijah]

Not really older, but my 6 and 7 year old really want me to stop doing daycare. My 3 year old still enjoys the daycare kids most of the time

[Blackcat31]

My DH grew up in a 24/7 childcare his mom ran while he was younger. He and his 4 brothers all HATED it and when I approached the subject of starting a child care myself, my DH freaked out: Now, I do child care out of a separate home so that none of those issues are issues....I was still with my own kids all day and then before and after school as they grew but now that they have gotten to be college age, I still do not regret doing it this way. I do have my own unique set of issues that having a separate home brings but I honestly would NEVER do it any other way.

To those of you (most I assume) who open up your own homes to run your businesses...I APPLAUD YOU!!!!! It just wasn't for me.....My personal bubble of space is pretty big.....

.....and I could NEVER deal with all the "kid-fluid" on my own stuff.....Blah...

[ammama]

My older DD7 likes the dayhome kids. She has her own space in her bedroom where she retreats to when she is tired of them, but she loves to stay home from school and do all the activities that we do together.

My dck's are all a bit older (3-4 years old mainly, a few part time 2.5 yr olds), and they all listen to her game suggestions (read: boss them around), which she enjoys.

My younger DD2 also has her own room to retreat to, and does so regularly, but she misses the dck's when they are not here. I only work mon-thurs, so Fridays are a quiet day around here.

[Cat Herder]

My kiddos love it BUT they have never been "in" it. They like that I am here and available.

My daycare is in it's own space, has it's own supplies and I have never kept DCK's my kids ages...

I did B/AS and Summer Care while they were small.....ugh!! Shoot me.....

When they became SA I did infants/toddlers. I still do not keep kids once they turn 4.

[jen]

Originally Posted by Catherder

My kiddos love it BUT they have never been "in" it. They like that I am here and available.

My daycare is in it's own space, has it's own supplies and I have never kept DCK's my kids ages...

I did B/AS and Summer Care while they were small.....ugh!! Shoot me.....

When they became SA I did infants/toddlers. I still do not keep kids once they turn 4.

I've been thinking ALOT about this as well! If I planned on staying in daycare, I think I would do the same...

[nikia]

My kids are not older, 6 and 7 but they would like me to go smaller and only have 2 kids. My oldest tells me I could then go have lunch with her at school because if I kept the two best behaved kids I wouldnt have to worry about bringing them with me

My coworkers son is expecting a baby and he said he will never have his wife do daycare at home he grew up with that in his house and HE HATED it. He said he would never do that to his kids.

My daughter was younger when I did daycare and she didn't like it.

[laundrymom]

My kids are alot older and still in the home. My son 19 a freshman in college. My daughter 17 a junior in highschool. 12 & 9 yr girls 7 & 4th grades. They accept it. It's life. They don't love sharing me. They don't love sharing their homes and lives with other kids but since I only have one SA boy it's alot easierand he is only here b/a school. I never have him all day. It helps. Had I known how much easier not keeping SA was I would have done it 22 years ago. Now they only share their rooms at nap with pnp babies. I must say that the advantages are so much more than the bad. I've done daycare through 4 pregnancies, ball schedules, divorce, remarriage, chicken pox, puppies, tornadoes, custody battles and head lice. Not once did I think it was "easy" but I never questioned it's worth. I make the majority of our income. I can't quit. I just can't get another job that pays $1360 a week. In order for us to keep the life we have I do daycare. My kids adjust. Good luck with your decision.

[safechner]

My daughters who are 8 and 10 years old hate it so much! They used to be love to play with the kids when they were little kids. They are tired of it right now. I do believe they need me more than daycare kids. Both of my girls have bad attitudes when they get home from school and go to their rooms and lock until the daycare kids go home. They will come out of their rooms to be normal. That is why I am planning to close my daycare this July 2011 so I can be there for my girls more. We also can go out more activities.

[MyAngels]

I think my attitude about having a home daycare is what set the tone for my own children as they grew up. I always looked at it as an opportunity for my kids to learn positive things. How to share, be open-hearted, caring and loving. How to learn to turn what could be considered a negative by some into a positive. I never took school aged kids, though, so that may have made it easier during their school years.

I'm sure there were times when my kids would have preferred to have their home to themselves, but they also realized that the trade off for that would be for me not to be available to them as I would have had to work outside the home to provide for all of us.

One positive thing for me, as a parent, has been that there are a whole lot of people here in our community who know me, my husband and my children. This means that, during their teenage years especially, there were lots of people keeping an eye out on my kids. (Just ask my daughter about the police officer who called one day to report that he'd seen her car traveling at a good clip down a city street ).

[nannyde]

Originally Posted by Catherder

My kiddos love it BUT they have never been "in" it.

Yes that

[daycare]

My kids are 4 13 and 15.. they all love it.

The older two realize that I will not work out of the home, becuase there is no way that I would allow for them to come home to an unsupervised house.
They also realize that if i did not do daycare they would not wear designer clothes, buy special treats or fund half of the stuff that we do.

my oldest loves to play with the kids... right now they are all playing baseball.

My middle loves to do arts and crafts with us and plays dress up with them from time to time.

My little guy loves DC. he often wakes up on saturday sad when there is no one here to play with....

Im so sorry your having a bad week. I have a 14 y/o son and 8 y/o daughter. When my daughter was younger she really struggled with having other peoples kids in our home. Now that shes 8 she doesnt mind it. She plays with the kids and helps. My teen age son doesnt mind it most of the time (since I moved a crib out of his room) but when he is off of school (summer etc) the noise disturbs his sleep so I try to keep it down to a low roar. Hang in there!
Debbie

[Blackcat31]

Once my DD reached babysitting age, she learned what a great opportunity it was that her mom had a daycare because every one of the families I had in care knew her and the kids knew her as well so she became the #1 requested babysitter in the area! She was babysitting all the time!!

She capitalized on that and I swear was making better money than I was!!! Now she is older and moved off to college .....but she will tell you, it was good while it lasted!

[AnythingsPossible]

Originally Posted by Blackcat31

Once my DD reached babysitting age, she learned what a great opportunity it was that her mom had a daycare because every one of the families I had in care knew her and the kids knew her as well so she became the #1 requested babysitter in the area! She was babysitting all the time!!

She capitalized on that and I swear was making better money than I was!!! Now she is older and moved off to college .....but she will tell you, it was good while it lasted!

What does everyone consider babysitting age? My daughter will be 13 this year and is interested in it.

To the original question. My children don't like it. They are 14, 12, 9. I think alot of that has to do with me. I haven't had the best attitude about daycare over the past year or so.
This next year I am going to lower my numbers and not watch SA anymore. I am hoping it will improve everyone's attitudes!

[Meyou]

My kids don't mind. They're 7 and 12 and only here from 3pm on most days. My 12 year old adores the little ones and is very helpful about volunteering her services. lol My 7 year old enjoys the playmates although she has a little trouble on school breaks with the "daycare" rules. Of course, she has trouble with most rules at some point or another depending on how cranky she is. haha.

Sometimes my girls just want some space and they have their bedrooms, the living room or kitchen available to play without daycare kids around but it doesn't happen too often.

[sunnymomma]

So far my kids, age 10, 8, and 3 love the d/ks, but I have never had schoolage children yet. What are the issues you all have faced with schoolage children that has made it so difficult on your own kids?

[Blackcat31]

Originally Posted by AnythingsPossible

What does everyone consider babysitting age? My daughter will be 13 this year and is interested in it.

To the original question. My children don't like it. They are 14, 12, 9. I think alot of that has to do with me. I haven't had the best attitude about daycare over the past year or so.
This next year I am going to lower my numbers and not watch SA anymore. I am hoping it will improve everyone's attitudes!

Our community education has a babysitting program/training class that kids age 11 and up can take and it teaches them first aid and CPR and such. My DD took that class and she started babysitting at 12, but I personally know kids who still need a sitter at 13 so I guess it depends on the age.
I, myself, babysat for all my parent's friends when I was like 9 or 10 but I was the oldest of 6 and pretty experienced by the time was 9 so again,.....depends on the kid and the family looking for care.

[kathiemarie]

My kids are 19, 18 and 12. They have loved it and hated it. I think my son (18) had the hardest time with it but I have always been good about not use their rooms for DC. If I HAD to nap some one in a bed room the pnp was up before they got home from school. I also was able to run things to them at school if they forgot something. Though as Im getting older I want my house back. I want to have a coffee table, rugs and nic-nacs so I am putting an 10 x 14 tuff shead (its like an office) in my back yard and that will be my dc space. We will only come into the main house to eat, sleep and pee.

[DEBBIES DAYCARE]

I did daycare when my kids were small up to junior high and then when I got divorced went into the work field needing health ins, adult friends and a very steady income. At the time, my kids disliked the daycare, sharing me and their home. But when I started working out of the home, they disliked it even more. They went from coming home from school and having to share me, to coming home and I wasnt there at all. Their chores increased, weekends were spent cleaning and catching up on laundry. I eventually went back to daycare where I belong. Be careful what you wish for kids! and mom, your career and lifes work is YOUR decision just like theirs will be someday.
By the way, I did and still do have a separate room for the daycare.