Jul

7

Notice

July 7, 2004 |

:sun4-ani: One of my daycare parents gave notice yesterday. Their child is starting preschool in the fall and they are changing daycares to one that is closer to their home. School will be half days for the child and they live about 20 minutes away from me so it would be very difficult for them to leave work in the middle of the day and transport here. It is much more logical for the new daycare provider to pick the child up and bring them back to care, an option I don’t have.

This leaves me with the challenge of filling the slot in 5 weeks. Child Care is a fickle business that is normally feast or famine in terms of inquires for care. The big dilemma I find myself considering right now is whether or not I want to fill the spot or if I want to take this opportunity to start exploring new avenues of self employment. The money in daycare isn’t steady; people withdraw with 2 weeks notice making it difficult to find replacement income. In our area people are not lining up looking for quality care, for the most part they just want it cheap.

I just wonder if it isn’t a sign of some sort to refocus my efforts. With my health problems of late I realize just how precious every moment is with my children. When they are young, having other people’s children in the house takes so much attention and energy away from them. It’s not because the daycare children are difficult or bad, it’s simply because the more children in the house at one time the more ways the provider has to be divided.

I don’t know what else I would do. I have considered applying to other companies and increasing the number of mystery shops I schedule. It is an entirely telecommuting position that relies almost exclusively on email – certainly easy enough. I love to design web pages but designers are a dime a dozen out there and I think it would be difficult at best to eek out a living from it. I don’t have any other ideas yet.

Whatever I end up deciding it will be with what’s best for my children in mind. Now they seem jealous, aggressive and agitated quite a bit due in large part I imagine to the feeling of competition with other children. While they will have to experience this kind of competition in school I’m not sure I feel it’s good for them to feel it at home with their own mother. These are the only kids I have and I want their early years to be secure and happy.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunities daycare has afforded me. Without this business I would not have been able to stay home with them in the first place. We live in an area where the wages are minimal and the cost of living is exorbitant. It’s the price we pay for rural, picturesque, touristy Americana. I guess I’m just afraid that before long, my children will be grown, too busy with school and sports and friends to be bothered with Mom and that I may well have missed out on that time I so wanted to be here for in the first place. Hopefully the answer will come to me soon.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Candi on July 7, 2004 4:00 pm

    All the times I have thought about doing home daycare…you said all the reasons why I never did it. Your own kids suffering here and there and the money not being steady have to be the worst. I hope you can come up with something because all your kids will be in school before you know it and then you can find a "normal" job I would guess. You’ll find a way to work it out, don’t worry!

  2. VJ on July 7, 2004 8:43 pm

    Take some time with your kids before deciding what to do.

  3. Michele on July 8, 2004 1:40 pm

    Therein lies the problem with all us stay at homers. I never found a way to work it all out, but there must be a way.

  4. Lori on July 8, 2004 2:44 pm

    Hi Julie, you know, it is odd. I am going to babysit one baby in the Fall and a couple of ladies (who don’t know me very well) asked me if I would watch their kids. I thought it was so odd that they would even consider leaving their kids with a complete stranger. It seems to be working out that I will only have the baby, which is fine, but there for a while I was thinking I might have to consider 5 kids..LOL!! It really is fickle. Anyway, I am sure things will work out for you!! Hang in there!! ((BIG HUGS))!!

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