Children like routines and knowing what is happening next in their lives. Even though a child may know his bedtime is 8:00 p.m. he might still try to make deals, beg & plead, or even throw a fit to stay up longer. Giving a child a warning or two that bedtime is drawing near helps to prevent some of the resistance.
If you do give warnings, make sure that the amount of time left between the warning and the actual bedtime is understandable for the child's age. Though a small child might not really comprehend how long two minutes is, he will be more cooperative with a two minute warning than if you tell him he has to go to bed in a half an hour, then after the half hour you try to put him right to bed. Since most small children have a short attention span, a half hour warning will be long forgotten in 10 minutes and will do almost nothing to prepare the child to transition smoothly.
Every child is different, but most respond well to either a 10 minute warning and then a 5 minute warning, or a 5 minute and then a 2 minute warning. If you keep your warning times consistent and actually follow through when you say it is bedtime or time to leave a playdate etc., then you will probably experience less resistance than you would with random warnings or no warnings at all.
Lisa McLellan
Nannies, au-pairs, and sometimes even babysitters can often spend long hours with the children they care for. So, many times they might finish off a box of cereal, use the rest of the diaper wipes, use the last diaper, run out of milk or formula etc. It would be really helpful for the parents if the child care provider could just jot down a list throughout the day of any food or supplies that are running low or have completely run out. If the parents get home at 7:00 p.m., they may not have a need for milk until morning, so they won't know it's gone until they need it. This is very frustrating.
Also, if the child has soiled or stained his clothes, the babysitter should let the parents know. The sooner the mess or stain is treated, the easier it will be to clean. And, if the child soils his clothes and the childcare provider just rolls them into a ball and tosses them into the hamper, the smell can be so overpowering by the time the parents do laundry that you can almost guarentee they will be more than a little upset about it. Many stains that are left on clothing for several hours or more can set and become permanent. If the nanny, au-pair or babysitter doesn't know what to do with stained clothing, she should at least report it to the parents so they can take care of it before it's a bigger problem.
These are just a couple of little things that would be greatly appreciated by the parents if the childcare provider just takes a few seconds to let them know,
Lisa McLellan
Pretty much all of us want to make money. Some want to make it by illegal means, by sueing others, or by hitting the lottery. But, most of us want or at least plan to earn our money by working. Sometimes people will babysit for others as a favor, but most often babysitters take on child care jobs to make money.
If you are in the childcare field, it is important that you like what you do. In order to continue to enjoy taking care of children, you have to know your limits. Larger numbers of children and younger children can definitely be alot more work. If you are fine with caring for 4-6 children at a time, that's great! But if three seems to be your limit, avoid accepting jobs with more kids just to make more money. When you do this, you soon become burnt out and begin disliking your job, and possibly resenting the children, or even unintentionally taking your frustrations out on them. You could lose patience much more easily and also become more restricted in your activities. It is much easier to take 2 or 3 children to the playground than 6.
When infants are included in your group of charges, once again everything can be more difficult. You may have to wait for the baby to nap to play with the other children or prepare snacks or meals for them. And if the baby decides she's not going to nap that day, you may be in for a rough ride. Some people are very skilled at handling multiple children of different ages at the same time, but if you aren't one of them, know your limits. By taking on only babysitting jobs that you know you can handle, both you and the children will have a much more enjoyable experience.
