2 posts tagged “child care”

It's no secret that I love children.  As a matter of fact, I was just telling April the other day about how I wanted to kiss some little baby's toes that I saw on the LV monorail.  I don't know why, I just adore them all.  Anyway, I used to run a daycare in my house when my daughter was a baby.  There was a little 11 month old baby that I used to care for about 40-50 hours per week while both parents worked.  She couldn't walk yet when she came to me so I would carry her around most of the day on my hip, all the while kissing her precious little bald head.  when she started to talk, what do you think happened.... Yes, she began calling me "mama."  It got to the point where she didn't want to go home at night and she would cry and scream when her mom or dad would pick her up.  They would carry her kicking and screaming out the door with her arms reaching back for me crying "mama."

I went to a Christmas party at their house and you could see how much it bothered the mom that her baby wanted me to hold her all night.  I loved her and I treated her like my own child, it was no wonder the baby acted this way.  I saw her first steps, I heard her first words, I was there for all those things that moms are usually there for. 

So I asked her mom one day, what do you want me to do?  Do you want me to not treat her like my own so that she doesn't want to stay when you pick her up, or are you happy that your child is being loved so much.  I know it was a tough decision.  It was one I never wanted to make, which is why I left my job and stayed home with my kids despite the financial destruction it caused in our lives.  What would you do?

Did anyone pick up on the fact that I said "the pants on the coffee table should have tipped me off."  After I called out "hello" and she answered me, it took an awfully long time for them to come out of the room.  They couldn't have just been getting dressed.  Of course it felt like an eternity to me anyway, because I didn't know what to say to them.  But this is what I think was going on..... the pants came off in the living room and they headed for the guest room.  This room was right behind my kitchen which is where my washer and dryer were.  So, I used to take the clean clothes out of the dryer and put them on the guest bed until I had time to fold them.  Well, they actually threw all my clean laundry on the floor in order to use the bed!  I think they took so long coming out because one of them had no pants.  I suspect they finally grabbed a pair of my husbands jeans from the clean laundry and put them on.  NO, I would not have noticed!  I just wanted them out of my house asap; I was so upset.  She grabbed the pants off the table on the way out the door.  What a nightmare!  I had never even asked this girl for references, never even met or spoke to her mother, I really knew nothing more than her name and phone number.  So of course, I stress in my book "Seven Things to Know Before You Hire That Babysitter" to get references and CHECK THEM!