if you use in home daycare come in

[pugz]

how many kids total are in the provider's care? For some reason having 4-5 kids of mixed ages makes me more nervous than a room of 9 infants w/3 adults at a center.

I am putting feelers out to see if I can find an in home that can meet my crazy work schedule needs. We have a spot at a center reserved but are not going to get the flexibility we were originally told.

One that I'm talking to has a 4 y/o and her twin siblings that would be about 8 months old when my baby would start (my baby will be 6 months at start of daycare)

[Deleted]

11- there are 2 caregivers they ( the kids) range in age from 1-5

There will be 3 little babies starting in the next 6 months, but 2 older kids are leaving for K in June.

[savannah11]

Let's see. 5 month old, 3 year old (DD), 3 year old, 4 year old. So, 4 full time. Another 3 year old girl comes for about 4 hours a day and an 8 year old comes after school.

I've never worried about the ratio. She is licensed and abides by the state rules. She has a schedule and is more than capable of managing the kids.

[8675309]

WE are blessed with the best in home care provider EVAH!! She was referred by a friend of a friend and we struck gold. She has 2 school aged kids (13 & 10yr old boys) and when we found her she also took care of a 3yr old boy.

She started taking care of DD at 3months and now takes care of my DS too. Just this Sept, the other boy she watched went into kindergarden so its now just DD & DS. She has no plan to fill that slot and it's seriously the best set up EVER. It's kind of like having our own nanny but in her home. I even told her that I want to keep having babies just so she could watch our kids. She ROCKS.

[cjeanette]

I think KS has good ratio rules so I would be comfortable with and provider in that aspect.

[pugz]

I think we are going to go tour a couple of them. The two that have responded and been agreeable to my weird scheduling needs are both just around the corner from our house, less than 5 minutes which would be great esp. since dh works around the corner.

[imimahoney]

There are 2 adult women and 8 children. My son and another baby under 1, the other 6 are ages 13 months to 2 1/2 years. I seriously love the daycare we chose.

[panicked]

I run an in-home. My limit (state and military guidelines) is 6 children total, with no more than 2 under the age of 2.

[pugz]

the other one has lots of little ones

3 1/2
8 months
3 months
21 months
and a 2.5 y/o that goes 2 days a week and we would likely not go on the same days.

seems like a lot of little ones for one person.

[pugz]

and it takes like 45 minutes to give my kid a bottle right now hopefully will get faster once she's a bit older.

[shortstax]

2 adult women caregivers, 7 children total.

However 3 of those children are their own kids over the age of 5. Jack has been there since 10wks (he's almost 2) and they treat him like family. We're very lucky.

[dcrunnergirl]

2 adult caregivers and sometimes a few other helps
12 kids but some, like mine are part time. I'd say at any time, she has 6-8 kids, ranging from 3 months - 4 years.

[brit1017]

Ours has between 3 and 7 depending on the day and time (3 are hers, 8yo, 6yo, and 4yo). DS is 4yo and DD is 2yo. The other two kids are 6yo and 1yo. When she has all 7, she has another adult there too. As a pp said, she really has become like family. We have crazy scheduling needs too, and she is great about rolling with the punches on short notice. I honestly don't know what we would do without her.

That said, I would be uncomfortable with a lot of babies and only one caregiver. I think more than two under the age of 1 would make me uncomfortable, and even with two kids under 1, I would want all of the other kids over the age of 2.

[rootbeerfloat]

My DCP has a 6m, 2 18m, a 2.5y and 2 3ys. She also watches DS after-school, but one of the kids leaves at 2ish, so she stays in ratio (here it's up to 6, with only 2 under 18m).

[bronxgirl]

Pugz, when do you go back to work? Are you still going to do per diem?

[pugz]

going back in January when G is about 6 months old. A coworker is going on maternity leave so I am going to have a set schedule of 2 days a week for the 3 months she is off, then after that pick up shifts as they are available. Unfortunately those shifts could land on any day, M-F and the center needs me to stay committed to 2 certain days a week and pay for them whether or not I use them. Some weeks there may be no shifts to pick up. I will get the schedule 6 weeks out though so planning ahead is not that hard as long as there is flexibility on the provider's part.

our hospital is in the process of being sold to a for profit hospital system so there are lots of changes ahead and we have no idea what to expect. So who knows if I will even have a job 6 months from now or what the new system's policies will be for PRN workers

[cep1976]

My DC provider has 7 kids, plus an infant of her own. There are always at least two caregivers there (ratio here is 4:1 with no more than 2 under 2 per caregiver.) Since it is family run, often there are more than 2 caregivers. I actually like that there are mixed ages. My kid (4 months old) LOVES watching all the other kids, and I think she'll learn a lot by observing and interacting with them. One of the 2 year olds is always doting on my LO when I pick her up.

I think we really lucked out, as her space is more like a center. She does it out of her walk out basement which gets full day sunlight so it is bright and cheerful. She has adorable murals painted on the walls and turned the backyard into a really nice AstroTurfed play yard.

[badtzmaru22]

Ours has two adults and they are each licensed for six, and I think it's also two infants each like pp mentioned. They currently only have four during the day, and at least three before and after school kids. We love them!!

[eddy]

6 including Leo. Some of those are part time. She has been doing daycare for 20 years and she is awesome. But I was very hesitant about her at first. And this is my second baby so I should know better. But I thought no one could take care of my preshus like me. The first couple weeks are and adjustment. Now it is awesome. He just loves her and she confessed that she just carries he around all day because he is so sweet. I love it. She got him to take a bottle, on a nap schedule etc. this is the awesome part of daycare.

[mswax]

Our daycare has as many as 6 at one time, with the stipulation that there are not more than 2 under 2 (unless one of them is at least 15 months old and walking). Right now, she (our provider) has 1 5-year-old, 2 4-year-olds, 1 3-year-old, 1 2-year-old, and 1 1-year-old. She is amazing with all the kids, and she insists that once they are older (2.5+) that it's actually easier to have more of them because they entertain each other.

Our provider is like a part of our family. We are actually TTC #3 now so that the baby can take DS1's spot when he leaves to go to school in the fall.

[takeonyou]

I run an in-home. I have 5 kids besides my own on any given day. That is my state max.

The mixed age group is my favorite thing about having an in-home. Seeing the older kids be protective and caring towards the babies brings tears to my eyes. Watching the toddlers copy the preschoolers and learn just by watching is amazing. And seeing all their faces when my ds (6.5) comes home from school is so fun! He is the rock star of the playroom, lol. He walks in, grabs a book and the littles all go sit in circle. He reads to them and he is so animated! He answers all their questions in ways I could never think of. It is so, so amazing to see.

Plus, the kids are easier to handle if they are different ages. I worry more about having too may preschoolers than I do infants. Infants are easy, I could easily do 5 infants and have a breeze of a day. It's the 3+ crowd that drives me bonkers. I have 5 tomorrow and I am ready to run them all morning to keep them out of trouble, lol. They are little schemers when my back is turned.

[Deleted]

I believe my dayhome has 4 kids plus her two (hers are old enough to be in school all day, I'm guessing 7 and 9).

I prefer the age mix. DS gets more "baby" attention because she doesn't have to feed and change diapers on all of them. The older kids play with him. He doesn't get bit because all the other kids are over that.

DS is the baby at 17 months. The other kids are 3+, and I think all but one are in preschool some mornings.

[aspentosh]

One provider and she has 3 kids now- 9 months (DD), 14 months and 2 years. She used to have two more toddlers but they moved recently.

It never bothered me. She is always on top of things and I feel 100% comfortable with her. She is following the county guidelines, so why should I worry?