The Venting Thread

[Sparkles]

It never fails...the fire extinguisher service man always shows up during nap time! He was here last week during nap to take my extinguisher in for service, and then showed up again during nap to return it Now, I've got a screaming baby.

[Sparkles]

I got asked this morning if I'm open on Monday. It's in the handbook, on the newsletter, on the parent board, on the invoices, on the upcoming closures I sent out...I just don't get it

[GirlMomma]

I have this parent, too.

The advice I’ve been given is to ignore it. Just say something like “that’s what the contract says!” and don’t waste any more time or energy on it.

I know it is very frustrating!

[Alwaysgreener]

I just started using daily connect. I put my closures in as events on the calendar and the calendar sends out reminders the day before to remind everybody I'm closed. The only catch is that the families have to turn on a notifications.

[Annalee]

I had 3 families come in last week to tell me xxxx will not be here as he has a dentist appt Thursday; xxxxx will not be here Thursday & Friday as we are going to beach; xxxxxx will not be there till Thursday as I'm off the first of the week.......DUH!!!! I'm closed Thursday and Friday. Two printed flyers on each side of sign-in table; monthly newsletter, reminder text, etc. No one reads anything!

[Cat Herder]

I was having a great morning. Then. I went to pull the sheets off my bed and crushed my hand under the mattress, between the metal and wooden frames, when the crazy thick mattress snapped back down hard because the fitted sheet elastic rolled back faster than expected. The sheets are already washed and put away, but it is now black and blue and aches four hours later.

Of course, it is the hand I need to change diapers, mop, vacuum, pick up toys and serve food all day. Is it just me or are Tuesdays always worse than Mondays?? Especially when Monday was a day off??

[Annalee]

When I first read this as my eyes aren't focused yet, I thought it said 'head' and I'm thinking how did she get her head crushed under the mattress....LOL Hope you are better today, CH!

[Alwaysgreener]

How is your hand today?

[Cat Herder]

It's doing a lot better. DH got these gel-filled mittens that can be refrigerated or microwaved. They are really neat.

[Springvalley]

What would you do if you had a new employee (started about a month ago) get a message about a trip with a one week notice and they needed off? (We're already thinned out and don't have enough teachers plus it's summer and next week is VBS!) Plus weve got one teacher that can only work x amount per week!

[Blackcat31]

Unless she is breaking employee rules and not giving enough notice, I don't see anything wrong with it. I know you're short staffed but people need time off too. New or not.
If it won't work, I would hope the director denies her request for time off but of course that comes with the risk of losing an employee too. I know if it were me and I was working for min. wage doing long hours, I'd probably risk the job for the vacation as job openings are everywhere (atleast around here). So definitely a tough one.

[Cat Herder]

I'd have to let her go on vacation unless I wanted to pay unemployment or have her quit. As BC said minimum wage jobs do nothing to encourage work ethic. She can go on vacation and have another job waiting when she gets back. It is the nature of the industry. Frankly, there are hundreds of jobs in similar pay brackets that are not half as miserable to do. Especially in summer.

Edit: Not sure she could get unemployment after 30 days, but would 100% expect her to quit.

[Springvalley]

Unless she is breaking employee rules and not giving enough notice, I don't see anything wrong with it. I know you're short staffed but people need time off too. New or not.
If it won't work, I would hope the director denies her request for time off but of course that comes with the risk of losing an employee too. I know if it were me and I was working for min. wage doing long hours, I'd probably risk the job for the vacation as job openings are everywhere (atleast around here). So definitely a tough one.

Our employee policy states to give at least 2 weeks notice for needing off but sometimes that doesn't happen but we got it worked out (maybe) it just threw us off guard yesterday and our poor administrator was like "what do I do" so she started texting everyone she could think of. So I think the plan is to combine as much as possible next week based on the number of kids we have each day.

[Blackcat31]

Oh good! Glad your admin could figure it out! Definitely hard to find and keep child care workers lately

[Annalee]

I need to conduct some interviews but just can't motivate myself to do that......avoiding things that irritate me and that seems to irritate me

[Blackcat31]

The neighbors re having a garage sale. They parked all 4 of their vehicles in front of their house so the "shoppers" are parking in front of mine, and in my driveway. My yard is completely fenced but I've had to chase two kids that didn't belong to my daycare out of my yard already today. I am astounded at the rudeness of others... walking through other people's yards to get to the sale, parking in other driveways, blocking alleys,,,, I despise garage sales.

[Annalee]

Holler outside "get off my grass" LOL

[SandBox]

Annalee - Oh man, I have the perfect meme for this!! 🤣🤣

[GirlMomma]

This parent is becoming a nuisance, the child already is. It’s the “part-time” family that pays for the entire slot.

Payment is due on Monday, they pay Tuesday since the kid isn’t here on Monday. Always cash, never been a big deal.

About a month ago, I had to remind the parent to pay me before they left Tuesday afternoon. The ONLY reason I reminded him is because I had an autopay set up and DH and I wanted everything paid ahead before vacation since DH and I don’t get paid vacation time. Two weeks ago, I didn’t have to ask, but the amount was lesser due to my vacation time.

DCP just picked up and didn’t pay. I’m obviously sending them a late fee - but what the heck?! I never had to ask this parent before. It really irks me to ask for payment and charge fees.

[GirlMomma]

PITA DCP Text: Is It NoRmAl PiCk Up TiMe ToDaY?

*What I want to say: I close at 5:30 but if you could arrive at 5:15, I’m sure your kid would love the extra time with you! *

[Blackcat31]

I would forward your original text/email to them and say nothing other than : “Please save for future reference.”

[GirlMomma]

Blackcat31 I haven’t responded because it’s the same parent from my previous posts. Those days are over. It was communicated three different ways. At this point I feel like she’s just mocking me. 😵💫

[Sparkles]

Dcd who picked up at the very last minute: "Just trying to get my money's worth! Haha!"

Can't stand passive aggressive comments like that.

[Cat Herder]

"Haha. My dad used to say that all the time, too. Now, I say the same thing when he wants me to visit him in the nursing home." - Turn about is fair play.

[Alwaysgreener]

I recently caught part of Newhart from the 80's, the family came down to pay for there room and they didn't want to pay full rate because they didn't spend any time in their room. They had a list of how long they were in the room vs how much time they were not in the room.

[SandBox]

I’m sorry! That’s so rude! I’ve had similar said to me. 🙄

[Sparkles]

Dcd dropped off later than usual. Dcb crying, wanting to go home. Says his stomach hurts. Dad said he's been fine all morning and thinks he's doing it to go home. I told dcd I would keep a close eye on him and give him a call if he still isn't feeling good. Dcd told me and dcb he has to work, so that's why he has to stay.

Found out he's NOT working from another dcp due to today being a federal holiday.

I hate being lied to!!!

[SandBox]

Ugh 🙄. I hope the child isn’t sick. Almost always when they drop off a screaming child that doesn’t calm down and isn’t normally like that, they are sick.

[Springvalley]

Yesterday dcg5 came in pitching a fit come to find out she did this Friday to didn't want mom to leave etc, Older sister comes in with sibling & is fine. Mom takes dcg outside and talks to her then leaves with her, about 10 or so grandma comes back with dcg same thing, so grandma calls the other grandma (whose the sister of my father's ex-wife who he was married to for 15 years I have no use for sister and ex step mom)and she goes over there. When mom asks dcg why she doesn't want to stay it is because another teacher was being mean to her, mom asks teacher and come to find out teacher wasn't being mean to dcg it's just dcg wanted her way and she has to figure out how to get her way so she accused teacher of being mean.

[GirlMomma]

DCK1.75 keeps coming in with stuffies because the kid “won’t let” the parent take it away. 🙄 I am on a roll for ticking people off this week… so what the heck.

Kid comes in with a stuffed bear bigger than him, this one is covered in dirt and yuck. I said “let’s leave this with DCP” the kid said “no” and started crying. It took some prying, but I got it out of the kids arms and handed it to the parent. I just wanted to look at DCP and say, “How hard was that?!?”

Kid is totally fine after 2 mins and a breakfast distraction. Good grief - I am so sick of this “gentle” parenting trend.

[Alwaysgreener]

I think BC sends the parent and child back out to do it themselves. Next time you could say it doesn't look like x is ready to start his day. Let's try again, (open the door) let's go back to the car and come back with our bear.

[GirlMomma]

Alwaysgreener lol I’ll graduate into that if he doesn’t figure it out. 😅

[Blackcat31]

I have 2 foster kids in care. Their normal schedule is 945:-2:15T/Th. The kiddos visit with their bio parents twice weekly @3:00. Lately the foster mom has been asking me to keep the kiddos later and later as the visits were changed to 5PM. She doesn't want to drive back to town to pick them up whereas before she was already in town working. Foster mom is off for the summer/she works for the school district. It's super annoying though because I like their short schedule as one of the kiddos is a PITA plus she's getting paid to be the "parent" so I don't feel obligated to keep them longer in the day to make her day easier. I don't get paid more for the extra time so it's not worth it for me. Honestly I wouldn't have even agreed to take them at all had the hours/days been longer. It's just annoying to see parents (even temporary parents) slacking on their responsibilities. All in all, not a big deal but an annoyance nonetheless.

[Annalee]

With me, the annoyance gets more bothersome as I get older!

[GirlMomma]

Yes, but the annoying things build up!

[Alwaysgreener]

I am totally with you, I don't want a pita here any longer than I have to have him and I not saying that you need to agree to either.

However, I have been on the other side and dc was at sometimes my only relief from my foster kids. And even on the days that I wasn't taking a class, I was dealing with foster care paperwork or scheduling appointments or arranging sibling/CASA workers visits or going to my own appointments. Not to mention that my DC provider got paid 2x more per day than I got. ($27 vs $12 back in 2011, I as a DC provider got more than my foster family did per day in 2019/20) I know it sounds insane but I worked harder as a foster parent then I do as a daycare provider. The demands on my time was constant and it was difficult to plan anything because anything could change at the drop of a hat.

[Cat Herder]

Text: "How is > overtired, obnoxiously whiney, runny-nosed kid covered in mosquito bites, diaper rash and sunburn < doing?" - the kid who just came back from vacation, today.



If I answer "He's being obnoxiously whiney, with a double-barreled running nose, complaining of a few hundred mosquito bites, diaper rash with sunburn, and won't get off his nap mat long enough to do anything today." I will have more texts back and forth all afternoon with no intent to come to get him early.

If I answer "He's fine." I will get a text back saying "Great. I have some errands to run so I will be an hour or so later than usual."

So I respond, "He's not a happy camper but I have it under control."

Text: "Oh, poor buddy. I will be there at the normal time today. Thanks for all you do."

Ugh, this job. Thank god that is the last of the parents' summer vacations....

[gumdrops]

I always appreciated the comment "Thanks for all you do" but this post made me look at it completely different. When I think back to parents who have text that to me, it was usually because I was doing them a favor or bending over backwards for them, never making the comment just to let me know they appreciate me 🤔