The Learning Umbrella

Counting today, I only have 12 days of daycare left to work.  I have senioritis, bad.  I’m ready to be done!

Now, I do honestly love these kids, and I think daycare was the best option for us at the time I did it.  However, I will not miss these things:

• Screaming.  When you have 6 kids under the age of 5, you will have screaming.  Sometimes I think my brain is actually curdling from the unbearable sound
• Juggling children.  How many babies can you hold?  Well, it’s a good upper body workout anyway.
• Vomit.  Babies on formula throw up a lot.  On me.
• Waiting for people.  Waiting for them to bring their kids in the morning.  Waiting for them to pick them up.  Feeling like I can’t go to the bathroom because if I do, that is when they will be ringing the doorbell, and one of the kids will open it, and there will be chaos, and I’ll be in there trying to get off the toilet as fast as I can …
• Looking for their stuff.  They lose stuff in my house, and I have to try and find it all before they go home: the binkie, the blankie, the lovie, their socks, their lunch box, their mother’s priceless necklace she let them wear that day … whatever it is it didn’t stay nicely in their cubby all day.  It’s probably somewhere weird, and I’ll be tearing the house apart as the parent stands there tapping their foot to leave …
• Lunch time.  Short order cook for picky eaters with a baby on the hip.  My worst part of the day.
• Loss of privacy.  I feel like my home is always on display for disapproving eyes.  They probably don’t really frown at the mess - after all they should know their kids helped make it - but I feel like they expect me to keep the place clean while also never setting their little one down to fuss.  Unrealistic!  But I try anyway, and it’s exhausting.  Also, there is the fear of the “drop in inspection”, which I’m sure would happen at the worst possible time.