Why do some parents have to be so
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Why do some parents have to be so
| Tue, 02-06-2007 - 1:51pm |
ridiculously difficult. I am a SAHM that decided this year I would watch a couple of children to make some extra money. I have lurked on this board a lot and notice quite a few WOHM here. I just stopped watching this one baby that I just couldn't figure out the parents. The baby was a mess all the time. She was sick, had multiple respiratory problems, and cried all the time. Every time I called the parents to pick the baby up due to wheezing, or fever they seemed annoyed with me. Which I thought was odd. I have a strict policy that if the children have green noses they must go home. Also if the children have a fever they must go home and not return for 24 hours after the fever has broken or on antibiotics. Well I could never figure out why the baby cried so much until I was talking to the mother. Apparently they allow this baby to sit in a swing in the evenings and on weekends to get her to sleep. So the only time this baby naps during the day on the weekends is in a swing. Well that is not going to happen here. The baby is almost 20 lbs and I am not purchasing a swing for this child to sleep in. So according to the mother this child goes home around 5:30 or 6pm and sleeps from 6:30 until 6:30 the next day. No wonder...she won't nap here. So I told the mother that if I couldn't get the baby to nap during the day then I would no longer be keeping this baby. Well I guess she didn't believe me and I gave these parents a 1 week notice. I can't imagine having my baby that I haven't seen all day sleep a half hour after I got home and sleep until the next morning. I have tried for 4 months to get this baby on a schedule. When the other 2 children I have take their nap this child screams and screams. Just weird to me that a parent would want this for their child.


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Jennie
Jennie
Jennie
THat is incorrect. THis is a direct quote from her initial post.
"So I told the mother that if I couldn't get the baby to nap during the day then I would no longer be keeping this baby."
That does sound like she was trying to force a nap.
She also said this in post 11:
"I told her that not getting the baby to rest during the day was very disruptive to the other two that were napping. That I needed that time to wash bottles, and clean up the mess."
That further implies that she wanted the baby to nap on the other two babies's schedule.
When she was called on it- she backtracked bigtime.
Edited 2/11/2007 5:49 pm ET by janetlynn_64
eh,whose loss is it iyo,susannah? according to the op,the parents were annoyed by this particular sitter,annoyed that there were expectations on *their* part that rolled into months of poor service...i don't blame this sitter. it sounds like she would have *accomodated* if the child would have been provided for which yes,was the modest cost of a swing. parents need to carry their own weight wrt good sitters. i used to leave the pumpkinseat at my sitter's because i knew that was a comfort,sleep zone for my (then infant) ellie. i let her know what she liked and didn't like wrt lunch menus and provided accordingly,too (there were days when *m* made the most fantastic homemade mac n cheese,though. ahh)......but should i have just taken notes of what the sitter told me her day was like? no. a good sitter DOES CARE what *my* (the parent) schedule and routine is like.
i think the loss is to the parent,here. she really opens that box wrt who raises children if her attitude is all about dropping and running,having the sitter *deal* with the child w/o accountability or cooperation on her end.
My DD was an only child when we had a biting issue at 25 months old. We told her if we got one more report of biting at school she would lose her favorite toy. The very next day we had an incident report. We went home gathered up the toy, put it away and told her she had to have five days of no reports to get the toy back. Each morning her father would remind her of no biting, the reward (getting the toy back) and which day it was (ie #1, #2, etc.). Each night at pick up, I would praise her for no report, exclaim how proud I was of her and how many days left. On the fifth day with no report, we made a big cermony of her getting her toy back and we never had a biting incident report since.
So I guess I actually did sucessfully handle an issue at home of a behavior we never saw. I just believe in kids abilities to get it.
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