Friday, January 16, 2009

"Luna ate poop, Ms Riah"

In keeping with the current theme, this was my playroom yesterday after watching six kids ALL day. Don't you wish you were me? This picture doesn't even really show the total wreckage, it was INSANE! Five boys and One girl for the majority of the day, Yikes! I had such a crazy day. I knew I was interviewing a parent that night, yesterday, and so I was preparing for that. I had been working on a new parent packet the night before and didn't get to my floors like I normally do. So yesterday morning my schedule was already thrown off when I had to make room in my super packed day to scrub my floors. First thing in the morning, I am on all fours, frantically scrubbing away, trying to get done before two very rowdy childcare boys showed up. I was almost done, having to stop and put Spike on the toilet at one point so that he could go poo (Yay). I welcomed the boys and was talking to the mom while drying up the floor when I hear this "Luna (our dog) ate Poop, Ms Riah, Luna ate poop" WHAT! Sure enough Spike decided that although he had already done his business on the toilet, he needed to totally and completely embarrass his mother right in front of a Childcare parent. Thankfully we have become good friends, and she know me fairly well, but still mortifying. Poop on him, on the rug, on the bouncy horse, even (and I'm baffled by this one still) on Tank, and one happy dog. Yuck...so I grab Spike, put him on the toilet, run back with a towel to place over the poo, grab Atty plunk him in the bathtub because he is at this point a ticking mobile poop bomb, turn on the water, run back out to grab the bouncy horse and throwing it in the laundry room, snatching the carpet cleaner up and place it in the playroom, rush back in the bathroom to put Spike in the bath and turn off the water. All in front of the parent who is watching my every move of course. Scrub, drain, spray boys off with the shower head, dry and run back out to the playroom to activate carpet cleaner. Thankfully the mom had left by this point so I don't have to hear any more stories about how her kids never pooed anywhere but in the toilet, and yadda, yadda, yadda, bla, bla, bla while I'm breaking a sweat trying to get every thing back to normal (what ever that is). Oh the joys of childcare. So deep breath, poop catastrophe behind me, back to getting the house in order in preparation for the prospective Childcare family. Not that my house isn't already clean or what ever, it's just that I am sort of a freak about every thing being in order when people come over (I think that was made obvious in my last post) and it makes it even more so when I am interviewing a Childcare parent. I had a packed day though, with activities, lots of kids, preschool, etc to do, on top of wanting my house to look nice when they showed up at six that night. I cleaned though nap time which is usually my break time if I am lucky. So fast forward to the picture of the disaster formally known as the playroom, and yeah...it was a crazy day. I made it though, house was spotless (at least what they could see) and the interview went well. The boys were really well behaved, which was a miracle in it's own right, they are usually very burnt out by closing time, so I was proud of them. Interviewing parents is my least favorite part, I can't wait until I am set with my group of kids, and things get back to the way it was before we moved, sort of all settled in. You know what's funny, when I am interviewing a family, I am more focus on what kind of a parent I am dealing with the their kid. The type of parent or person they are really is the secret ingredient to a successful Childcare for me. So far I have always ended up with the best group of parents and kids. I have heard horror stories from other childcare providers, so I feel really lucky. I still haven't made up my mind about this family, and I have to do the call back today. A few things left to mull over. Well see. I also got another call so if I take in both kids, I will have a full house, which will make a Huge difference in income. Very needed, since my husband is laid off at this very moment, yuck, that just made my stomach turn, just typing that, worse then cleaning up poo.

2 comments:

Lori said...

Oh my dear, you and I could have quite the time, swapping stories of this kind. As a daycare person myself, I am on the same page as you...keeping the house clean and as orderly as you can considering there are children that live there...lol...taking a good look at the parents of the children you would be caring for because that really does make all the difference in the world...the craziness of everything that goes into caring for lots of children and wanting to do it well...and the poop incident...and running here and there like a chicken with it's head cut off. Good lord, it's a wonder we can stay sane!

Glad you made it through the day in one peice and good luck in making that decision!

hartsockmomof3 said...

I know how it is when you have a prospective parent coming to visit! I run a daycare, too, and I freak out....everything has to be beyond perfect before they come!