Wednesday

Shoemaker with shoe-less children

From : M. M.

I read the postings about mothers who are nannies and it hit home.

I have just had to disband my in-home daycare center. I ran it so that I could spend more time with my 3 boys and of course because we needed the money, but to make money I had to have many more children than I imagined.It was a ton of work. The intent was to make sure I could stay home with my children and still generate income. It turns out that I was so tired at the end of the day I was spending less quality time with my own children. I made sure my little students were happy and content at the end of the day when mom and dad came calling. I felt like the shoemaker whose children went without shoes because he was too tired to make his own kids shoes after working all day. The weekends were spent cleaning house to get ready for the coming week and every evening I was exhausted being with other kids. Has anyone experienced a similar thing?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

When my son was 1 yrs old i did the same thing. it was so overwhelming.i had 4-5 kids at my house.cleaning the mess every day was too much
i didnt last more than a year.soon after i decided to clean houses and bring my son. that was ok but exhausting too. then i had my daughter. and became a nanny for a great family with 2 children. i put my kids in daycare but it was so expensive most of my pay went to,that. then i figured i would be a nanny and bring my kids with me. that was great and my kids were best friends with my charges. But having 4 kids was a lot on me.i tryed everything i could to always be with my children while bringing in an income.thankfully now my children are in school full time, and i can be a great nanny and mother. the early years were rough, but i got through it.

Jess said...

I haven't done that personally (especially since I don't have my own kids :)) but my aunt opened a Montessori in her house right before her first son was born. It was set up really nicely (she had enormous playroom and the attached garage was remodeled so it became a classroom & dining area - this way she kept her house private and separate from the school) and she had 2-4 extra kids. I think lawfully she couldn't have more than 5 kids in there, so when she had her younger 2 girls, she ended up having only 2 paid kids. I don't think she treated it as a way to stay at home with children. It was more that she wanted to work with children and at the same time it allowed her to supervise her kids' development (her firstborn turned out later to have ADD). Even though all 3 of her kids are now in school, she still has the Montessori. It's a job just like any other. Like any other job, it leaves you tired. Other mums that work in the corporate world are faced with the same thing - they also come home tired and don't seem to have time for the kids. On the plus side you can at least see your kids during the day while they cannot.