Should I Have Put a Stop to This a Long Time Ago?

I think it's a little excessive calling everyday to "check-up" on child. I understand wanting to know how your child is doing, but I would feel like I was micro managing the daycare provider. I've done the check-up before if my son was out of sorts that morning or evening but it was just a quick call.

I would trust my son's daycare provider would call me if anything was concerning or needed my attention.

I would think if my son has been in someone's care for 2 years, without incident, I wouldn't feel the need to check up on them. Unless I thought otherwise, but even then I would hope that we had a strong enough parent/provider relationship to talk to them about my concerns.

Best of luck

Hello Suzi, I understand how this may be annoying to you but I personally don't see it as unreasonable. As a working parent I often wonder about how my children are doing during the day. I am aware of how many things that I am missing out on. Phone calls, emails and written daily reports are the only thing that a parent who works out of the home has to get a picture of what their child has learned or done during the day. If phone calls aren't working maybe you could keep a notebook of sorts where you can write the days events in it and just explain that this would be an easier way to communicate what that little princess is doing each day if phone calls bother you so much. Other than that I would also have to say that these parents are providing you for a service and if they want to talk to you for a couple minutes each day about their daughter that is part of the package. If you don't like it tell them and maybe it is time for them to find a new child care provider. Good luck.

Well, if you're not sure they're coming back, I wouldn't worry about it. But, if they do, you might let them know what your schedule is and the best time for him to call. Give him a half an hour window and explain that your priority is working with the kids so answering the phone during some activities can be really disruptive. Have you considered setting up a parent cam that you can turn on for them to log into during certain times? Then he could see his daughter and not have to call in to disturb you. Maybe during "circle time" or some other structured activity.

Don't say anything unless they are coming back. I agree that you could just let them know a good time to call and the camera is a good idea. If you say anything just tell the truth. Say you love that they call b/c it shows what loving parents they are, but it isn't always easy to get to the phone b/c your focus is on the kids. I worked at a doggie daycare when I was in college. They had us write a report once a week for each dog. It was just a few lines of info. but the "parents" really liked it. Maybe you could do something like that just once a week. You could let the parents know who or what their child has been playing with, how he/she is doing at meal or nap time, or just some funny little thing he/she said. Good luck.

Hey Suzi~

That was kinda funny sitting here reading what you wrote,cuz I use to have an in home daycare till I had 5 of my own to care for, and I really feel for you right now cuz I would always get parents doing ritual things too that would really get to me sometimes. I use to have a mom, for instance, that would drop off her child and every time she would enter into my home she would "Make herself at home",which was fine-I was just having a prob. w/ it, and just wander throughout the house and open the refrigerator to put her childs cup into it and walk into bedrooms follwing her child....etc. and the only way I found to release the frustration that I was having w/ the matter was to "re-vise" my contract(which did not happen often) that I had w/ all my family's that I cared for, and state in it that the pick-up and drop-off area was in the front living room ONLY- But any time that I would get another parent doing something that got to me, I would re-vise my contract and put whatever it was that they were doing in there, give it to them and I would point out a few of the revisions, including the one that I was getting stressed out with, and then have them sign it again.

I do want to add that if you never let them know that it is bothering you, they will NEVER stop and then you will start to become irked with even more things that they start to do over time and then ultimately despise watching their children. You have already stated that this is a wonderful family, but you need to tell them the problem that you yourself are having with the phone calls, just be creative with how you tell them.
Hope this was of some help to ya~
A.

Suzi I say trust your heart on this one. The guy sounds like a control freak.IF you let them back in sit down and explain to him you have 20 some other kids to take care of and 500 other phone calls comming in a day and if he has any questions for you to please wait until he comes to pick his precious little bundle up.

Hi Suzi,
Well I thought I would jump in here and put my 2 cents in seeing as we do the samething...
I have let each of my parents know what are daily routine is (in the folder they get when they start my daycare) and when and where they can call me with all available phone numbers on how to reach me. I do know what you are saying I don't really have any parents that call me all the time. But just answering the phone in general is hard let alone it being a parent.

For the people that work outside the home here is my daily routine right now.
7 am 1st daycare kid gets here.
7:30 am 2nd daycare kid gets here
from there till 8 getting my kids up
8 am breakfast for everyone
after breakfast clean up the kitchen
make bottles 3 of them
9:30 change 5 diapers and get 3 laid down for morning nap after their bottles
10 am to 11:30 morning nap
when they wake up I check diapers again some are wet some aren't
12:30 lunchtime for everyone
after lunch clean everyone up
make bottles again
1:00 pm change diapers give them their bottles
1:30 - 4 pm afternoon nap
4 pm a small snack and diaper changes
5 pm dinner for 2 of them (both leave at 6pm
6 pm dinner for 2 others and my family and 1 daycare kid he leaves at 8pm
he leaves I clean up the kitchen, get kids their baths sweep the floor and pick up whatever else may need done.
Then I fially get to sit down hopefully by 10 pm.

And for Suzi it's even busier she is running to more shifts than me.
Give him a time he can call or even when he calls tell him I can't really talk right now this is going on..
I feel for you and I only have a day shift.
Oh and the daycare kid that leaves at 8 pm but tonight he is staying the night.
My daycare kids are 2 y/o girl, 10 month old boy, 6 month old girl, and a 5 1/2 month old boy and then my kids 15 y/o boy, 6 y/o boy, 3 y/o girl and a 8 1/2 month old girl.
W. mom to 4 and 2nd mommy to 4 more.

May I ask a dumb question? I just read Wendy's description of her day, and the list of kids she cares for, and I am marveling at how anyone could take care of that many children at once!!! Definitely tell the Dad (directly or indirectly, as suggested by others) that you don't want to be unavailable to the kiddos, and maybe even suggest that he use email for his daily report, which you can send at your leisure!

Hi Suzi, I understand how annoying that can be. I agree with the suggestion that maybe giving him a time during the day that would be better for him to call would work, however, if you don't want to take it directly to him, I'd write a note to everyone that comes to your house and say that in an emergency, feel free to call at any time, however with the busy schedule of the daycare and meeting the needs of every child, you're going to have to limit social or "checking in" calls to between 1pm and 2pm (for example). And I would not try to come up with something new every time, maybe he's being entertained with all of interesting stuff his daughter is doing or whatever, maybe if you said the same thing each time he called he'd get bored of calling. And I understand why you don't want to do a daily report, they are SO time consuming and takes away from the daily work you get to do during nap time. I used to work in childcare and I HATED the daily reports. I understand the reasons for having them, but seriously, when it takes two hours (naptime) to fill everyone's in, there's no time for cleaning, lesson preparation and anything like that, who wants to do that stuff after hours?
I wish I had more advice, good luck!
C.

I'd say that if your busy, don't answer the phone. I don't have a day care, just my son that I stay home with and if I'm busy changing him, getting him lunch, etc. I don't answer the phone. If its that important, they'll call back or leave me a message. Maybe talk to him and tell him, that the phone calls are hindering. If he's calling out of concern, maybe he could limit the number of calls he makes. Would you mind if he called 1-2 times a week?? Or maybe tell him, if he wants to call that he needs to call at a certain time??
Its unfortunate that mom lost her job and that you have an empty spot. Let them know that you are looking into filling her position and see what their take is on it. If they've been good clients for 2 yrs, aside fromt he phone calls, try and work something out with them.
I'm sorry that your going through this, and I can understand how annoying the phone calls would get.