7 Jobs For Working With Children

Are you thinking about the type of career you want to pursue? You may already know that you want to work with children. Along with helping to shape young minds and provide safety and security, working with children also offers flexibility.


Useful Tips For Running A Good Daycare

Running a good daycare can be a challenge - but it's also rewarding, thanks to the children whose lives and futures you help shape. While daycare management is no easy feat, there are certain tips and strategies you should know to run your business as efficiently as possible. This blog post will review some invaluable information for running a successful daycare, from creating policies that provide structure to implementing effective marketing strategies. Read on to discover more useful tips for achieving success in daycare management!

Useful Tips For Running A Good Daycare

How to Prepare Your Home and Family When You Are Hiring an Au Pair

An au pair is a live-in nanny from another country to help care for your children. Having an au pair can be a great way to provide high-quality childcare for your family while also getting some help around the house. But before you bring an au pair into your home, there are a few things you need to do to prepare.


8 Things You Should Know About Sending Your Child To A Chicago Daycare


8 Things You Should Know About Sending Your Child To A Chicago Daycare


Stay-at-home home parents are not as common as they once were. As a result, daily supervision of children is usually performed by someone outside of the family. Most often, this takes place in a daycare center. But you can’t just hire any daycare service. Each child has needs that should be met even though more activity involving other children is occurring just someone watching only your child. Fortunately, reputable daycare services offer programs that assist children in their cognitive, physical, and emotional growth. For parents in the Chicago area, daycare is an important part of family life. What can you expect when sending your child to a Chicago daycare center? We’ll take a closer look at what daycares provide in this article.

4 Top Benefits Of Hiring A Babysitter

So you’re thinking that you might need a babysitter, but perhaps you're a little unsure? With the right hiring process of background checks, references, and interviews; rest assured you’ll find someone who is the perfect fit! A detailed interview will allow you to find the correct personality for your family. As long as you are clear about what you want from the beginning, you’ll be sure to find exactly what you are looking for. There are plenty of benefits to be accessed from hiring a babysitter; let’s take a look at the top ones! 


Top 5 Qualities of a 5 STAR Babysitter

Date nights. We love them and dare I say “dread” them all at the same time. Of course we love getting dressed up and we’re super excited to get some alone time with hubby, but then you remember “Oh wait...who will watch the kids?” I have spent hours calling relatives, searching Facebook groups, asking neighbors, and asking close friends for their sitters (people really do horde sitters!) - and still no luck.


After all the time searching, you almost want to say “forget it, let’s just stay in”. I always say to myself, am I asking for too much? Are my standards for sitters too high? I really don’t think they are. I just want a sitter who is:

Never Say Never

I don't know if many of my new followers know this but I was a nanny. Duh, right? Not only was I a nanny but I was a nanny to the same family for five years. I loved those children unconditionally. And I was only 19 when I started caring for them.

I can not tell you how many times I played the never game. I hate pacifiers, "My child will never have a pacifier", and it's almost two years later and just look,



"I will never let my child sleep in my bed". I thought co-sleeping created terrible habits and we did it for the first few months of her life and I still miss it.

Sweet Pea's new thing that I said I would never let my child do? Sleep with a ton of stuffed animals. It's ridiculous the amount of lovies she currently 'has' to sleep with. Why did it bother me as a nanny? I think the main reason is because his mom and I were expected to keep up with the millions of lovies that got dragged throughout the house. I do let Sweet Pea have all her lovies at night but only one when we go out and about in the world, and only two out of bed period. It gets too chaotic when they are all out. But she is okay with these rules. Sometimes she tries to bring out more and even slips one past me. But I feel like, is the battle really worth it? And no it's not.


I may not have liked this before but sure makes for some cute pics!

The children I was a nanny for listened to me without a doubt. With their mom, it was a different story. And I couldn't figure out why. I thought maybe she somehow spoiled them behind my back or something. And it's not that they didn't listen to her most of the time. It just seemed that they would try to pull one over on her more than they ever did with me. I always said, "My child will always listen to me".

Now to Sweet Pea, that girl is bull headed and rough around the edges. She throws fits and if you tell her to do something, she doesn't want to. But my mom watched her and said she was a delight. My friend, whose little girl I watch - who listens to me By the way, can ask Sweet Pea to do something and she does it. When I ask her, she looks at me defiantly. My question for you, why? Why do they have to push Mommy's buttons more than anyone else's?

Spoiled Rotten Toddler
This picture probably perfectly describes her attitude towards me when I ask her to do something.
My sister-in-law works at a day care and currently is pregnant with her first biological child. She has started playing the never game. But I just keep my mouth shut. It is easy to play the never game when you have never been in a certain situation. But until you are in it for yourself, you truly have no idea what you are going to do.

My daughter is almost two. That means it has been two years since I was a nanny. I can not believe it has been so long. Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Never Say Never


But my advice? "Live and learn, then get Luvs." ;)

So what are your nevers?




8 months ♥ 32 weeks




So here's how the baby is doing:





So I have a week until my baby showers!! I'm SOOOOO excited!

Monday was a sad day. We went to Bobby Cox last game. It was a great game though. Greg was so worried about me as we were leaving because my feet were so swollen and I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions.

Wednesday we went to trivia! :)

Thursday I took the kids to the park and they played with kites! Poor Phoebe was too little...but she looked super cute in her apple pants. :) Phillip was very good at it.



Friday I took the kids to the zoo! It was so much fun! We couldn't have planned a better day to go and everything we did just kind of happened. The kids got their picture taken with Scooby Doo, we got to see a demo of gorilla training, and the weather was so nice! And Phoebe got to ride her choo-choo! :)



Greg and I took some of our friends to see Rocky Horror as our yearly treat for Halloween. Can't wait until The Rocky Horror GLEE episode! ♥

So I had a great week. I go to the doctor on Tuesday so I'm going to talk to her about the swelling and contractions. And tomorrow is the hospital tour. :)