Sippy Cups ~ Friend or Enemy? (Maybe Both)

A topic of interest to me came up on a forum last week.  Actually, now that I think about it, it didn't come up.  I brought it up.

So here it is:

The original post was about how long providers "let" children use bottles at their daycare.  Was there as certain age that providers cut kids off from them.  The replies from other providers varied a bit, but the general consensus was somewhere between 12 & 15 months was their limit.  

My original reply was:
"Once they're sitting at the table eating food for breakfast/lunch with the other kids, I give them a cup to drink from. If they still take bottles other times of day I will give them, but I discourage bottles at nap time anyway. I try to get them to fall asleep without a bottle when the start here, no matter what age. I don't do sippy cups here, so they just move straight to the cup. When they're 10months or so, I start holding a cup with formula in it, and when they're a little older I let them do it, putting JUST enough liquid in the cup to cover the bottom. If that. Maybe a few drops worth at first. They pretty quickly catch on."  

That actually encroaches on two topics I find very near and dear to my heart, but the one I'm focusing on at the moment is Sippy Cups.  Someone else replied and asked why it is I don't do Sippies.  

This was my answer to that:
"I worked for Early Head Start for a long time, and they discourage use of sippy cups. For a few reasons. I just kept it up when I started doing this at home. I did use them with my own kids, usually only for water. I definitely used them in the car! 
But the main ideas about it are:

• Too much use can be bad for teeth. Mostly because sugar sits on your teeth for up to 20 minutes after each time you eat (or drink), so if they're carrying around a sippy with juice or milk in it, and sipping on it all day long, their teeth never get a break from the sugars.
• Also, using a regular cup is good for speech development. It's not exactly that sippys are BAD for it, but more-so that regular cups are good for it. The muscles of the mouth used for a sippy are different than the muscles used for drinking from a cup.
• And kind of toward the childhood obesity thing... if they're carrying it around with juice or milk, they're taking in empty calories all day long. (Not that milk is empty calories... but that's a whole different issue... kids only need like 3 servings of dairy per day... between milk in their cereal, milk at meals, cheese, yogurt etc... most kids are getting WAY too many calories from dairy on a regular basis.)
• And on a side note, they have to learn to drink from a cup someday. They won't ever learn till they have experience. So if they don't use a cup till they're 4, they won't learn how till they're 4. But if they use it when they're 1, they can learn how when they're 1.

I give them milk at meals. And if they are thirsty otherwise, I give them water. So even if they're still new at it and spill it, it's just water! I've been lucky to not have too many young ones so far. So I haven't had to deal with it much. But when they're young enough, I do the cups with a tiny bit at mealtime, but still give a bottle after the meal, so I don't have to worry about intake."

Are sippy cups the devil?  I don't think so.  I know some people that do think so, but I really don't.  Used appropriately, they are a WONDERFUL resource!  In the car or on an outing where you don't want spills.  They're fabulous.  And I do let the kids keep one of WATER in their room at night, especially if they have a cold.  They can drink it half in their sleep and put it back without having to worry about spilling and changing sheets in the middle of the night.  

So... There you have it.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!  

The other topic that it brought up was putting babies to sleep with bottles (or nursing).  Not putting babies to BED with a bottle.  Two totally different topics.  I'll touch on that another time.  But for now, let me hear what your take is on the Sippies.

HATE is such a strong word

A couple of days ago my 5y looked at me and said "You hate me." Because I wouldn't let her play with something she wanted, or have a snack at that moment, or... something.  I don't even remember.  I said "I most certainly do not hate you."  She said it a few more times and we went back and forth until I realized we were not going to get anywhere.  So I asked her if she knew what that word meant.  She said "no".  So I simply explained that to hate her, meant I wouldn't love her anymore.  And I definitely love her, no matter what.  She said okay, and went into "You don't like me", which I could handle.
A day or two later she looked me in the face and said "I hate you" (because I wouldn't let her watch her TV show).  It pained me to remain as calm as I did, but I didn't take offense.  I just kept repeating to her that it doesn't matter how she feels about me, I will always love her.  I feel like this is the best possible option for a situation like this.  Right now is when our children are forming their opinions about the world.  And in this particular instance, about love and relationships.  Even about marriage.  They are watching EVERYTHING we do.  When I tell her that I love her even if she hates me or even when she's naughty, she learns about unconditional love.  Love, real love, is more than a fuzzy feeling.  It's a choice.  It is choosing to care for someone even when you don't "feel like it".  And I choose to love her no mater what.  Call me crazy, but I think something like this sets the foundation for relationships for the rest of their lives.
Eventually she calmed down.  She even said she loved me later.  And much later, when we were all in good spirits, I told her that it hurt my feelings when she said she hated me, and I would be happy if she didn't say that again.  She said okay and went about her business.  And then the next morning, after she had had some time to think and digest, she came to me all on her own and said she was sorry for saying that to me.  I said "Thank you" and dropped it.  There wasn't any more to be said about it.

Spot Mopping

This morning I decided I really didn't have time to mop the whole floor before kids started arriving, so I would just spot mop. 
After scrubbing pretty much the entire floor with my foot, I have come to the conclusion:  Just mop.  Always mop.

Best of Both Worlds

Someone posted a question on the Home Daycare board on BabyCenter this morning asking whether providers consider themselves Stay At Home Moms. 

This was my reply:
"I consider myself both. I get to stay at home with my kids and do the "mom" thing every day. Yeah, there's more to it, but the way I look at it, I'm kind of playing SAHM to all the kids that come here.
When my ODD went to her first daycare it was a very relaxed "home" environment. And I remember thinking to myself then, "If she can't be home with me, at least she can be home with someone"... Which is one of the reasons I chose HDC rather than a center for her. And I kind of want people to think the same thing about me."

To expand on that: Things are certainly more structured than a day "hanging out at home".  I follow a daily routine and provide some structured activity time during the day. 

What do you think?

A Little Background

I spent over six years as a Home Visitor in a local Early Head Start agency, which I was very passionate about.  There came a time, this past year, where it was time for me to move on in order to do what I needed for my family.  I started a daycare in my home so I could spend more time with my two young daughters.  While I thoroughly enjoy that, I realized a few months or so in that I am still passionate about parent education and wanted an outlet for that.  So here it is!  The Corner of Roo and Main!  Welcome!

How it All Began

The road that brings me here to Family Child Care is a long and twisted one.  I'll admit, it was never a dream of mine, never my plan.  When I had my oldest daughter (J who is 5), I was ready, even eager to get back to work.  I've been working since I was 14.  It's part of who I am.  I always knew that I would be a working mom.  It's what I knew, and what I wanted.  I've never had to depend on someone else.  I liked going to work every day, seeing my friends and coworkers and bringing in a decent income.  I enjoyed my job. 
I took advantage of the whole 12 weeks maternity leave I was entitled to, and when it was up, I was ready to go back to work.  I even felt a little guilty that I wasn't very sad about dropping her off at daycare the first day. I called and checked on her, because I was supposed to.  But I felt very comfortable with her provider from the first interview, and I was not worried about her. 
Being a full time working mother had it's challenges, but overall it was where I wanted to be.  I liked the structure of it.  Myself, I am not a very structured person, but I respond well to structure, responsibilities and deadlines.  There were times when it didn't work as well for me.  We went through a slew of providers, and thank God I had a flexible job.  There was a while that she spent more time at work with me than she did anywhere else.  But I still never had a desire to stay home full time or to do daycare in my home.
THEN I had my second daughter.  (Mac, who is 2). 
Something was different.  Even before she was born I was dreading going back to work.  And then when she came I dreaded it even more.  But I also wasn't ready to give up my job and responsibilities yet, not to mention it wasn't an option financially.  So I did what had to be done and she went to daycare along with her sister.  I was happy with their provider.  But I still hated dropping them off every day.  I started to fall apart more and more.  Not really emotionally, but more, physiologically... I couldn't get out of my own way.  It wasn't uncommon for me to be 20 minutes late to work, my work was getting more and more behind and unorganized.  And it just kept getting worse until the only real solution was to stay home.  There were a million other factors, but it all really added up to the fact that I just didn't have it in me any more to work full time outside the home and be a good parent and wife. 
There was an entire week in March that I was home sick with a bad cold/flu type thing.  I only brought the girls to daycare one day that week because I was sick enough that I didn't really feel like driving them over, but not sick enough so as not to be able to take care of them.  Even though I was miserable that week from being sick, I really enjoyed the time with the girls. 
And for the first time I really WANTED to stay home and open a daycare at my house.  It kind of started as a joke.  I sent my DH a text and said "I'm going to quit my job and open a daycare here at the house."  And he texted back and said "Figure it out.  As long as we're not losing money, go for it."  And it went on from there.  I asked around locally if people thought there would be an interest or need.  I took my training hours and made contacts and started the licensing process right away.  By the time I gave my notice at work I was half way through the process.  I created a facebook page to start advertising and went from there.  I started getting phone calls and it all started getting very real! 
My last day at my previous job was June 3rd and I opened on June 6th.  And here I am 5 months later!