How Many Kids Is Too Many?

Okay. I don't know for Iowa but in MN there ARE REGULATIONS for unlicensed childcare! For MN you can only watch 1 NON-RELATED family and as many close relatives as you want. Technically you could watch 100 kids if only 1 family was not related. But all these little ones aern't related to her are they?

3 babies under 6 months is TOO MANY! I did daycare for 5 years and I was only allowed to have 2 babies and 1 12-24 month old. Plus 8 preschool and up. And that was PLENTY! I would NOT have wanted any more infants. You get more than that and you will have people propping bottles and having other kids feeding them! I was always careful to not take on more than I could handle and at times did not even keep a full load because some children are more challenging than others....LOL.

I would call your county licesing department (check at the court house for the number) and ask what the regulations are for unlicensed childcare in your county. And REPORT her if she is violating it! Child endangerment is nothing to hesitate on and by taking on too many kids, something will have to give. Someone will not be getting the supervision that they should.

Good luck.

Get your child out of that situation. It is an accident waiting to happen. Your care provider sounds more interested in making money than in caring for children.

As a licensed child care provider (in Shakopee), I can tell you if she is an un-licensed provider, she is only allowed to care for one unrelated family. (of that one family, she can care for an unlimited number of children, with in reason of course)
Now, if she were to be a licensed provider, If she is licensed to do so, she could care for up to 12 children by herself. Of those 12, only 2 could be under 2, the rest would have to be 24mo or older. If she wanted to, and was licensed to do so, she could care for 3 kids under the age of 2, but then her total kid number could only be 10.
Also, if she has any children of her own, they would have to be factored into all of this as well as they count as part of her alloted number of total children.
I am a mom of 4. An 8yo girl, and 6 yo triplets, boy,boy,girl. I have been a licensed childcare provider for 6 years. If she is an UN-LICENSED provider, I can tell you what she is doing is wrong, and as a licensed provider, I would be quite offended that people are entrusting their little ones into her care. BUT...if she is licensed, the she is in full compliance with everything given what you had wrote about the situation.
I hope this helps you out a little.

Ask if you can spend part of a day with her. and check into the laws of your county then talk to her. As a teacher I would ask a few co-workers to help you with the process. Does she have a helper?

If she isnt registered with the state she can only have 5 kids including her own. DHS can be called on her and she can lose some kids. Im a child care provider and just got registered so I can have more kids. Being registered you can only have 6 kids, 4 school age and 2 part time being only 6-8 kids in your care at a time. Not sure if its just 6 or you can have 8 there are different cat. to being registered. But I know for a fact if not registered you can only have 5 kids. She has way to many.

That seems like way too many young children for her to take care of by herself. toddlers and babies obviously require a great deal of care and attention. I cannot imagine how she would be able to give each child the individual attention that they need.

Can you drop in unexpected during the day and see how she handles all these kids at once? Maybe that would help you decide if you feel she is handling things well or if you should look for a daycare you would be more comfortable with.

"How many kids is too many?". The laws in Iowa are quite clear on that matter. There ARE regulations for ALL daycare providers in Iowa--it does not matter that she is unregistered and unlicensed:

"Iowa law limits the number of children a home may provide child care for, whether the home is registered or not.  A nonregistered child care home may care for up to five children.  A home caring for six children must be registered."

http://www.dhs.iowa.gov/Consumers/Child_Care/LicensingReg...

I would not, in a million years, leave my baby at that daycare. And I'm sort of shocked that that many parents trust this situation. That is WAY too many babies and toddlers--could you handle that many? I wouldn't even try! Do you really think that with 9 toddlers and babies, everyone is getting the care they need--diaper changes, bottles, potty time, burping.... I don't buy it for one second. Your daughter might be getting adequate care at this point, but some other kids may not be, and like someone else pointed out, sooner or later something has to give.

She may be nice and all, but she is breaking the law. If she is running this business, she should know that the laws are and follow them. If anyone caught wind of this and reported her, she could be shut down immediately, leaving you scrambling for daycare. She can't care for that many kids--legally or logistically.

Seriously, my stomach is in knots just reading your post. My son went to what I thought was a licensed daycare (the woman lied to me) and she had WAY too many kids, esp. babies. I ended up pulling him and we reported the woman to the state.

Laws aside, this situation defies good ol' common sense. Please make other arrangements for your baby ASAP. This is a crisis/accident waiting to happen. Don't let it be your baby! If this were my kid, I'd pull her immediately and let the woman know that I didn't appreciate her breaking the law. I would also report her to the county/state--my conscience wouldn't let me rest, if something did happen to one of those kids and I didn't say anything. Good luck.

Stacy,

Your profile says you live in Iowa. I found this online for you, as each state is different. From what I found out about Iowa, she is providing caring for more than 5 kids and needs to be registered with the state.

Child Care Homes - These are homes that are not registered and by law can care for five or fewer children at the non-registered location. Iowa does not regulate these homes. If these homes care for five or more children at one time, they are required to be registered. A child is defined as being in child care and counted if one of the following describes that child's situation.

http://www.dhs.iowa.gov/Consumers/Child_Care/ChildCareMen...

I understand you trust this person, however I don't know anyone who can care for 9 children under the age of 3 by themself. I would find another daycare, but just my opinion.

I guess I would just watch out. Have you or your husband come and different times to pick up your child. Kinda keep and eye on what is going on. We went to a licensed in home day care. At first we loved her. She did a preschool with the kids and our kid was learning a lot. Then one of the other moms that had her kids at the daycare also came to my house and told me she was worried that the daycare lady was not watching the kids all that well. I just shrugged it off as a overly worried mom. Just in case I had my husband drop in unexpectedly at different times. We started to see that she was not watching the kids as well as she should. We took our oldest child out but had to leave our little one there until we could get another daycare for him to be in. Unfortunately she was not watching paying attention to him and tripped on him and ended up sitting on him. We had to rush him to the ER. He had split his gums open, but was to young for stitches so we just had to be careful and let him heal. The worst part is we had to move him to a Sippy cup early as the sucking action started him bleeding all over again. He was so sore he did want to eat at all for days. We went through care.com and got a baby sitter to come to our house. It was cheaper then the daycare and she cleans the house for me. She is great with the kids! Just be careful! I have tried several daycares and had issues and each one. I even took my son to really really expensive center. All the Dr.s took there kids there so I thought it had to be good. We waited a year to get him in to it. He was there 1 month and we pulled him. If my husband came on time everything looked good, but when my husband started dropping by with out letting them know he noticed that our son was just sitting alone in the corner. He was the good kid and so they didn't do anything with him. We pulled him from the center when they told my husband he could not just drop by with out calling first to let them know he was coming. They could not give us a reason why then needed to know when he was coming to pick out child up. Anyway sorry this is so long. I just am sick of people in the daycare business for money and not for the kids. Good luck!

Let me get this straight, one person is watching 12 children!!!! Even if it is only 9 children, that is a lot to handle for one person. I don't think it matters what state you live in or if you are licensed or not, there is no way she can be giving them the attention they need. I used to live in Iowa and my son went to a licensed daycare, I think the rule was 1 daycare provider/4 children I think it went up to 6 children when they became older. The state has those rules for a reason and that is to make sure the children are not getting neglected because of understaffing.