So my son has 6 cars that he is obsessed with. Not pricey individually but when you add them up a little more so. I let the other kids play with it because they have done fine sharing and didn't think of them actually disappearing. They are ALL gone. We haven't taken them anywhere so they cant be lost and I know for a fact that one of them went home with another dcb. Mentioned it to mom and she claims he brought it back, but he didn't. I bought some to replace and they are no longer out during daycare hours but I'm still peeved this even happened... have any of you ever had this issue? And what did you do, if anything, about it?

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That sux. I would talk to all of the dck and ask them all if they know where the cars are. You might be surprised to find them in your home. I have had kids in the past hide stuff that they wanted to play with and not want someone else to play with it when they were gone hide stuff and we looked everywhere and couldn't find the toys.

On a side note, I NEVER let dck's play with anything I wouldn't want broken or lost.....especially if it belongs to my child.

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I've had this issue with cell phones. I've amassed quite a collection of older cell phones (minus any batteries) and the kids love to play with them. One of my DCG age 4 kept taking them home. At first I though it was because she was just playing and forgot but after several disappeared I asked her mom and mom said DCG told her I gave them to her! anyways, we started patting her down before she left until she finally understood she can't take things...
I had a DCG take a little brush from one of those My Little Pony sets and the DCG returned it the next day saying, "Here, I took this from you, my mom said I don't have to bring it back because you have a lot, but I don't want to be in trouble so I brought it back." I was stunned that the DCG who was 5 had more morals than mom!

For your situation though I would ask ALL parents if they've seen them and to return if they were "accidentally" taken home. And keep all non-daycare toys put away from now on... Good Luck...that's sure a bummer that happened for your son.

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I bought this money (it was toonies-like big quaters) well the next day they all disappeared and only one girl played with them, well when I asked her about it she lied to my face about playing with them, they weren't expensive but I bought it for all the kids to play with.
ok, so I watched this 10 yr old (I don't watch him anymore but I watch his 3 yr old brother) I seriously think that he took my ipod touch charger, he would use it to charge his touch here and then one day it totally dissappeared, the same time he stopped coming here, I searched everywhere for it, but this is a kid who is known at school and home to help himself to things. Now his brother is starting to do it so I have to do a pat down on him. his parents know what they do but always blame someone else.

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I think if kids have pockets, it comes naturally for them to just put things in their pockets to "save for later". I honestly think that most of them do not intend to steal, but it's always something to look for when they are leaving. I have a dcg who loves to put toys in her pockets, and I check her pockets every afternoon before leaving. Unfortunately, it's just something you have to keep an eye on at daycare.
On the flip side, before I became a daycare provider, my daughter began taking things home in her pockets from preschool. She told me her teacher had given them to her from the treasure box. I would always bring it to school the next morning and specifically ask her teacher if it was given to her. Sometimes it was, a couple times it wasn't. On the 2nd offense, I made my then 3 yr old apologize to the teacher and physically hand it back (she is soooo shy, this was the absolute worst punishment for her!). She never did bring anything else home!

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So I went through some of the toys and pulled out my sons favorites. He is only 2 so until now it hasn't been a huge deal. Anyway the other kids noticed a few things missing and asked why. I simply said, "those are Landon's favorites and we don't want them lost or broken so we have them in a safe place for him to play with later." I got a bunch of that isn't fair and he has to share, etc... So my older 4 year old said to his mom at pickup that "Landon doesn't have to share anymore and that isn't fair." Mom gave me a confused look and I repeated what I told the kids earlier. She looked at me and said, "thats really necessary?" I told her yes as some toys have gone missing and I don't want to continuously replace the favorites. She just said wow and left. Honestly, how do people not understand the expenses and other things that this business brings? Would she like it if her kids favorite toys suddenly vanished? I doubt it.... sorry, this turned into a vent but you all know how that goes

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I dont understand why some parents dont get that either. They think because we do daycare in our homes everything is fair game. My daughter has all the littlest pet shop houses and animals. Its quite the collection and would be expensive to replace if broken. Well she said she wanted to share some of the houses with the daycare area, so we did. Then one of the kids started breaking the doors off. They do snap off but this child was ripping them off so the plastic broke. I removed the houses and the parent of the child came in one day and asked what happend to the littlest pet shop toys. I told her that her child was breaking them and unless she wanted to buy all new pet shop houses for my daughter I put them away. She shut up after I showed her the part in my contract of willfull destruction of property will be replaced by the parent. Her child was destructive at home also, had some major family problems going on and no discipline at home. Sorry to vent on your thread, I can just get what you are going through with the attitude of the mom.

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my kids have taken things from daycare before (a center) and they were stupid, little things that i'm sure nobody noticed - but i made them take it and give it to their teachers the next day anytime it happened which was once or twice per kid. that pretty much stopped it. that obviously hasn't happened with your kid's parents.

what i would do is put a note up on the door or with the sign in sheet that says something like, "i believe some of our toys have accidentally been carried home at the end of the day. could you check your cars and see if you may have some that belong here?" or something to that effect. my kid's old daycare did that when coats or even carseats came up missing and it was effective - they usually got returned within a day or so.

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Okay, that is patently ridiculous. I can't believe that a) the child interpreted it as "Unfair" and "he has to share" and b) that the mother reacted like that and didn't see why it was necessary. That's just...gah. People drive me nuts.

I allow my DD to declare something to be "special" and to go put it in her room. If she decided it's special while someone else has it, she has to wait until they're done. Usually, the special things go back out at the end of the day unless it's been an on-going problem for some reason. Her room, and the toys inside, are OFF LIMITS to daycare children--even though we pass her room all the time. Part of this is practicality--she's 3 and her toys are getting more complicated and all my dcks are younger than her. The other part is FAIR--she doesn't ask for the dcks to come, she doesn't ask to have to share her mommy, her toys, her space with 2-5 other kids every day, all day. She deserves her own belongings and her own space. She's allowed to go play in her room and shut the door.

I wish that I had the space and the money to have "Olivia's Toys" and "Daycare Toys" and have doubles of everything...but I don't. This is the way to handle it. I think you definitely did the right thing, and should continue it. That mom has a serious issue (obviously, based on the way her child reacted to the lack of "sharing" going on) and you did the right thing.

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I'm going through the same thing as well, my son just had his birthday and when the parents dropped of their kids the following Monday morning they all said oh dcb or dcg can't wait to play with your sons new toys, and they tell their kids to go get his toys and play with them, I let them all know that his toys are kept up in his room for him. I do the same thing you do I keep my kids favorites toys up in their rooms and if they want to go play with them they can, the dck's are not allowed in my kids rooms. I just don't understand what some of the parents are thinking.

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You ladies are on the right track,... just keep it up. your children will remember that they always had a retreat and safe place from the daycare kids,... that they were able to have special toys that were just for them,.. noone else,.. and that shows them that you love everyone but they are still your babies.

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