New Year, New Me

Everyone in the New Year sets their new goals. I have some new goals for the new year as well. With a toddler running around, it was not feasible to have my little guy with me anymore. When he was a baby he'd sleep through the sessions and families enjoyed the baby cooing. Now he's saying so much and imitates sometimes better than the kids I'm seeing. I also felt it wasn't fair to him when I couldn't give him the attention he deserved. I'm very thankful that his Daddy's Aunt lives a few houses down and comes over to play while I work. I'm so lucky because I wouldn't want him going anywhere else. I have trouble trusting anyone with my baby. I also love that I can play with him during my breaks or if someone cancels.

I'm also not letting families walk all over me. Many of my families are fabulous, show up weekly, communicate properly, and do the work. I have some of those families that don't. Just today I had a new family that confirmed the day before but didn't show up for the appointment. Also hasn't replied to my texts today. This isn't the first time though that a brand new family doesn't show up or reply to their sessions. I have made a new Attendance/Cancelation policy to review with new families. I found an outline online and tweaked it to fit my situation. Some rules I will be following are 3 no-shows and they will be dropped, even though in EI we still are supposed to give a 30-day notice at that point. I will also be trying to utilize parent education and counseling time instead of just canceling if the child is sick or sleeping when we're supposed to meet. It might not be the full time but at least it's not completely wasted time. Also, I feel like just talking to the parents about their concerns and discussing more strategies is helpful every so often. Sometimes with a little one running around, it can be hard to discuss things, and meeting only come up every 6 months.

The last thing I'm going to try to do better this year is make more time for posting. Since my little one is now a toddler (excuse me as I cry about my baby growing up) I can test out some things with him to post. I'm on Facebook and Instagram under Sassy Speechy. I may be more active there. I'm ready to take 2023!!