Bare with me! This is long: I work for a daycare and we, of course, have state ratios that we have to abide by. I teach in the toddler room and legally I can not have more than 6 kids alone. My co-worker teaches preschool and legally she can not have more than 8 kids alone. However, this has NOT been the case. Today I had 12 toddlers by myself. They're anywhere between the ages of 18 months and 3 years old. Having 12 toddlers is awful! They scream, cry, fight, steal toys, throw literally everything, eat off the floor and oh did I mention cry? It. Is. Brutal. I can't even do my hourly diaper changes because someone has to be with them at all times and I can't leave them in the room to change one kid's diaper. It's not good. I can't even teach them full lessons because they're all over the place. As for my co-worker in her preschool room, she had 16! That's DOUBLE her legal limit! We are both in tears by nap time at 1:00 and even then sometimes the kids are still wild. It doesn't help that during our lesson planning time, the owner makes us stay and watch the kids in the play room so we have to lesson plan at home. We keep accepting new enrollments and have new kids everyday, but don't hire accordingly. Today, the owner came in and asked us how things are going. We told her we NEED the help. We legally have to have assistants if we are leads. She acted like it is a burden to hire anyone else and made us feel like we can't handle the situations alone. I'm 24 weeks pregnant and the stress is taking its' toll and I'm worried about having to go on bed rest or have an early labor due to being so stressed out. Was it wrong for us to say we need the help? Seriously. It's not okay to have so many kids solo.