Hi there! I am looking for some advice and hope some of you can help me out. My situation is this, I'm a single mom to 2 1/2 year old twin boys and a 13 1/2 yr old boy. I currently operate a daycare in my home. That's not working out because I really need the insurance and I've lost a couple kids, so I'm not making very much money. The problem I have is that in order to work during the day, I need to make quite a bit to be able to pay daycare for my 2 yr old (no place gives discounts around me for having two the same age). I've been looking, but am not finding anything, getting scared and seriously behind in alot of bills. I've thought about getting something at night, like 4pm-midnight, but daycare for those types of hours are extremely scarce! What do you think of my 13 year old (he'll be 14 in November) taking care of them by himself in our home? He would have to feed them (he regularly cooks now, so I'm not real worried about that), and get them into bed (around 8:30pm) and then rest of the time they would sleep (they are pretty good sleepers). The job I'm looking at is like 2 minutes from our house. Do you know if there are any laws (I live in Iowa) regarding an age when they can care for children at night? Besides that, what are general thoughts regarding this situation? I'm really trying to figure something out, I just can't seem to get a break anywhere. I'm very qualified, I have a 4 year college degree, so it's not like I don't have any skills, it's just that the job market right now sucks! I don't know what to do and am looking for other options to bring in money. I stress about this everyday, cry myself to sleep most nights and generally hate my life right now...
Any advice? Oh, and I don't qualify for any kind of state assistance because I get too much in child support, but unfortunately the child support doesn't cover everything!

Thanks,
Julie

leaving the kids at home alone at night is not advisable. I don't know how the laws work where you are, but I do know that here a 14 year old is not old enough to be left in charge of small children alone, especially at night. You have to think about things such as a 14 year old cannot drive a car if there is an emergency. There is subsidized child care in your area though. Go online and look up your local health and human services office. You can go back to work normal hours and they will take care of the day care for your little ones. There are fees based on your income, but they aren't much, maybe $5 a week. I don't pay anything. The process is fairly quick to enroll and start the program (I called for the first time and was enrolled and ready to work 5 days later) and if you are in an emergency situation they can pay retroactivly. Contact your local office as soon as possible! They will make you feel much better about everything. (they even offer to pay for child care while you are looking for work or in a skill training program, if you aren't working yet) The income requirements are much higher for this program than normal programs. And since there is a fee program included, the income levels are even higher. Check into this, even if you have been denied other state programs like food stamps or cash aid. I don't qualify for any state program EXCEPT this one and it has saved my life.