I'm over the government handing out money and Unemployment checks!

 I am exhausted! Just like all the other daycare owners I know... and I am on a group with 21,000 of them. We haven't been sitting at home collecting unemployment. Childcare teachers have been DEDICATED to be sure others could be at work. We never closed. I have never been in guaranine. Hell that would be a vacation!! I put every family before myself and my health those early months when we didn't know a lot. We were essential! We were front line workers that didn't get the recognition for what we were doing. You want to see the work force collapse? Close all the childcare centers. We are the backbone to the working parent. We cared for the children of Doctors, Nurses, Firefighters, Military, Police.... Single parents. Parents that would lean over my desk and say "But your not going to close right?" They brought us Sanitizer, Lysol wipes, disinfectant stray for months to help out. I spent $300 on a thermometer because it was the only one I could find. We went food shopping at 6:30 a.m just to find bread, hamburger meat and milk was impossible to find... I have 17 bathrooms and toilet paper was no where to be found! Luckily I had a supply company that kept me stocked up. But I had to lock all my supplies up! Schools closed and teachers refused to go to work... so we picked up the slack and had childcare providers overseeing Zoom classrooms and virtual school so the parents weren't trying to cram it all in the 3/4 hours they might have in the evening with them. I have not closed or had a vacation. Went anywhere or done much of anything for a full year! I have kept the business going so that all my clients could keep a job.... I have paid employees through a pandemic... never shorting them the hours AND I gave raises. You do not for a moment understand what owning a business is like through a pandemic. Working through one is hard enough... owning a business is a nightmare. But we have kept smiles on our faces and kept going for or kids, our families, our staff and our community! So I can understand the burn out. But if your an adult who struggles all the time anyway, the answer is not to get ahead just to take a break.