Are grandparents the new daycare?

[mimi]

I have had my home daycare for 6 years and have been fortunate to have long term clients who also give me great referrals. Daycare life had been good until about 9 months ago I noticed a "grandparent babysitting" trend.

I have lost 2 children in this time, one family had been with me for 6 years, because grandparents are moving into parents home or just taking over the care duties of the children.

I am registered with two agencies in my area and the referrals from them have dried up. I haven't had an enquiry in a year.

I have heard from some providers that they are seeing older children come to them because the grandparents quickly tire of childcare or don't want to be tied down. They of course then only have that child for a short time until they go to f/t time J/K

For the first time (and I know I have been fortunate) I will be scrambling to fill spots this September. I am worried about this trend. Has anyone else noticed this?

[michellesmunchkins]

Yep, seems to be the trend here too. Almost everyone I talk to have the grandparents taking over the childcare needs. While that's great for the parents financially, let's be honest most grandparents don't provide any sort of program for the children (sure some of them will) but I know my grandparents would never have done it. Plus, now these little ones have basically no socialization with other children and no experience with other authoritative figures so school may be difficult. I know when I reach grandparent age I will love them and help my children out when I can but I certainly won't be taking over the role of raising their children lol

[bright sparks]

mimi >> No enquiries for an entire year!?!?!?! Thats crazy. I would make a point of advertising as much as possible and if you arent getting any business from the agency you are with then I hope you arent taking some kind of pay cut to be on their books.IMO, I'd be inclined to ditch the agency and go it alone as really I'd expect them to give you a nice steady stream of enquiries coming in. Check out other forums on advertising and try and get your name out there. I couldn't imagine not having any enquiries, it would have me very anxious and unsettled about my job security. Try setting up a free website on webs.com and also advertise on kijiji, godaycare and this website too. Even make up some posters and put them up in schools, churches, and community centres. Even if you dont have the space its good to take peoples information incase the worst happens and children leave you. Good Luck with everything.

[Momof4]

Mimi, I agree with brightsparks. Something is fishy there with the agency. Brightsparks gave lots of great ideas to advertise, but don't forget hospitals and large corporations with interal buy/sell electronic systems because you reach a lot of people that way. Check with friends and family and get the word out. I always say a website is the best selling feature you can find, but you have to get your name out there.

[monkeymama]

I am finding that lots of parents are splitting childcare between grandparents and a daycare. I do not get a lot of inquiries for FT due to this.

[playfelt]

I get a lot of part time requests too - someone to take the kids a couple days a week so the grandparents can have lunch with friends or play bridge at the social centre. They do it because economic times are tight. Many grandparents even are paid a small amount of money as a way of the children repaying the grandparents and giving them some extra money. Other times and more often it is the grandparents providing free care to help out.

Once the child reaches 18 months and grandparents can't run after them as well nor does the child want to sit on grandma's knee and read stories and rock all day the parents start to look for something more. Their expectations though are more than what they should be in the sense of they are jumping right to the preschool expectations of programming and forgetting the learning lessons of toddlerhood.

I am really glad I am nearing the end of my daycare years and not just starting out because lately there have been so many strikes against us that it is hard to make a good go of it.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Hmmm - well technically grandparents were the ORIGINAL daycare once upon a time cause families lived close together and if mama was working the farm or what not and needing 'care' it was family that took over that role cause that was the only option ;)

I think with all the earlier retirements and 'buy outs' that baby boomers are getting that yes it will be a trend to see more of them helping out with childcare of their grand children to help 'save $$' cause depending on circumstances they can do it for free or for a 'discounted rate' if they need some top up income and do not want to be a greeter at Walmart!

I agree that I would not rely solely on an agency to fill me up .... I am not sure which province you are in but I know in my area of Ontario the 'waiting list' for subsidy is so long that agency referrals are VERY limited because most people going that route want / need subsidy and are not going to pay full market fees for agency when they can get the same private care for $10-20 a day less ... I was with an agency for two years when I opened and ended up leaving because not one referral because anytime I had a space I was able to fill it privately well before they even got me a 'list of people' to contact looking for care ... the middleman and the time it takes for them to do their thing is just not 'efficient' and I was not going to forgo revenue while they got their act together!

Does your agency allow you to have private clients as long as you follow their 'rules' for ratios and age groupings and so forth?

[apples and bananas]

I have one that comes to me 4 days a week and goes to Grandma on day 5. If Grandma had her way she'd be there full time, but mom wants the child to socialize. Grandmas are great for spoiling the kids one day a week, but I don't know about full time.

[monkeymama]

apples and bananas- i have one the exact same. comes 4 days and grandma takes her one day. i think its great to have that time with grandma!

[Mamma_Mia]

I have one who is 3 day w/ me 2 days w/ grandma...

Grandma let her eat whatever she wants for lunch, last week was a bag of chips, becuase she didn't like anything else. Yeah.Right.....ummm who's in charge?

[mlac57]

Until lately I've been fortunate enough not to experience this new 'grandparent' daycare trend...well that was until toay. I was supposed to have a little boy start with me next week but now the little boy is going to his grandmothers. So frustrating!

[DaycareLulu]

Did she give you a deposit! Did she care about losing it!

[mlac57]

I haven't asked for deposits in the past because all of the other providers (except 1) in the area do not do deposits (I'm in a small town full of competition so there's not a whole lot of leeway about pricing, etc between home daycares) but I'm seriously thinking about doing that now.

[playfelt]

When I first started taking a deposit it wasn't the norm but I made it be for the first week of care and then later made it be two weeks worth of care. I explained that it was a help to the family too because then they would get back to work and start getting paycheques before having to pay much more. But it was also nonrefundable if they didn't come and most forgot about that part when they changed plans. Now my two weeks is for the last two weeks since that has become the norm in my area.

[Dreamalittledream]

apples and bananas- i have one the exact same. comes 4 days and grandma takes her one day. i think its great to have that time with grandma!
Same here! I don't mind though; makes for light Mondays.

[treeholm]

I plan to open a home daycare September 1st, so I'm coming to this forum for lots of advice from experienced daycare providers. One of the reasons I'm opening a daycare is because I've been providing care for my granddaughter since she was a year old (she's 3 and a half now). For the first year of that, I was also the full-time caregiver for my elderly mother, who had dementia. Looking after a toddler and my mother was enough to keep me busy... plus, I'm a semi-retired university professor and still teach one evening a week. It is only recently that I have decided that opening a daycare would be a great way to continue to be with my granddaughter and earn some money so I can consider this a viable career choice at this semi-retired stage of life where I do not want a 4-hour daily commute or a fast-paced corporate life that doesn't actually have meaning for me. I love children, am very patient, have successfully raised three children to adulthood, and have lots of energy.

There seems to be a sentiment on this thread that grandparents are not great care providers... that seems to be somewhat judgemental and narrow-minded, to be honest. And I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm really good at providing care. I'm a licensed Kindermusik educator and I have given my granddaughter great exposure to music, arts, reading etc. We even went to a gym class once a week with homeschooling families. I cook nutritious meals and we do lots of gardening and other outside activities.

I guess I just felt someone had to stand up for grandparents. We do not all feed children chips for lunch, and we have tons of life experience raising children. We also send ALL the children home at the end of the day and have evenings to recharge... and we sleep at night because we don't have small children of our own to keep us up.

Again, it was not my intent to offend, just to point out that some of those families who have grandparents watch their children are really getting an ideal situation.

[Momof4]

Treeholm, you can relax, I have 5 grandchildren! I don't think the ladies were slamming grandparents but rather asking why they have run into many parents choosing to send their children to grandparents instead of to a home daycare, that's all.

I started my daycare because my grandson needed care and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. He's in JK now and I've been in this business for over 4 years and I'm still having a great time and love being self-employed and making my own rules and all the rest.

I agree with you that I enjoy sending all the children home at the end of the day and enjoying my quiet time and my own social life finally after raising 4 children but they are all grown now.

If you are expanding your business and run into problems this is definitely the best place for you to come for help. I'd like to know more about you as a matter of fact because a beloved client of mine has moved to Peterborough and has just had a baby girl and is on mat leave currently. She was super happy bringing her older daughter to a grey haired grama type lady before they moved. See, this is a helpful, supportive site!

[treeholm]

Thank you so much for your encouragement! I am delighted to know that I am not the only grandma on this board, and that you also began this career path by wanting to be with your grandchild. I briefly contemplated going back into the career world full-time, but I would have to commute to the GTA. I teach part-time at Trent University (I'm a business administration professor) but there are no full-time opportunities. The thought of leaving my grandchild and driving 4 hours a day made me really think long and hard about what is important to me, and I realized I could find a win-win by opening a daycare. I love children, and have taught music classes to babies and toddlers. As I worked with the little people, I also realized that I am a parent-cheerleader. I taught parenting courses as a volunteer for years because I believe it takes a village to raise a child, and we need to work together to raise successful, productive adults. I look forward to the opportunity to work with children and their parents. At my church, I'm known as the baby hog, because I'm always gravitating towards children. I've been known to take many a fussy baby and rock them to sleep while a grateful new mom has a break. I do hope that there are parents looking for a grandma for their child/children, and your post was very encouraging. I would be happy to give you my email address if you want to know more about me.

I wasn't sure if there was a way to send a private message on this board since it's my first day here. I haven't got a website or anything set up yet as I'm just in the beginning stage. I plan to open September 1st. In the meantime, I'm organizing forms, parent handbook etc., and doing some organizing of my space. Now that my granddaughter is 3 and a half, I need to go back to the beginning in terms of childproofing since she no longer requires quite the same level of vigilance with toys etc. I finish teaching for the summer on August 1st, so I have August set aside to get ready.

Thank you again for your reply. If your client is looking for a grandma-type, I'd be happy to talk to her.