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JenniferBergsma
07-23-2013, 07:57 AM
I am new to the forum, and considering opening my own home daycare. I have been working in the field for as long as I can remember. I grew up with a stay at home mom who babysat before the 5 child by law was enforced. My continuing education has a "child" focus, which includes ECE diploma and Autism Behavioural Science post grad ceritifcate. After giving birth to my daughter a year and half ago I had thought I still wanted to focus on my career and manage a family so I went back to work in January 2013. It's been 5 or so months and while my husband and I have managed with the dual income working life, we are considering the benefits we'd experience from me staying home and caring for our 18 month old daughter. We are convinced this is the choice for us but still in the planning and discussion stage as we want to make a smart choice for our family before jumping in with two feet.
I'd love to connect with other home daycare providers around Ontario, tell me your stories, your successes, your struggles etc!
Looking forward to what the future holds in store for me!

Momof4
07-23-2013, 08:09 AM
Best of luck and feel free to research through our many many threads, you'll find all the answers I'm sure to get started.

cfred
07-23-2013, 09:13 AM
Welcome to the forum and good luck! It's a big undertaking, but well worth the effort. Feel free to PM me if you wish to discuss anything daycare related. I won't bore everyone on here with my stuff :) As Momof4 said, there's a lot of great advice and info in here.

playfelt
07-23-2013, 09:49 AM
One of the discussions that has been floating around the forum is the issue of maternity leave benefits which we don't get as self employed. Since your child is 18 months now before making the plunge into home daycare I would first address the are we having another child question. You might want to wait until you have the second child and enjoy the year of mat leave with pay or you may decide that it won't matter financially and if a second child comes while doing daycare you will just continue on since you are "at home" anyways.

What part of Ontario are you in? There are quite a few on this forum from Ontario so I'm sure there will be someone within a hour of two of where you are that would know more about what it is like for childcare in your area.

DaycareLady
07-23-2013, 10:10 AM
I also have my ECE and diploma in Autism and Behavioural Science!! I just opened in January, deciding to give up my career to stay home with my two children....honestly , it started out great, I have wonderful kids and families, a great program and daycare play area...but I am not in love with it anymore. There are lots of benefits to this job but I wish I thought longer term... We want to have more children but now are concerned with how we will manage that, with the daycare, etc. I don't want to run my daycare while having a newborn, I have no desire to do that although I know many have. Although the pay seems good, you need to factor in all the operating costs, the amount you will pay at tax time, the cost of food, insurance costs, etc....My main reason for not loving it anymore is that I did this to be home with my children and I feel like I don't even get to see them or spend quality time with them because of caring for 4-5 children on top of it. Yes I love that my kids are in their own home and I get to see them and feed them well, etc but most days I feel like I might as well be working away from home since I do t get that quality time with them. They also save all their behaviours for me (as most children do for their parents) and are my biggest challenge during the day. It's understandable...the y have to share their home, their toys, their mommy...they have to get along with whatever kids come through their door (and you never know what type of people you will end up dealing with, even when interview goes great!), they rarely get to leave the house,etc. you also have to consider the fact that you won't get benefits, EI, paid sick days or paid vacation. You will rarely get off early to enjoy the day with just your babe, etc. You will give your all for parents and their kids and they could leave you at the drop of a hat and not give you a second thought (ie- if they move, have another baby, get their kid into a centre, etc). i hope i am not being too negative, just make sure you really think it through. some people do charge for their sick days and their vacation...there is no way that would work in my area though. I am also worried about being out of my field for too long and when I do go back to working outside e home, it may be harder to find a job....even with doing home daycare, it isn't seen by most as a reputable job. I did is to have the best of both worlds...to be a stay at home mom, get my cleaning done at nap time and a nice meal on the table...while also providing a great program for ore children....but it is really hard to have the best of both worlds! I think I would adore this job when my children are older and in school. Good luck!!

DisneyPrincess
07-23-2013, 01:27 PM
DaycareLady sounds pretty negative but I agree with her 100%. Sometimes, isnt better to know the worst that can happened and be prepared, not to have any bad surprises. That is why I just announced after 2 years that I am closing. I am in a very similar situation, little difference is, my girls are all grown up, well... 12 and 8 y.o. In my case, I was happy to be home for them when they come back from school. In reality, they are the worst or my daycare kids LOL... Last year I had a summer of hell having them here where my 12 y.o. was turning 11 and right on to her pre-teen OMG the attitude that came out of this little person. Today, she pretty stay upstairs.. but my 8 y.o. makes me want to pull my hair out, its pretty bad at that age that you can argue with a 2 y.o. for a toy.

I think that if you do have young kids of your own, its best to have your daycare at home instead of spending all your pay check on childcare as it is SO expensive.

In my case, even with my hubby having a good insurance plan, I do need one as well and all the benefit... especially if I ever need unemployment... when my daughter had her surgery, it killed me I couldnt just take time off to take care of her. Also, at 33 with no pension plan, its really stressing the hell out of me and I didnt think of that when opening.

My serious opinions about the daycare biz is although the children can be soooo adorable and cuddly most of the time, its the parents that I cant stand. I do have a great sets of parents, but like DaycareLady says, we do so much for them and not having the recognition in return !!! Plus I was hoping to be able to catch up with other providers in my area for walks and playtime and stuff, but everyone has a schedule of their own and when we ended being together, we would just complain about parents disrespectful behaviour. Its a very lonely environment for myself, I need to see grown people haha.

This business choice has been good for me to settle down in Ottawa with my husband and my kids, moving from Montreal, but 2 years later, its enough, I'm ready to go back.

WHAT I SUGGEST TO NEWCOMERS: have signed documents/contract (and its good to have a contract that you can decide to modify anytime during the year for example everyone leave at 4:30 why stay opened till 5), set your hours and your fee and stick to it (dont let them play you for 15 minutes more here 5 minutes more there), have late fees or they will eat you alive (me it was : late more then 3 times youre out... it never happened in two years), dont let anyone not pay you (you dont have my check on friday 5pm, go to the atm NOW) Careful having part timers as they could take the space of a possible full timer and that changes your budget dramatically. Be strong on what you believe and set your rules and dont let anyone step outside your boundaries. YOUR HOUSE, YOUR RULES. When it comes to the children, they are the best, if you set your rules with them right from the start, they will listen to you more then anyone else.. even their parents HAHAHA

*note to DaycareLady : you know when you say that daycare is not seem as a reputable job, dont think of it that way at all. ALL the people I have talked to saying I had a daycare all congradulated me has THEY KNOW it is such a hard thing to do to take care of so many little ones. The fact of MANAGING MY OWN BUSINESS, CREATING MY CONTRACT AND TEMPLATES DOCUMENTS, ORGANIZING SCHEDULES, DEALING WITH CHILDREN'S TEMPER (PSYCHOLOGY) AND BEING A ROLE MODEL AND A TEACHER TO THE CHILDREN... this is all extremely good background to have, trust me I had thumbs up during my interviews :thumbsup:

sunnydays
07-23-2013, 01:50 PM
I opened my dayare 2.5 years ago and I am very happy with my decision. It is certainly not an easy job and there are negatives as well as positives, but for me, the positives outweigh the negatives. The longer I have my daycare, the better I have become at having things running smoothly. I love that I am here for my own kids, even if they do share me with 5 other kids (I actually think it is good for them to have to share me...they don't have that feeling of the universe revolving around them like some kids). It can definitely be a challenge taking care of your own kids and the daycare kids...my own kids challenge me more than the daycare kids for sure. There are also definitely a lot of costs involved that we don't always think about before we open...food, toys, art supplies, furniture, equipment, outings, and then the dreaded taxes. Before I started, I talked to many providers who told me they paid almost nothing in taxes...well I was hit with a whopping tax bill this year and that was a shocker! However, still when I calculate how much I would be spending on childcare, parking, gas, eating out, work clothes, etc if I were working outside the home, I am better off financially doing this. I guess it depends on how much you make in your job currently and how many kids you have that would need childcare etc. I thought in the beginning that I would do my housework at naptime and have dinner on the table early every evening since I am home...but it hasn't quite worked out like that. I am too tired at naptime to do housework and I don't have time to cook while the kids are here. Plus, there is a lot of extra cleaning involved in having a daycare in your home...especially if it is in your main living space. All in all, I enjoy being a daycare provider and I think I will do it for at least another few years...maybe longer. I like being there to see my kids after school and I like providing them with healthy food, allowing them to come home to their own homes after school etc. I figure when I am ready to close my daycare I will likely retrain and enter the workforce with a fresh career as I don't want to go back to teaching anyway. I think I will start doing night courses or online courses when I feel I am a couple of years from reaching that point. Good luck with the decision!