Closing for a Year to Take "Maternity Leave"

Hello!

I am a Registered ECE in Ontario and I have worked in licensed Centre-based childcare for the past 5 years. I am opening my home childcare this September and already have families enrolled. I am very passionate about professionalism and the quality of care I give.

I am planning to be having a child of my own around next summer (2021) and want to have a year off (unpaid) to have a "maternity leave" with my child. I am wondering if I could have some feedback about my options....

As an unlicensed home childcare, operating as a sole proprietership in Ontario, what can I do? Should I close for a year and when should I give families notice? Am I able to hire a previous colleague of mine to run the program out of my home while I am off? What if I licensed it and someone else ran it out of my home?

How do I help families? I don't like the idea of being open for only September 2020- June 2021 then closing until September 2022, but I don't want to run it on my own with a newborn (precious moments in life I don't want to sacrifice)

Any thoughts on what I can do functionally in this situation? Thanks!

Hello, I will share my experience with you as I had a baby September 2019. I was due in October though. My plan was to have my mom come and live with us from September so that I can train her for a month or so and have the children get adjusted to her. The parents were aware of this from the time I told them I was pregnant. I only told them I was pregnant once I had a plan together. However, my water broke the first weekend of August but I still had enough water to keep the baby in me as I wasn't going into labour. I did have to stay on semi bed rest at the hospital until I had the baby. My mom came as a rush from a different city and my husband also helped out for the daycare while I was in the hospital. At the end, the parents told me in September that their children could not adjust to the situation and ended up leaving. I also admit that the daycare was not running as professional as I would like it to be so I did understand. It was stressful. I kept in touch with the parents on a daily basis while I was in the hospital. Even keeping the daycare opened when I had my newborn was very stressful for me. And this is with my mom and husband's help. I didn't like how certain things were done so naturally I would want to get involved but I was also breastfeeding my baby. I felt like I would miss my baby because I was trying to take care of other people's children. I would feel torn between the 2 a lot. It was rough. This is something to consider if you hire someone as the daycare will still be around you in your home. It is hard to ignore. Me and my husband want a 3rd baby next year and after our horrible experience with this 2nd baby, we said we are going to shut the daycare down when I am 7 months pregnant and keep it closed for a year to 18 months. It's not even worth the stress.

If you choose to hire a professional to run the daycare during your mat leave as opposed to help from family, it may be a little bit less stressful. However, you will hardly make any money. Also I didn't want to scare you regarding my pregnancy experience. I just wanted to say, have a daycare opened during and after pregnancy doesn't always work out as planned. I had a very detailed plan set up. If there is high demand in your area for childcare and there is high demand for the service you are providing, you will be able to fill your spots up again if you decide to close down. If you decide to close down, I would just tell them as soon as you tell them you are pregnant. This way it will be more positive as you are being clear of your plans. It also gives them a lot of time to find childcare. If you have really good parents, they will be super understanding. Nobody can be made at you for being pregnant. Sorry for the long post.

MY experience from a different perspective - I have had clients who came from a day home where the provider had a baby and planned to bring in a cover. The issue for my clients was they interviewed a specific provider in a specific house. They didn't interview the person who was going to provide cover. Had they not been concerned about the individuals caring for their child, they would have used a center. They wanted a more personal relationship and chose a day home and a specific person.
Their contract was with the provider they chose and not someone covering her role. The provider was in breach of the care contract and they departed her care. I've had several client's over the years with this story.
Clients contract with YOU not a person you chose to run your program. You will lose some client's.