Do you Drive?

[Inspired by Reggio]

The only word of caution I would have for you BEFORE you buy anything is to call your insurance for a quote. Another daycare in my neighbourhood went and bought herself a Mini van for outings and then called the insurance about insuring it for the daycare and she was quoted nearly DOUBLE what the rate would be without using it for daycare. Needless to say she has had the van for 5 months now and never used it for daycare.

I ran into this issue as well BEFORE I opened and was doing my research and it is why I was open for two years before GETTING my van cause I had some dude quote me the same thing - it was something like $200 MORE a month than my current insurance and I was like SO NOT WORTH IT ... however what happened was that dude did not understand what I was ASKING and quoted me the cost for insurance to have one of those school vans where transport of children for the purpose of business is ALL that is done with it ... kinda like taxi drivers and pizza delivery drivers and all those other people who spend ALL DAY in the vehicle with the sole purpose of transport as their business .... this is NOT what we want we just want a home childcare ryder placed on the vehicle to 'occasionally transport up to 5 additional children who are not our own' .... it cost me like $20 a month for that additional liability insurance on my vehicle ... which SO made it worth it for me cause it costs me $5 a trip to take the bus with the kids so that is a 'trip a week' plus I can write it off AND write off portion of the vehicle itself and so forth.

Get her to call back and clarify that she just wants an additional home childcare 'ryder' put on her vehicle ... not that she is offering the service of 'transportation for purpose of business' with the van and see if she gets a BETTER quote????

[Spixie33]

Get her to call back and clarify that she just wants an additional home childcare 'ryder' put on her vehicle ... not that she is offering the service of 'transportation for purpose of business' with the van and see if she gets a BETTER quote????

Ohhhhh interesting. I will tell her when I see her next week at OEYC. She might be relieved to hear that. Maybe there is hope. I always feel bad when I walk past her house and see that van sitting there

[mom-in-alberta]

I used to do school transport in my own vehicle. I did have a family walk away because of it. (Although I am glad, because they were "bubble-wrap" parents, anyway)
Most parents just want to know that you are driving a properly registered and insured vehicle that is safe to be in.

[Sandbox Sally]

I would LOVE to weed out my bubble wrappers, as I feel grief every day from them, but baby is a DOLL, and they pay me on time every week and are always here for pick up and drop off at the same time!

Re: buying a vehicle for daycare - this isn't happening in my situation. I am buying this vehicle for my family, primarily. I just want to be able to transport dck's if I want to. I have three school aged kids and a shepherd/husky, so the 7 or 8 seat SUV is a necessity for us anyhow.

And as far as vehicle insurance goes, I have none right now, so I can shop around to find the best rate for daycare transport. Who says my home insurance and vehicle insurance has to be through the same company?

[sunnydays]

If it is too hard to load them forward facing over the backs, you could turn them rear facing and put the smallest kids in the back. They are now recommending that carseats be left rear facing for 2 years or more (check out the Transport Canada website). It is okay if their feat hit the back of the seat (just take their shoes off or protect your seats). I have one child who is almost two and she rides very comfortably rear facing...and she is not a small child.

OMG AWESOME IDEA ... I will have to look at that option to see how high my seats are if I could reach over them to do this from the back easier than trying to flip the middle row seat forward to get back there!!

[sunnydays]

Oh, and also, I used to have two rear facing and one forward facing in the back and I would put the 2 year old in the side door...he would walk to the seat and climb in and then I would reach in from the back trunk to do up his buckles...that works well too...I don't have much space to climb back there from the front!

If it is too hard to load them forward facing over the backs, you could turn them rear facing and put the smallest kids in the back. They are now recommending that carseats be left rear facing for 2 years or more (check out the Transport Canada website). It is okay if their feat hit the back of the seat (just take their shoes off or protect your seats). I have one child who is almost two and she rides very comfortably rear facing...and she is not a small child.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I double checked and I could not do it if the seats are forward facing - my carseats come up way over the back of the bench seat .... but I could so do it if I had two rear facing back there - maybe in the Fall I might try this if I end up with noone over 40 pounds and 40 inches to sit in the highback .... it wont work right now cause I only have 1 babe and everyone else is over 35 pounds and my seats only rear face to 35 pounds

[sunnydays]

Could you at least send them in to sit on their own and then reach from the back to do the buckles?

I double checked and I could not do it if the seats are forward facing - my carseats come up way over the back of the bench seat .... but I could so do it if I had two rear facing back there - maybe in the Fall I might try this if I end up with noone over 40 pounds and 40 inches to sit in the highback .... it wont work right now cause I only have 1 babe and everyone else is over 35 pounds and my seats only rear face to 35 pounds

[Inspired by Reggio]

I honestly do not think my boobs would fit in between the two seats to reach down to do the lap clip ... either that or they might smother a kid while I made the effort ... seriously I am a 40 HH cup

[Sandbox Sally]

I honestly do not think my boobs would fit in between the two seats to reach down to do the lap clip ... either that or they might smother a kid while I made the effort ... seriously I am a 40 HH cup

Holy crap! Wish I had such problems...anything I had that even resembled a boob went on a permanent vacation after I weaned #3. Heavysigh. Could we maybe SHARE the boobage? That way, you'd be able to get in and out of the back, and I'd look like a woman.