Are grandparents the new daycare?

[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.