Single mothers

[daycarewhisperer]

I just wrote a status update on my Facebook about his at the end of July We had a pretty healthy discussion about it but here are my posts:

"I've been getting inquiries for the day care and nearly all of them begin with "Hi, I'm so and so and I'm a single mom". I always answer back. "Hi, I'm a single mom too". I can't figure out what the deal is of why the parent thinks it's important to add that at all to the email much less as the intro line. What does being a single parent have to do with hiring child care? I would imagine there are next to zero providers who would only take kids if the parents were married so it can't be to test you out to see if you allowed children who don't have two parents at home. What gives? I don't see what it has to do with child care other than it may change having two people drop or pick up instead of one. Other than that it doesn't really affect the child care relationship. Why would the mom think it was something I should know from first sentence on?"

"In nearly two decades of doing child care I've never expected my clients to offer additional fees to me because I'm a single parent. It makes me wonder what the single mothers expecting some financial discount for being single are doing to offer special and free to other single moms? Is it just to RECEIVE special or do they offer special to other single moms?"


"Where else would they be purchasing service or goods that would give them a discount for being a single parent? That's what I can't figure out. Where are they getting concessions in regular life because of being a single parent? I get that they may get free child care or qualify for insurance/food. I'm just wondering what they actually PAY for that is dicscounted for them being a single mom. I'm a single mom and I can't figure out where to get the discounts. LOL"

"I can see offering a military discount. I would do that for sure. I can't see offering a discount for something as common as being a single parent. With all the subsidies, health care, food stamps etc. out there for the poor, I think that as a society we are offering quite a bit from the go. To extend that to child care that's supported by us seems a huge stretch to me. With a military family, I can see offering a Vet a discount to honor their service to our country. I can't for the life of me figure out why special consideration should be considered for someone who is parenting by themselves. It's really common, it's not something that is earned, it's not something that draws sympathy or compassion that would extend to a monetary reward. I just don't get it."

My new policy is when given the info of "I'm a single mom" I respond with "I'm a single Mom too. We welcome families of all kinds... single dads, single moms, foster and adoptive parents, and married couples. We only limit clients if they are unable to pay the fee or unable to follow the policies. We do not disciminate regarding the parents marital status.