Is this typical practice?

[Momof4]

I hear you Littlefeet. I have talked to many other caregivers at parks and go away shaking my head and knowing that I'm the best caregiver in my area, haha. These people are my competition and I blow them out of the water if I do say so myself!

However, I do have a wonderful friend near my location and when one of my daycare families recommended a co-worker to me I sent them to her because I'm full and she signed them on. That's the way we should behave, as friends and co-workers and supporters of each other not as enemies! I have another friend in the area too and she and I are always full but meet for playdates and support each other nonstop.

It is really important to find other quality caregivers who believe as you do for playdates since we work alone in our homes and need a little adult interaction with others who understand our special problems.

[Momof4]

Littlefeet, what if you put an ad on kijiji asking for other caregivers to contact you for playdates at a nearby park or library or other venue? It's so great for us to have adults to talk to, especially caregivers because they understand our problems and we can help each other, because it gets lonely when we work alone in our homes.

When my friend who lives up the street and I started having playdates, eventually we had other caregivers from all over the city driving to our park locations and sometimes we end up with 4-5 HDCP's and 20-25 kids. It's great. The children have all gotten to know each other over the years and last week we had a big graduation party at the park for the ones going off to school.

[apples and bananas]

I keep to myself. I have had a lot of clients come interview with me telling me that there are not a lot of "good" ones in the area. Some houses they wouldn't even take their child out of the car seat during the interview. As much as I think networking is important, I'm really afraid to put myself out there to the wrong caregiver. I'd hate for someone to use my name, or give the impression they know me and they aren't someone that I would converse with. So, I keep to myself... and I like it that way.

[stitcherka]

We have the same problem with the bigger centres. We are all the best resources we have. We should be able to share and help each other become the best we can be for the benefit of ALL the children.

[dodge__driver11]

I am like A and B, bec. my area is so not nice, I just keep to myself.

[Momof4]

Aw, a&b & dodge, you must feel lonely though don't you, working by yourselves all the time without very much adult interaction? I have a playdate with the same group of people at one park every week and then have about 10 other HDCP's that I meet now and then at different parks at different times and it's so wonderful to go out and spend the mornings with others that I consider co-workers.

I didn't realize how lucky I am to have met such great friends in the business and we are all supportive of each other. I don't like all the caregivers I've met, that's for sure, but I'm happy to have these people in my life.

Also, it's a great selling point about my program that I have all the one on one perks of the HDCP inside my home plus the big group playdates outside a few mornings per week that are preparing the children for large groups when they start school.