First off, if you are serious about this then it is NOT babysitting. You are making the choice to become a child care provider. Babysitters are teenagers who get paid a hell of a lot more money than we do and only have to do about 1/4 of the work. The rules depend on where you live. In Alberta, you legally can have 6 children not including your own. That is 6 per household...not per adult! In SK, you can only have 5 I think and in BC you can only have 2 unless you are licenced. So, imo...running a day home and running a daycare center are 2 very very different things. You require formal training to work in a center.