Question Re: unregulated day homes in Saskatchewan

[eoinsmom]

A bit of an obscure question that I haven't been able to find an answer to with google......My cousin is thinking of trying her hand at runnning a dayhome in Regina. I am not really in support of this plan as she is quite young and immature, and really I wouldn't leave her in charge of a group of toddlers. She has a grand plan of using a friend's parent's basement as her dayhome (she shares an apartment with another girl so no room to do it there), in exchange for her watching their kids for free on top of any other kids she signs on as clients. She plans to be unregulated, and has no idea of what the regulations are surrounding age restrictions of kids in care. I have been able to find that info to send to her, which she is choosing to ignore; but the other piece that I don't feel is right is that she could run a dayhome out of some one else's home. Wouldn't you have to be licensed as a child care facility of something? Its not her residence so it's really not a dayhome but more of a day care center. I am going to try to connect with the regulating people in Regina tomorrow to ask them, but just thought I'd throw it out here tonight in case anyone knew. Thanks!

[Inspired by Reggio]

Hmmm ~ my first reaction is that does not sound plausible either due to a number of regulation barriers ~ but I am in Ontario so not sure what the rules in Regina off hand!

My other concern aside from regulations would be insurance .... in Ontario it is strongly recommended that the provider have a home childcare ryder on their home owners policy aka additional liability for each child in attendance .... however she does not 'own' the home so not sure how insurance would work? Whose ever willing to loan their 'basement' to her for this endeavor should be looking into how it might affect their insurance for sure and she should be making sure 'she' is covered liability wise cause if a child is injured or harmed in her care you can bet in today's culture she will find herself in front of a civil judge!

I think connecting with the regulating agency in your province is the best place to start for sure .... sadly with regards to unregulated care 'maturity/experience/skill' is not required in our province either anyone who is old enough to 'work legally' in Ontario can open up a unregulated home based childcare .... the only areas where you have to be experienced or hold skills is in 'regulated' care where you are required to hold your early childhood education degree as well as now in Ontario belong to the College of Early Childhood Educators.

[Crayola kiddies]

Hi ... I am in Ontario and I am not sure of SK rules but here we are only allowed a max of 5children not including our own. What she is doing sounds more like a nanny share. People here do it all the time but usually one family hires a nanny and then finds another family to bring their kids and they share the cost. Does this family have and extra rider for daycare on their house insurance incase of accident or injury? What happens if a parent slips and falls on the ice in the winter, what happens if a child is injured ? Who will be supplying the food? Is there something to prepare food with in this basement? What about clean up? Where will these children sleep? Does your cousin have the run if the house? What about toys ? Who supply's those ? What happens if a toy gets broken? Is your cousin responsible for replacing it? who will be supplying highchairs/booster seats? Playpens/cots/sleep mats? What about interviews ? Will this family let her conduct interviews at their home? Is there a separate entrance directly into the basement for the daycare families to enter thru or will they have to cone thru the house to get to the basement? Do the homeowners know what this entails? Strangers coming thru their home in the morning or coming to their door while they are getting ready for work. Does she have a contract? How close does she live to this family ? Walking or driving? What if her car breaks down and she can get there? What if she sleeps thru her alarm and is late? There will be families standing at this persons home waiting......Those are just a few of the questions?

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yup Crayola all AWESOME questions ~ honestly way too many 'what ifs' in a scenario like this!

Seriously how are they going to handle the 'tax end' of things .... cause having a home based business WE are the ones who get to write off the shared expenses between the business and the home ... so if she is not in HER home than who gets to write off these expenses cause they are considerable increases in water consumption, electricity and so forth when you have multiple kids in a house all day verses it sitting empty while occupants are at work? So are they going to charge her 'rent' on the space to account for that expense and claim that on their income, or are they going to claim to be operating the business and hiring her as the employee aka like a 'nanny share' so they can take advantage of the tax advantages or what?

[Crayola kiddies]

Ya I can't see this ending well ..... The home owners have really never thought this through!! And the care giver is not going to like providing care for free to the homeowners children and depending in how old they are could very likely be the worst behaved Of them all..... The old "this is my home and I don't have to do what you say" syndrome. What about if care extends beyond the homeowners work day. Are they going to want to deal with the extra commotion at the end of their work day? And yes I never thought of the tax write offs or the extra utilities. All important topics.

[eoinsmom]

I know right? She is 21 years old, has no experience running a business and can't even keep track of a cell phone for longer than a few months! She has been working as a dayhome assistant for the past year in an established, licensed dayhome; where she gets paid 16.25 an hour! She gets to come in at 9 and leave at 5 and has none of the headache of actually owning the business. For some reason now she feels that she is being taken advantage of by the owner, because the woman will have her do the tidying up or dishes, etc. Hmmmm, doesn't that sound like what an assistant is for? My cousin figures that since she is left alone with the kids periodically and can manage supervising them, she can open her own day home. And she thinks that since all the kids love her, the parents will just move the kids into her new day home! So she is intending to have 7 kids under the age of 4, plus however many kids this family who is offering her their basement has. Unfortunately I am in Alberta or I would be asking to go along with her to talk to these people who are encouraging her to so this as a good idea. I think there is something not right all around. What sane parents would allow a 20 year old, unexperienced girl open a day care in their home?! I've tried explaining to her all the legalities of insurance, liability, ratios/ages of kids, and the mountain of tax info you need to be on top of, but she just brushes it off as I'm not being supportive or don't believe in her. I run a dayhome in Alberta and it is not easy! Besides all the day to day stuff, you also have the uncertainty of income - kids come and go, I lost 2 due to to mom having a second baby this year, and just lost another this week as mom quit her job and needs to find work again! Why would you give up a salaried job where you clear $2000 a month???? I chose to have a dayhome until my son is in school full time, then I plan to go back to work in my field as a social worker. It is so frustrating to watch this....and my auntie (her mom) is too timid to call these people up and ask them what they are thinking!

[Crayola kiddies]

Who do you think is going to be washing the dishes if she starts her own dayhome? And she won't be doing it for 16.25/hour. I have a 21 yr old myself and you can't tell them anything. Unfortunately the outcome of this could be life changing and not in a good way ! As a parent I never ever let/made my older children babysit my younger children cause if anything ever happened while on their watch ..... Well that is a very heavy burden for your child to carry around for the rest of their lives. I would never put my child in that position. So hopefully she thinks this through very carefully.

[dodge__driver11]

just an FYI you can inly have 5 children including your own in SK, Here is the link

http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/ELCC/how-many-children

That is so illegal, and if she does this she will place those children and herself at huge risk...She has the potential to be reported to Saskatchewan Early Years, and trust me when I say.. they will come out and check--I have been the victim of false reporting.

[kidlove]

Where I live, you MUST be a resident of the home you provide care. How old is this girl, does she have children? I'm guessing no! and does she have experience with children? training CPR first aid and such? I wonder if the people who are concidering to give her freedom to their basement understand the reprocusions of what they will be responsible for if anything happens to a child while in care in their home? This is a very serious job to undertake, if you don't know the in s and outs and aren't following the rules you could be in for a really big mess...I just hope she does alot of work and research before following through with such a big jump. i remind myself on a daily basis, how easily something bad could happen and I end up in jail or under scrutiny for the rest of my life. And I AM following the rules and running a licensed Day Care. Hopefully she understands this is more serious than babysitting every once in a while and takes all the proper steps.

[horsegirl]

In BC we need to live in the home that we are providing the care in. The home is licensed, not the caregiver, but the caregiver needs to take a course regarding caring for children. The caregiver needs childsafe first aid, criminal record searches for themselves and any family members living at the home 13 years and older, a letter from a physician stating that the caregiver is psychologically healthy to look after children and the caregiver must complete a package from Community Care Licensing that includes fire drills, policies and procedures for such things as administering medications, wellness and illness, discipline, etc... We must also have approval from the municipality, which means the fire marshall, building inspector and plumbing inspector must all approve the area so that we can obtain a business license before a childcare license will be approved. These are all done to protect the children and caregiver. Liability insurance is available through an insurance company in BC that specializes in childcare, we can also purchase our house insurance from them as they have the knowledge as to what is necessary for our type of business.
I think all being said she needs to look into this very carefully, to protect herself, the person's hom and the children she cares for. This could be disasterous if she does not.
BTW in BC you may share a nanny, but the nanny may only look after 3 children (2 from one family and one from another), otherwise they would have to have a licensed facility (home) and go through all the procedures (and more) as mentioned above.
This is not something to enter into lightly.

Again in BC an unlicensed caregiver may only care for 2 children that are not her own, or 3 if 2 are siblings plus her own. They should still have liability insurance and the proper house insurance to protect themselves as well as childsafe first aid and cpr.