Market place program

[mimi]

cfred, that is exactly what I was thinking. There is an underlying resentment to home daycare providers. You work from home, you wear sweats while working, you can make more money than alot of people, you don't have to have a degree to do this work, alot of women would love to do this only they can't really tolerate staying home with children and yes, we earn our living/make a profit on the backs of these sweet children.

What is missing in this is that we work hard to make sure the children we care for have nourishing food, have a stimulating play environment, teach them scholastic basics, deal with diverse personalities, are always trying to balance life/work space in our home, understand children and their needs more than most, must deal with parents and each of their child rearing philosophies, have to forcast our enrollment months ahead, deal with customer departures and run a business while dealing with the isolation of working from home.

I always seem to have daycare on my mind. I was out shopping this weekend and picked up items for Mother's Day and spent an evening looking for craft ideas (and then shopping for these) for St. Patricks Day and yikes, early Easter and wake in the middle of the night trying to solve a daycare issue. So let me turn a profit on the "back of the children" please.

[cfred]

I always seem to have daycare on my mind. I was out shopping this weekend and picked up items for Mother's Day and spent an evening looking for craft ideas (and then shopping for these) for St. Patricks Day and yikes, early Easter and wake in the middle of the night trying to solve a daycare issue. So let me turn a profit on the "back of the children" please.

Mimi, I know exactly what you mean. Even when on vacation, I still think about the daycare. Last year in Florida with my whole family, my sister and I would wake up to go 'shelling' very early every morning. Our main goal was to get as many shells as we could that were listed on the laminated shell identification chart I purchased from a little shop. The ones I couldn't find, I purchased. When we got home, we spent hours scrubbing the shells in bleach, drying them out and putting them together for a daycare matching game. The ones that didn't get used for the game were set aside for a kiddie pool that was to be lined with sand, with a couple inches of water in it so the kids could go 'shelling' themselves. We also talked about and looked at pictures of the little critters who had once occupied the shells. I'll be camping in Puerto Rico in April. I know, as I do every year, I'll head to the shops to see what I can find as a little trinket for the kids. I always say I'm going to do nothing but swim in the sea, lay on the beach and read in my hammock, but the daycare is ALWAYS on my mind.