Motivation for running privately?

[playfelt]

You don't mention what province you are in so that will determine the answers you need since each province has different rules and therefore people make different choices accordingly.

I am from Ontario so that is what I know. Plain and simple it is the amount of income you can earn and the freedom to do it the way you want to. This is especially important if you are staying home with your own children because you have an idea of the kind of day/program/learning that you want them to have. Also privately your own children do not count in your daycare numbers so you can have a full slate of 5 daycare children plus your own. Through an agency your own children take up spaces and because the agency has age restrictions you end up with kids all over the spectrum including school age to get to 5 kids. Privately you can have any age mix so it is ok to have all of the children around the same age as your own children so that you are only presenting one level of program and meeting the needs of one age group. The agency scrapes money off the top of what is paid so privately you can make more per child. Unannounced superviser visits are disruptive - no one wants the doorbell to ring during morning baby naptime while you are tying to do a craft with the older kids and can't leave the table because they are fingerpainting. In some cases they just want to make sure the temperature in your refrigerator is up to par and if the fire extinguisher that is checked yearly is still up to date even though they looked at it the month before and know full well what month the year will be up in - translation not helpful and very disruptive. What agencies say they provide is available to providers either from childcare associations, through support groups such as this, activities and theme ideas abound on the internet and in most cases providers end up finding many of their own clients anyways since the agencies often do not have enough children to place in the home.