Difference in daily rates

[mom-in-alberta]

I am in 100% agreeance with playfelt!! Please, please, please do not sell yourself short. A kind and loving caregiver is as important as one who can produce a curriculum and has specific centres set up.
I, personally, do not have things set up for my ideal care situation. We have a basement suite in our home, and in a perfect world, that is where my daycare would be. But right now we have family living down there, so I have my own family and the daycare stuffed into half of our home, lol.
Are you giving children food, providing activities for them, wiping their noses and bums, giving them a snuggle before nap, laughing and singing and playing with them? If yes, then you can absolutely charge as much as the lady down the street. Obviously you can't advertise that you have a learning program or whatever, but who cares? A lot of parents just want to know that their kids are cared for appropriately.
NONE of us are "just babysitters". A babysitter, to me, is a teenager who comes to your home to eat all of your junk food, put your kids to bed and spend the rest of the night on the phone with or texting their bf/bff. Hehehe, kidding, but not really. Actually, I know for sure that you would find a wide variance even among the providers here as to what we all offer, etc.