Good Morning!

[DisneyPrincess]

DaycareLady sounds pretty negative but I agree with her 100%. Sometimes, isnt better to know the worst that can happened and be prepared, not to have any bad surprises. That is why I just announced after 2 years that I am closing. I am in a very similar situation, little difference is, my girls are all grown up, well... 12 and 8 y.o. In my case, I was happy to be home for them when they come back from school. In reality, they are the worst or my daycare kids LOL... Last year I had a summer of hell having them here where my 12 y.o. was turning 11 and right on to her pre-teen OMG the attitude that came out of this little person. Today, she pretty stay upstairs.. but my 8 y.o. makes me want to pull my hair out, its pretty bad at that age that you can argue with a 2 y.o. for a toy.

I think that if you do have young kids of your own, its best to have your daycare at home instead of spending all your pay check on childcare as it is SO expensive.

In my case, even with my hubby having a good insurance plan, I do need one as well and all the benefit... especially if I ever need unemployment... when my daughter had her surgery, it killed me I couldnt just take time off to take care of her. Also, at 33 with no pension plan, its really stressing the hell out of me and I didnt think of that when opening.

My serious opinions about the daycare biz is although the children can be soooo adorable and cuddly most of the time, its the parents that I cant stand. I do have a great sets of parents, but like DaycareLady says, we do so much for them and not having the recognition in return !!! Plus I was hoping to be able to catch up with other providers in my area for walks and playtime and stuff, but everyone has a schedule of their own and when we ended being together, we would just complain about parents disrespectful behaviour. Its a very lonely environment for myself, I need to see grown people haha.

This business choice has been good for me to settle down in Ottawa with my husband and my kids, moving from Montreal, but 2 years later, its enough, I'm ready to go back.

WHAT I SUGGEST TO NEWCOMERS: have signed documents/contract (and its good to have a contract that you can decide to modify anytime during the year for example everyone leave at 4:30 why stay opened till 5), set your hours and your fee and stick to it (dont let them play you for 15 minutes more here 5 minutes more there), have late fees or they will eat you alive (me it was : late more then 3 times youre out... it never happened in two years), dont let anyone not pay you (you dont have my check on friday 5pm, go to the atm NOW) Careful having part timers as they could take the space of a possible full timer and that changes your budget dramatically. Be strong on what you believe and set your rules and dont let anyone step outside your boundaries. YOUR HOUSE, YOUR RULES. When it comes to the children, they are the best, if you set your rules with them right from the start, they will listen to you more then anyone else.. even their parents HAHAHA

*note to DaycareLady : you know when you say that daycare is not seem as a reputable job, dont think of it that way at all. ALL the people I have talked to saying I had a daycare all congradulated me has THEY KNOW it is such a hard thing to do to take care of so many little ones. The fact of MANAGING MY OWN BUSINESS, CREATING MY CONTRACT AND TEMPLATES DOCUMENTS, ORGANIZING SCHEDULES, DEALING WITH CHILDREN'S TEMPER (PSYCHOLOGY) AND BEING A ROLE MODEL AND A TEACHER TO THE CHILDREN... this is all extremely good background to have, trust me I had thumbs up during my interviews