Daycare Rates..

[MonkeyPrincess]

I really hope i don't upset anyone here, because I am a daycare provider too, but i'll comment on the 20$ per day ladies. I found a gem! I paid 20 per day to my son's daycare provider when i went back to work after my Mat leave in 2008, and she was the most fantastic lady. She was worth a million bucks. I really thanked God for her because she took my son at the last minute , only 1 month before i had to go back to work. 2 weeks before my original provider was to start caring for my son, the poor woman had a stroke. I was stressing interviewing providers, doing my homework, until I was introduced to a lady who did daycare from home. She was the best! She was in her 50's and had been doing home daycare for 20 yrs. During the time my son was there, she never had more than 3-4 kids, including her grandson.
Some didn't provide food, i did, but it didn't bother me- i had to make everyone else's lunch so what's one more?. She taught the kids the alphabet, numbers, taught them Portuguese (which was awesome because i wanted my kids to speak it since my whole family is Portuguese), the occasional craft, outings to the park, etc. but didn't have a pre-school program per se. The kids were always well cared for, clean and loved her! They all cried when it was home time
i was too busy looking for daycare centres, home daycares, pre schools, programs because i was sure 'my kid would get much better care' but i know i found a real gem in a $20 a day provider!

Now with that being said, i know not all are providers are like that! I know there are some who give the rest of us a bad name, charging really cheap and are way over limits. Those are the ones i would warn parents to stay away from! But you will never know unless you do your homework!