Babysitter vs Daycare provider

[mickyc]

It doesn't bother me at all. I look after children - babysitter, daycare provider - whatever. When I worked in an office I had no issues about being called a secretary either instead of administrative professional or whatever everyone else liked to be called. Each to their own.

That being said I do refer to myself as a daycare provider. I have also never had anyone call me a babysitter before so who knows how I would feel. I guess it all depends on the context of what was said.

[torontokids]

I haven't been called a babysitter yet by any of my families but I have on multiple occasions by my parents. It offends me when they call me this because I feel it is meant offensively as they do not agree with my doing this profession as they think it's a waste of my education (they never said it so strongly but this is how they feel) and they worry that I won't be able to get back into my field when I choose to. So in this case, yes it irks me. My parents think it's wonderful I am with my kids but they don't think this was a smart move and tried many times to talk me out of it.

[Spixie33]

I think the reason it irks me personally is because babysitter is very casual, young and basically just stays with the kids to ensure they are safe.

I feel like what I/we do is so much more. I work 10.5 hours per day looking after the children....then I have about 2 hours at the beginning and end of each day to clean up, cook ahead, prepare or look up crafts, write newsletters, etc

I spend evenings doing daycare stuff, I spend weekends doing daycare stuff. There are times where daycare seems all-consuming and I sacrifice down time with my own kids because I am either doing daycare stuff like clean up or preparing for the new daycare week ahead.

Being a dcp is not just a casual PT way to make extra money like a babysitter would. I work my butt off and I work at preparing learning games, teaching them ABCs, counting, shapes, colours, building a foundation for literacy. I feel like an educator and this is a full commitment on my part. When someone calls it babysitting then it feels to me like they don't assign respect or value to the important work I do and the sacrifices I make for my own free time and kid time and how hard I work for the sake of these little people.

I also have talked to people or other parents who would talk about my job as 'babysitting' and they do mean it as a put down or like they are better than me. However...I whole heartedly think some people say babysitter and don't mean anything ill or snooty about it. I think there are both ways to use the word but I always refer to my job as daycare - never babysitting.