I just don't know what to do!

[Fun&care]

If I were you I would be tempted to do the soap business but keep all daycare stuff for a few months so that you can come back to it if your other business doesn't work out. If it's no big deal financially this seems like a great opportunity to try something new!

[Lee-Bee]

Tough one! I assume you have no children of your own? So taking on one child means you will have one child all day? I dropped from 5 kids to my daughter (22months) and one dc child (26months) and have to say it has been fabulous. But, without having my own daughter I'm not sure it would be as worthwhile.

There is a HUGE difference in being a nanny in someone else's house and having one child in your house. Mainly pay. I was making $150 a day in my last nanny job, caring for one toddler. This child had a full time daycare spot (centre) but mom wanted him home 2days a week so he could have his usual BIG naps. So, I was being paid $150 a day to let a 18month old have two, 2hr naps lol. I baked and cleaned while he napped...but it was EASY money. Obviously not all nanny jobs are like this.

Having one child in my home brings in just over 1/3rd the pay of my one child nanny job. BUT, my day is shorter (8.5hrs versus 9hrs) and I have zero commute time. I do MY OWN cleaning and cooking and I am in the comfort of my own home. Obviously my daughter plays a huge role in this, I'm not doing it to bring in money.

You can quite likely pull off charging more because there are quite likely some families out there that WANT their child to have one on one time, to have a relaxed carefree day and WANT what you offer (organics and naturals etc). It will be harder to find this family though.

The good news is, that in my experience families that want the organic all natural type life style for their children tends to be the ones that want to avoid group care and will pay more to find a very low ratio, home like child care. Again, it will take time to find the family. There is also a good chance that you can find this family and they will fall into the field of wanting one on one time and care and attention but also believe in having their child play independently and therefore you wouldn't actually have to be 24/7 entertainment. You can get them settled into play then do stuff around your house.

I believe to pull it off you need to change your advertising to cater to such families. Can you sell yourself to attachment parenting families? Not ALL attachment parenting families are high needs and not all of them have needy children (many such families moved away from attachment parenting and made the common mistake of falling into the permissive parenting families). I do believe that there are some solid, amazing, great families that want the best for their child and will pay a premium for very low ratio care so their child can have that home upraising that they want to provide but can't due to their careers. If you cater your advertising to them you can likely find a winner! Maybe put lots of effort into advertising for such a family while focussing on the side business until you find the perfect family?? I'd be prepared to have solid reasons for why you want to care for one child in YOUR house since most would naturally expect you have your own young child. If you can answer that question at the ready then you can likely get over their uneasiness that they may have.