I don't think one should see it as a competition. Daycare centres and home-based daycares are two very different things. There are pros and cons to both, and I find that once parents decide which they prefer, they tend not to sway from that decision (no matter how good the home-based daycare is). It's unfortunate that many parents whose end goal is to get their child into a centre feel that they have to hide the truth from home-based providers. But I get it. After all, I think that most providers on this board wouldn't accept a child into their care knowing that in a few months the child would be moving into a centre.

As a daycare provider, it sucks. But I don't think that there's any way to completely avoid it. We just have to remind ourselves that there are a lot of parents who prefer home-based daycares too and hope that eventually our spots will be filled with those families.