Would you ever contact another provider for information?

[clep]

I had a mother from down the road put her child in my care one day a week. The next week I found a day home ad with her number on it. I emailed her from an email she wouldn't know about and she sent me all of her information. She sent me my paperwork, with a few things changed. I printed out her ad and emails. I put it in her file. I was shocked when she showed up on her scheduled day with her child!!! I let her know why I was shocked and she denied everything....right until I showed her the emails and ad. She still tried to back peddle some before I told her to leave with her child. She left crying and I did not reimburse her any paid fees.

[playfelt]

Actually I have had a situation where a caregiver that was with an agency put her own child with me for 3 months using a space I had open due to maternity leave because she was able to take another agency infant. Once her own child turned 2 she took him back and that was fine because I knew upfront what the plan and reasons were. It was in her best interest to do that since it had been a long time since the agency had any children to place and she didn't want to go to the bottom of the wait list for the sake of 3 months.

I also know of caregivers that have put their own child into a dayhome 1-2 days a week as a way of getting them ready for school and separating from the parent, learning to follow directions from another adult, make more friends, etc. so it is more common than you might think.

[mom-in-alberta]

Bottom line, for me... be HONEST!! If you are a fellow provider, I will probably answer most, if not all of your questions. We are in this biz together!
But if you feed me some bull-poop, and I find out.... Not cool.
PS> I have found that I can find enough info online, by browsing other ads and sites of providers, that I have never gone "phishing" for info. If I needed to, I would contact them directly and be upfront. In fact, when I was opening up initially, I had a friend who also did childcare answer a number of my questions/concerns. That was, of course, before I found you lovely gals, LoL.