Opening a Home Day Care - Warnings Before You Begin

Starting an in home day-care may seem like a good idea. Watching children can be very rewarding, but also requires a huge amount of patience. Watching children in your home requires commitment and tolerance. Without commitment and tolerance you will find yourself stressed out and ready to quit. Here are a few of the most stressful situations you need to consider in advance.

Damage to your home, furniture, and children's toys - no matter how much you try to contain the children to a play area, your home will suffer wear and tear from children. Children have a way of doing that to your home no matter if it is your child or someone else's. I have had kids color on walls, kick the walls with dirty shoes, break my child's toys, and tear up books. Your belongings must be expendable when you run a daycare center in your home.

Children who are violent - While you have the option of deciding to keep or get rid of children who misbehave, occasionally you will run into problems before a child is assessed. Biting, hitting, pushing, and other forms of violence against other children, including your own could happen at times. Sometimes, parents who have children that get thrown out of a public child care center, will ultimately search for a private care provider that might tolerate their child's bad behavior. You have to be prepared for these instances and have patience if something were to happen to your child.

Accidents that cause injury to a child and the possibility of a lawsuit - I was caring for a child once that fell off the seat of a picnic table and smashed his elbow on the concrete ground and broke his arm. He was in a cast for several weeks after the accident. The parent had to pick up the child and spent the afternoon at the hospital. Luckily, the parent did not file any formal complaint or try to sue me for her time and cost. They were very understanding about the accident. Accidents happen. Having insurance to protect you from incidents like this can help, but it won't take away the guilt you feel or the frustration it caused the parents.

Family dealing with noise, lack of privacy, and personal items destroyed - When you run a home daycare, your entire family will experience your stress. They also will have to deal with the noise and chaos that goes on in your home. Teens can't sleep late in the summer or when they have a snow day, taking vacation can be difficult, and sometimes their personal effects may get destroyed. You have to be prepared to deal with their feelings and frustrations and they may not like what you are doing.

Unpredictable pay - This was one of my biggest stresses in providing daycare in my home. Parents are there one day, gone the next, sometimes without warning. If a parent loses their job, moves, or decides to use another provider that is less expensive, you immediately have a change in salary. Once I had two parents quit at the same time and they each had 2 children. This resulted in the loss of over $400 per week. That is more than $1600 per month I lost at the drop of the hat. That was very dramatic for me and caused me to have to close my doors and quit my services.

There are a million things I can think of that are rewarding about providing child care, but also a ton of things that can stress you out. It takes a very special person to care for children in a meaningful way. I spent over 15 years providing quality care at a fraction of the cost of public centers only to feel taken advantage of by many of my clients. Some years the stress was worth it, and other years not so much. It is definitely a decision you should consider in depth before opening a home center.