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I originally decided to open my home daycare when I had my second child and realized the cost of daycare for 2 little ones was not worth the cost of working full time and signing over most of my check to a daycare facility. I left my corporate job that I had been with for over 10 years and bravely took on the challenge to start a home business that would bring in some extra income and help me continue to build my skills while at home with my kids. After 10 long years of being a home daycare provider, I recently decided to shut my doors. It was a hard decision that I pondered over and struggled with for almost a year but I knew it was important for me to change the path of my life. Since I was a provider for so many years, I wanted to share Why I Stopped Being a Home Daycare Provider to give people an understanding of some things that providers that run their own home business are faced with.
Throughout the time that I was a home daycare provider, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of quality time with little ones and I was able to meet some really awesome parents. In addition, I learned a lot about raising kids, childhood illnesses, how to treat certain ailments, how to make fresh baby food and a lot more. So even though I had a great time while I cared for kids in my home, I knew that I had to eventually stop and here are a few reasons why:
- My house was no longer ‘my house’. Since I did not believe in containing my daycare kids to 1 room but instead allowed them in different areas of the house, I ended up having toys, baby mats, cabinets filled with diapers and extra clothes, and a lot more. My decor no longer looked good because it was always mixed with colorful baby swings and entertainers.
- My girls and husband wanted their room back. As a daycare provider, I gave each child their privacy and let them sleep in separate rooms during naptime, so there was a pack and play in each bedroom. This caused frustrations for my husband when he would come home to work and wasn’t able to go in his room and it also caused my girls to be frustrated because the crib took up a lot of space in their rooms.
- It was time for me to put my kids first. Over the years, I was fully dedicated to my daycare parents. It was very rare that I took days off and I can count on one hand how many times I asked for early pickup or late drop off so I could watch an event at one of my kid’s school functions. I was very thankful that my husband was able to take off of work to attend field trips and class parties, but it got to the point that my kids would beg me to go on their field trips and they never understood why I was committed to working and not taking off.
- I didn’t allow myself to have sick days. If I called in sick or if I needed to take a day off and it was last minute, I knew I had to disappoint and inconvenience a lot of parents and that was not who I was. More times than not, I would go to work sick.
- It sucked when parents decided not to pay me and then all of a sudden pull their kids from my daycare, only later to run into me at Walmart and act normal as if nothing had ever happened. Even though this only happened 1 time during my profession, it really sucked.
- It sucked when parents would delay my weekly payment and pretty much force me to ask them for it after a week or two had passed. If you are a childcare provider, read The Secret to Asking for Your Paycheck in Home Daycare.
- Too often I felt like I would work so hard in helping the kids grow, develop and achieve certain tasks only to have some parents not work with me and have the child revert.
- When you are a home daycare provider, you work more than 8 hours a day. Oftentimes, parents will arrive earlier than expected and/or pick up their child, without warning, later than expected. I was, honestly, tired of working more than 40 hours a week and not getting paid for it.
- It was time for me to get back into the work world before I got too much older. I have always had a fear of looking for a job outside of the home and struggling because of my age and the amount of time I had been out of the workforce. Read What No One Tells You About Reentering the Work Force.
When I opened my home daycare I knew that I would not be a childcare provider forever. I knew that one day I would have to close my doors and begin a new chapter in my life. To be honest, I never knew how long I would be a caregiver and it was always hard for me to imagine not being a childcare provider. When I finally made the decision to seek employment outside of my home, it was hard, but I know that I made the right decision.
You might also enjoy:
How to Start an In-Home Daycare
The Harsh Reality of Being a Home Daycare Provider
10 Ways You Can Help Your Child’s Home Daycare Provider
What Not to Do When You Drop Your Child Off at Daycare
Questions to Ask A Daycare Provider Before Hiring Them
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