Any advice on becoming a daycare provider?

[lizzieoak]

I hate working in an office. I hate the ugliness of the office, the lack of natural light, the pettiness of some of the staff, the casual rudeness of a lot of the staff (most of the women, none of the guys), being tied to a computer all day, not having any choice about how to order my tasks, and so on. I'm just so tired at the end of the day. I don't get home till 6:00, so don't see a ton of my wonderful teenager. The house is a bit of a mess as I'm too knackered to clean properly beyond hoovering, tidying and cleaning the toilet, sink and tub.

I miss my home and my neighbourhood and miss having people talk to me nicely and deciding how my day goes.

I've been thinking a little about taking care of little ones. I was rarely bored when I was a SAHM (got bored at the park). If I had 2.5 kids to care for I'd make the same as going to work.

Pros being that I'd be working w nicer people, get to order my day a bit more than now, have nice conversations, be at home (or possibly theirs), go for walks, read them books, do art, have them help me bake. What I did w my own basically.

I've checked rates but am not sure about demand where I live (city in Canada).

Cons would be maybe chasing parents for $, getting licensed, child-proofing the house, worrying about the little ones safety & happiness, not being able to get pension credits for my remaining years.

Right now I'm thinking of trying to tough out this contract and hope for 2 more to get to the point where I'd be getting a tiny pension off them, every month for life after age 65. After 2 years quitting and taking in kids.

Anyone who has done this who can tell me why or why not?

I do like (most) kids. I enjoy their enthusiasm and curiosity. I'm a pretty calm person and don't mind saying the same thing a million times. I'm walking distance to 3 preschools and when my kids went to preschool (age 3-5) quite a few kids were dropped off for half a day by their caregivers.

I didn't want you to feel that no one was going to respond to you. I can't advise you about the specifics for setting up as Canadian regulations are different to those here in the U.K. I am a registered childminder (for that read home based childcare provider) and we have to go through a fairly rigorous registration process including training and DBS (Police) checks before we are registered to provide care. You also need to factor in additional costs for running the service, I generally reckon on about 30% of my income going on running costs, e.g. Extra heat & light, fuel, paper, resources, outings etc.
I would recommend you research how to go about being registered/licensed in your home Province/City depending on what your regulations are and chat to other providers to find out what they recommend. Go about it in a friendly way and be up front about considering registering. If they are all extremely busy they will probably welcome a newcomer to the neighbourhood, but if competing for work they might not be as friendly as they would be worried about more competition for work & a newcomer therefore potentially affecting their already established businesses.
Good luck

badger do you have to self-fund outings and other incidentals from your own pocket? Can you recoup any of those costs from the parents?

Thanks Badger. I had a quick look & I think being licensed involves a criminal records cheque (probably vulnerable sector class) - I've had loads of these done before so that's fine & they're cheap - and there'd be a home visit (I'd need to child proof). Maybe take a first aid course.

I often have to leave the heat on all day for the downstairs tenant (we share a heating syatem) so not much extra there. Most of our outings would be walking (pushing a pram) distance.

I meant more emotional pros and cons? As I said, I like little kids (apart from a scant few who are mean-spirited). I prefer being at home to going out to work & don't require loads of adult interactions. But wonder if I'm forgetting negative bits to hanging out w kids all day?