I received an email from another provider asking childcare questions like difference between licensed, registered, and certified.hours and days I'm open. Prices. Nothing specifically related to needing care. I recognize her from ads on CL and I always check people put on the internet before I reply and she owns a legally unlicensed daycare.

I replied and asked if she needed childcare(in her ads she states she has no children) and she responded" yes I have a son now please answer my questions."

Ordinarily if a provider is honest, I have no problem sharing info with them but what would you do since she is clearly lying? Call her out on it? Share the info she wants? Ignore it?

Ps I'm already a little poed at this provider since she only does infant care up the time they are mobile and all of her pictures show the babies in swings, bouncers, and strollers.

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I had a provider inquire about care and I googled her before reply in to find that out. I was upfront in my reply...."For the safety of myself and my clients, I always do a quick Google with potential clients, and I have discovered that you also run a home daycare. Are your inquiries because you are looking for care, or because you are looking to find what other daycares offer? I am happy to help, just looking for clarification. Thanks."

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I'd probably ask her straight out what information she wants and why she wants it & go from there. Dishonest = no info. Honest = helpful info.

Do keep in mind though (assuming that you're in the US) that it's against federal US law for providers who are in direct competition to discuss their rates with each other.

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I ignore, dont have time for this kind of people, if they want info they can go find it somewhere else.

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Delete. NEXT!

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Nothing is stopping her from getting the info by doing the work. She needs to be a grown up and get the info from the source, not you.

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If I wanted to help I would email a link to the website with the info, otherwise I would ignore it and block her email address.

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If she were honest I would consider answering the questions.

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Ordinarily, I'm happy to answer questions and help other providers in any way I can. Given the dishonesty and tone of her response, though, I would feel comfortable either ignoring her message or sending back a reply saying, "Sorry. I can't help you with that."

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This! I'd never respond to someone so rude.

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I have a son ≠ I need daycare. She's just trying to cover her a$$. So she can later say "I never said I was interested in using your daycare". Plus, she's a jerk.

"Sorry, can't help you." Delete.

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When she got demanding about answering the questions, I would have stopped being willing to share. Just a few days ago, at midnight, I got a message from someone asking about my openings and prices for her son. I told her I had no openings and gave her my prices anyway, telling her that she can contact me in the future if she wishes, to check again. Right after that, I clicked on our local childcare page and saw her ad about having openings. I was irate that someone would lie about needing care.

In the future, I decided, if a provider lies to me about needing care, I'm going to tell them that I am full, offer an interview anyway, and quote my rate as twice what it is, so that they can sit and wonder how they are charging so much less and still not getting calls.

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What a rude, snappy response. I wouldn't reply.

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Thanks guys!
I told her didn't have space for her and she can find the info she needs online.

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I wouldn't have helped either. Not that I don't like helping people, but not my competition, and people who are rude and dishonest. She can figure it out on her own like the rest of us.

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I have been burned by a provider who was nosy. She was always checking my adds out on cl to see how many openings I have, she would call me to ask if this particular client called me about dc. It got annoying. Delete the email and move on.
Deb

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She said she wanted her son to be more independent by going to a different daycare and was not dishonest.

I gave her some info and surprise surprise soon as I did, she said she'd get back to me IF she was interested in speaking further.

I blocked her, I'm tired of having my time wasted. I should have deleted and moved on in the first place

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If she stated in her ads that she doesn't have children, but tells you she has a son, she's being dishonest to someone!

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My family is thinking about possibly moving to Oregon (but my brother wants us to move to Washington ) and some of the regulation are a little confusing.

But I would be very careful when it comes to sharing prices because Tom Copeland says if someone find out that it could be considered "price fixing"- which is considered an illegal business practice. This says red flag all over it

Red Flag 1 She didn't state that she had a child to begin with (most parents love to brag about their children) and she's asking you about the differences between registered, licensed, and certified.
Red Flag 2 In her advertisement it states she has no children. She is obviously fishing.
Red Flag 3 If she is unlicensed now and asking these questions, she is probably looking into getting registered or licensed soon.
Red Flag 4 She seems very rude and impatient about getting this information with her response "yes I have a son now please answer my questions"

Honestly, even if she was seriously looking for care I would just not respond back to her and ignore any further communication because just Red Flag 4 alone would be a sign that she would be a very demanding client. That comment would make my blood boil and make me want to say "Next!"

If you don't want to seem rude you can ask her the age of "her son" and say "I'm sorry I have no openings for that age group right now" or you can make up something like you have a personal rule about caring for the children of other providers- maybe say you don't want it to affect your networking relationship or professional relationship with other providers. With the price thing, if you don't advertise your price just tell her that your licensor says you legally cannot give that type of information to other providers in your area (because of the fixed pricing thing).

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That I understand because my former boss did the same with her children when they were in preschool because some kids have a hard time sharing mommy (a few kids at the co-op have this issue, even for a 3 hour day every couple of weeks). But then why would she lie to her potential clients?

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I have no idea why she lied, and I don't want to stick around to find out!

Th only reason I can think of is from my personal experience.. I do not have any children myself and have had several parents say this is appealing to them since I won't be dividing my time between my children and daycare children since obviously my own children would take priority...


I also just found out that this provider is nearly twenty miles away so I am SERIOUSLY doubting that she is considering me as a provider
There are at least 50 providers between us.

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