I think advertising for a substitute on your Facebook is a great idea! Since (I'm assuming) you know your Facebook friends personally, you should feel safer about leaving them with your daycare kids and your home by themselves. You could post something like, "Substitute needed at my licensed home daycare. This would be an on call, as needed position. It would be a great job for a stay at home mom or college student who wants to make some extra money on occasion." Or you could make it more personal such as, "Hey guys, I need a little help at my daycare for days that I need to go the dentist/doctor, etc. If you'd like to make a little extra money working with the kids as a substitute for me, give me a call."

I have had 3 substitutes ( one at a time ) in my 25 years of doing daycare. I loved each one of them.

The first one was actually one of my daycare parents. She had previously been a nursing assistant who decided to try to get clerical work so she could work Monday - Friday, 9-5. However, she had no clerical skills, so she got fired or quit jobs almost every 2 weeks! When she left the job early, she'd come to get her child from daycare and we would get to talking. She'd naturally help with a child as I was working with another. I saw that she was good with kids and offered her a job working part-time for me. She worked for me for years and I never had a problem with her.

After moving, I kept having people call and ask if I was hiring. Typically those calls irritate me. But for some reason, I finally said that I might be hiring and scheduled an interview with some random 18 year old who was looking for work. She loved kids and loved doing arts and crafts (which I'm not so good at), so I hired her. She worked for a few months until she found a better paying job. I never thought I would hire someone I didn't know, but I never had a problem with her. However, since I didn't know her personally, I never left her alone in my house. I just had her work as a helper while I was home. I'm sure if she had not left for more money elsewhere, eventually I would have felt comfortable leaving her alone with the kids while I went out.

My third and current substitute is my daughter's best friend's mother. She was a stay at home mother who I got to know through our girls. After getting to know her a little and feeling comfortable that she wouldn't steal from me or purposely hurt the children, I asked her if she'd like to make some extra money working for me on occasion when I needed to go to the doctor's, dentists, or wanted to be able to watch my personal children's sports games. She's worked for me for about 6 years now.

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