Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
Also, the lack of participation is something I will remember when others need help.
You’ve helped me so often (directly a few times, and just through reading your posts)! I def still feel like a newbie, despite 12 years in the job. Today was a rough “daycare.com-free-day”
Our in-home state regs don’t have this kind of... intimidating? formal?... language, but they are still over-reaching for our kind of care. I’ve gone toe to toe with our inspector (not that she can do anything), saying “we don’t want a PROFESSIONAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION kind of place! We want to open our home to parents who need to go to work....and provide SERVICES that enrich their children’s days and give them a safe, healthy place to be all day.” Yes, health and safety standards are needed. Our license should stand for something. But even our parents roll their eyes and don’t understand why the regs want our home to be exactly like the 120 (or 300!) kid center off the highway. They’ve said the licensing people are taking away THEIR choice of how they want their kids to experience baby/toddler/PS life! But the state says, once we start taking money for services, they have to be state-mandated services only. We can’t even terminate a bad fit, until we follow through on eight steps to rectify (including US setting up services and therapies for THEIR kids, and allowing evaluators into our daycare to watch the child and us interact).
I’m only the manager and not the owner. I don’t know how many more regs will pile on before I jump ship. If this were happening in my home, I would have bailed a few years ago.