It seems to me that everyone and their mother are opening home daycares lately. I don't mind that so much, I mean we all decided to do that at some point. What I do get aggravated about however is that the majority do no research and think its going to be this easy job where they stay home with their kids and that they will fill up immediately. Then they start and unless they have incredibly low rates ( a lot of them do because they have done no research) they are surprised when they don't fill up right away. Then comes the job aspect of it when they realize taking care of other tots is nothing like staying home with your own offspring. What irks me is because of their incredibly low rates are so appealing to some parents these parents leave their current setting to go to the new provider and then she either quits because the job was not what she expected or becomes more in line with other providers contracts/policies and prices. More often then not I see them quitting and the children suffer. First they are taken out of a perfectly good home daycare because price is at the top of their parents priorities and then they go to the provider until she quits or goes through enough bad experiences that she changes her policies. This vent started when I saw an ad for a new mom who is going to do daycare a town over from mine (no competition to me). She's charging $15 a day for one child and $25 for two. This is incredibly out of line for or area ( the norm is $25 a day and up). I sent her links to this site, another site and the state regulations site and informed her that her prices were very low. Her reply was that she could always change them later. Ugh...it's providers like this that give those of as that treat this like a profession a bad name. I guess I wish there was training you were required to attend before opening an unregistered or registered home to stop some people from opening a daycare on a whim.

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We have to have cpr&first aid/food handlers/child abuse & Neglect and 8 more hours of training. Thats why I'm wondering how many of the ones I see on craigslist are legal.

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This is the story of my area too. Its been really really REALLY flooded with newbies charging dirt cheap rates in the last 18 months to 2 years. I find a lot of the ads appalling to say the least but there are plenty of parents out there who have no idea what they are doing or they just want want cheap care. On the good side, I have one child here whose parents LOVE me because they compare me with their old provider, which works in my favor This other provider was just as you described....has no clue what home daycare should be about and I know this for a fact.

I have also noticed a lot of young moms trying to do home daycare.....20 to 25 years old. The age is not the problem but when a 23 year old claims to have 10 years experience, yes, I have a problem with that. It is misleading to parents to claim teen babysitting of a younger sibling as actual childcare experience

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I'm almost in my mid-twenties. I have a teenager, not a small child, so I don't do this job to "stay home with a baby." I have an ECE degree and planned to be a teacher, but then there was a hiring freeze.

That is an incredibly low rate! My eyeballs about popped out of my head.

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We have one in the area that is charging $1.50 an hour.

Another one $350 a month for full-time (24/7 childcare).

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its happening here too. People think this is a quick and easy buisiness. I love the ones that claim that they have years of experience watching their siblings and cousins.

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Don't worry you want the smart parents that see through that crap. The parents that have had to get a few quotes on work and know you never take the lowest bid. You want the parents that can recognize a quality program independent of the price. There will always be people who low ball you in life period. This is no different, they will wash out. Yes it sucks for the kids but if anything the parents should be alot smarter, unfortunately alot of them are not. I freaked when I first started researching too. But raised my prices I am higher than average but also provider a much better program. I have waiting list, people will pay for quality care. You don't need to fill a 100 positions just a few.

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