Newbie Ready To Start Daycare

[Wasiris1]

Hello ladies... I am new to this forum and just wanted to introduce myself to you all and ask a couple of questions...

Well first of al I am 26 years old, my husband and I got married when we were 18, our oldest son is going on 9 this month, our daughter is 5 and our youngest son is 9 weeks old I am currently on my maternity leave from work. I took off until baby turns 16 weeks. I am a bank operations supervisor (not in love with my job but enjoy it) I also go to school, my major is child and adolescent spychology.

For the past 4-6 weeks I have been endlessly interviewing with different daycare homes and centers, I have met great providers with excellent recommendations but nothing/ no one seems to convince me to leave my baby boy 8.5 hours a day for 5 days a week. In the past my other children only stood with my mother Or mother in law, they did not go into a preschool until age 3..... Well back to this topic.... My husband asked me about two weeks ago if I would consider staying home with our son for a year ( we are 100% bf)... I said I would think about it, but deep inside I was thrilled being that due to financial difficulties and being young parents I was not able to stay home with our other children, I had to finish H.S with or first and work & go to college with our second... Well about two weeks ago I decided something that I had contemplated over and over in my pregnancy... I WILL OPEN A DAYCARE

I did a total of about 5 weeks or so volunteer work in my daughters preschool and I was so happy with the little ones...

Now I am not looking to start in my home, I want to either rent an apartment or lease a location... In CT a group home daycare can have uP to 12 children as long as you stick to the ratio, I will have an FT assistant from the start and if needed later on I will also hire a PT assistant. My husband who is a contractor will be doing all the wear and tear work and also building some shelves and such... I am looking forward to this, last week I started taking classes for my certificate in child education, I should have that cert by this time next year and should have my bachelor degree in child and adolocent psychology by the end of next year....

I am very excited to sart this new journey

Q: How many of you work outside of your home? Started renting a place or leasing a center? I want to keep both daycare and my home separate ..

I am very excited, please give me any advise, I am aware this is going to be very hard, but I am looking forward to it :-)

[daycare]

welcome to the form...I dont have any help with your question, but just wanted to say welcome and hello.

[Wasiris1]

Thank you so much :-) I am so excited to get to know all of you :-)

welcome to the form...I dont have any help with your question, but just wanted to say welcome and hello.

[MrsB]

Welcome!happyface I am not new to daycare but kind of a newbie to this forum.

I do in home care, so I can't be of much help to you there.

Off the top of my head a few recomendations...

BlackCat has a separate daycare from her home and she is always an excellent resource regarding anything daycare.

Also I highly recommend NannyDe's blogs regarding hiring assitants. For that matter, all of NannyDe's blogs or advice is usually spot on.

[Wasiris1]

Welcome!happyface I am not new to daycare but kind of a newbie to this forum.

I do in home care, so I can't be of much help to you there.

Off the top of my head a few recomendations...

BlackCat has a separate daycare from her home and she is always an excellent resource regarding anything daycare.

Also I highly recommend NannyDe's blogs regarding hiring assitants. For that matter, all of NannyDe's blogs or advice is usually spot on.

Thank you so much for the advise, I will be on the look out for them :-) And thanks for welcoming me in to the forum :-)

[Michael]

Welcome to the forum!

[cheerfuldom]

Welcome to the forum. This is a great place to start for ideas and advice. I think your plans are very ambitious and just from my point of view, I would recommend getting some hands on experience if you have the luxury to do that first. Even getting a part time job at a daycare or keeping just one or two kids in your own home for a few months before you begin your own daycare could provide a lot of insight. Like I said, I think jumping into owning a business outside the home, hiring assistants and balancing a newborn with a new business is a lot at once. I realize that you are doing this to stay with your own child but it is important to consider that your baby WILL be in daycare with this plan. You will be there with him but it will not be even close to the same as being a SAHM. That is something that will be important to come to terms with because it sounds like you will need a good number of kids to keep the property maintained, assistants paid, etc. Anything can be done with enough hard work but I usually recommend starting small if possible.

[Wasiris1]

😢

Welcome to the forum. This is a great place to start for ideas and advice. I think your plans are very ambitious and just from my point of view, I would recommend getting some hands on experience if you have the luxury to do that first. Even getting a part time job at a daycare or keeping just one or two kids in your own home for a few months before you begin your own daycare could provide a lot of insight. Like I said, I think jumping into owning a business outside the home, hiring assistants and balancing a newborn with a new business is a lot at once. I realize that you are doing this to stay with your own child but it is important to consider that your baby WILL be in daycare with this plan. You will be there with him but it will not be even close to the same as being a SAHM. That is something that will be important to come to terms with because it sounds like you will need a good number of kids to keep the property maintained, assistants paid, etc. Anything can be done with enough hard work but I usually recommend starting small if possible.

My husband feels the same way, he does not want me to go into this business until our son is at least one, considering that he is a Breastfed baby. I am very excited about this, I guess I may have to start later on. I have my aunt who offered we buy an established center, but it's not something I am ready to do. I would like to get things settled before I take any children, as in have a place and have the furniture, books, CDs, posters curriculum all learning and daycare materials before opening my doors. At some point we will feel the difference in my income not coming in.

I guess your right about me taking one or two little ones in for the experience but it would be more of a baby sitting job, I don't think my husband and oldest son would want our place turned into a daycare (I know they won't) we don't really have the space which is why I would need to rent out. I could also look into a PT position at a center mean while I get situated .... Maybe for the summer time .. That would keep me busy while the other two are in camp ...

[cheerfuldom]

I breast feed my babies too and it is very hard with the small group that I have (7 was the most I ever had) and I do have an assistant as well. None of my kids were exclusively breast fed because it was just too much for me to sit down so much to nurse, forget about on demand feeding! They all had formula too. I'm not saying that it cant be done but if breast feeding is very important priority to you, it may be a conflict of interest because it is very challenging to stop what you are doing and focus on just one kid when there are a dozen more to watch.

[Blackcat31]

Welcome to the forum!!

As Mrs B mentioned, I do run my child care out of a separate home in which I do not live. I have been doing child care for 20 years (October).

If I can be of any help, please don't hesitate to ask!

[Wasiris1]

I breast feed my babies too and it is very hard with the small group that I have (7 was the most I ever had) and I do have an assistant as well. None of my kids were exclusively breast fed because it was just too much for me to sit down so much to nurse, forget about on demand feeding! They all had formula too. I'm not saying that it cant be done but if breast feeding is very important priority to you, it may be a conflict of interest because it is very challenging to stop what you are doing and focus on just one kid when there are a dozen more to watch.

Yes, breastfeeding is essential for me, its the reason why I took such long maternity leave from my job. I didnt get to Breastfeed my other two because I was away from morning until 4pm due to school. I am glad I found this forum, even if I decide to change my plans around to benefit my family I do hope to learn a lot from this forum. I figured that it may take a while to fill all spots and having an assistant will give me the chance to enjoy my son who should be about 8 months by then and also enjoy a small group. That's the main reason I wanted to hire an assistant from day one... I guess this is a reality check...

How hard is it to start a daycare mod school year? Isn't it harder to fill spots? I love across the street from my children school and was hoping to rent an apartment two houses down from my own, it will become available July 1st...

Howuch should I budget to get started? I was thinking about having the 2-3 sleep in cots and the little ones in cribs, or how do you do it? I was thinking on having 4 small cribs and the rest cots in the bedroom.... What are best cots or mats? My daughter did sleep in a cot at her preschool but I found it hard, but the kids loved it...

[cheerfuldom]

lets back up....are you familiar with your state regulations for childcare? That may greatly affect the size of the property you have to get, the hours your assistant has to work, the number of kids and ages you can have....I'd start with that

Also, figure out the deal with renting and childcare...is this legal in your state? do you have to tell your landlord first? can they evict you if they find out after the fact?

[Wasiris1]

Just to let you know, I am responding from my cell, and this darn auto correct keeps on changing my words...

[hpresley86]

Just a tip, before you go through all the trouble and money of finding a separate place and renting it, you might want to check your state regulations. We have a detached car garage that we were going to close in and build on to, for my daycare. After we planned everything out, and started putting money into it, I found out my state doesn't license if it is not attached to the house that you reside in. You might want to do the research before putting to much thought into it just to be sure you can do it.

[MrsB]

Check your county, local, HOA, regs too. Not just state!

A provider collegue who was getting licensed here in the same county as me lived in a town right next to mine. She went through all the licensing requirements training, had her inspection, just was waiting on the firemarshal inspection. Fire marshal said okay where is your local use permit? She didnt know she needed one, but apparently she needed one from her little town (about 3000 people) . NO ONE ever said anything to her about it! No problems she goes down to the local city governnment to get a use permit. $10,000 dollars and it has to be renewed every 5 years!