Babysitter, Childcare Provider, Teacher, etc

[Ariana]

I also remember another post about this!

I'm an Early Childhood Educator by trade. It's my profession so I call myself that OR a childcare provider/Teacher. I have the training and skills to deal with children and teach them life skills. Teaching, for me, is about MUCH MUCH more than ABC's and 123's. It's about teaching resiliency, emotional regulation, assertiveness, communication, social, emotional and cognitive development etc. I am teaching children to become better adults each and every day. I am also teaching children how to break the habit of poor coping skills that they learn from their home environment.

[nannyde]

So Nan your the only one that calls themselves truly a babysitter. Why, don't you call yourself a Childcare Provider? Don't say because of the check memo thing.

I would think with all the years experience you have, your consulting business, and your blogs, etc. you would want your job title to be different. It just seems with your professions you would want a different title. Especially with what it seems you put into your program, training assistants, the food you provide, etc.

My main reason is that I want to be distanced as far as possible from the role of educator for children. It's another field to me and it's a field I see being emeshed into child CARE without the proper pay going towards funding the hard work it takes.

I'm very clear I do NOT do a developmentally appropriate program. I think there is a big market for it but the market for it is (here) primarily if it is for free. I can find clients to pay me a great wage for care/babysitting but I can't find clients to pay me a even greater wage for care/babysitting/ AND education. I look specifically for clients who want the care based program and are willing to pay top dollar for the high end of THAT.

I would gladly hire out a worker to offer a DAP program within IF I could find clients to pay both the high fee for care AND an additional fee for the DAP. I don't think there will be a market for that in my lifetime. I would offer a second language program, music program, karate program... etc.. IF I could have the funding in addition to CARE dollars.

So I stay within the title babysitter because it keeps the expectations simple and grounded in the CARE part of child care. CARE in a group is what I do best and get paid well for. It's what I write about... teach to other providers... and consult.

Disclaimer: When I say babysitter I'm not referring to putting my body on top of a child as a method of CARE. :: (Hope that works for ya Michael

[nannyde]

I also remember another post about this!

I'm an Early Childhood Educator by trade. It's my profession so I call myself that OR a childcare provider/Teacher. I have the training and skills to deal with children and teach them life skills. Teaching, for me, is about MUCH MUCH more than ABC's and 123's. It's about teaching resiliency, emotional regulation, assertiveness, communication, social, emotional and cognitive development etc. I am teaching children to become better adults each and every day. I am also teaching children how to break the habit of poor coping skills that they learn from their home environment.

Now THAT is a teacher.