How Many and What Ages?

[SilverSabre25]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
2. Do you answer?
3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer?

[coolconfidentme]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
I had a lady yesterday ask, because her daughter was the only girl at her DC & she is scared of all the boys who were older.

2. Do you answer?
Yes..., sorta.

3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
I told her how many boys to girls we have & how many total were around her daughter's age.


4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
I say nothing at that point.

5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer
idk..., I would ask why they are interested.

[blandino]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
2. Do you answer?
3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer?

1. I think to get an idea of how many children are around their child's age. If they have a 2 year old, and and your other kids are 5,4, and 5 months - they might want more same age playmates. And parents of infants are always curious how many other infants you have in care. Theoretically with our license we could have 6, 4 month olds. Parents might not be into so many young infants.

2. Yes, I answer.

3. Sometimes I will say the kids who are closest to their child's age. Sometimes I will go through all of them "well, we have 3 3 year olds, and 3 2 year olds, etc.
Sometimes I give the ages of the oldest and youngest.

4. I would probably leave the to be termed children out. Or say that they are the ones leaving to make the opening that are interviewing for.

5. I think flat out refusing to answer would be bad. If I wanted to make it short, I would say, well - we care for 12 children from ages 0-3.

[butterfly]

I typically tell them the number I'm licensed for and sometimes I'll tell them an average number that I have on a particular day, but I don't usually give specifics. My numbers can vary a lot from day to day with drop in clients.

I find that parents tend to ask, because they want to make sure their child will have friends the same age (if an older child) and that their child will get enough one on one attention (especially for an infant).

I wouldn't refuse to answer, unless they were asking specific questions about the children. (family information, names, etc.)

[jenboo]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it? In my experience, they ask because they want to make sure there are other children near the same age as theirs.
2. Do you answer? Yes I do
3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers... I tell them how many I can have at one time (not how many are enrolled and then list the ages of the children. I explain that they are not all full time
4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family? I don't really mention anything. I might say that children come as go as thing change
5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer? Yes, It looks like you are hiding something. Why wouldn't you tell them??

answers posted above

[WImom]

I just say I am licensed for 8 children. Currently there are _____ enrolled. I usually leave it at that.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
2. Do you answer?
3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer?

"We can have 12 children and they are ages 2-5." That is all they really need. Sometimes they will ask,"Do you have other 3-year-olds?" Or whatever and I will say, "Yes! We do. "

[Blackcat31]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it? I would assume parents ask for 2 reasons...they want to make sure you have other kids their child's age so they have an age-mate and because someone somewhere put it at the top of the list of questions you (parents) should ask when looking for daycare.. :confused:

2. Do you answer? I answer f they ask

3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers... I usually say I am licensed to care for children age 6 weeks to age 10. I currently care for ages 10 months to age 5. Some of are full time and some are part time.

4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family? I am purposely vague because things DO change in this profession.

5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer? I think it would look bad to refuse to answer because your automatic assumption when someone refuses to answer something like that is that they have something to hide....kwim?

I'd go with being vague instead of not answering. If they push for an answer or try and get you to be more specific, I would tell them that I can't answer that because things change all the time. What my answer is today may not be my answer tomorrow.

I replied in blue above.

[spinnymarie]

I tell them what my license says, and note if any of the kids are around their child's age. (Oh we can care for 12 under school age, 4 kids under 15 mo, 2 more under 30 mo, 6 more under 6 - and 4 school age. We have two other infants right now!)
No reason to add anything else, unless you don't have any kids their age, and you feel like you need to reassure them that mixed-age playmates are the best

[spud912]

I think parents have an idea in their mind of how many children (and their ages) one person can "handle," so they ask to see if you have a reasonable number of children. To be honest, if I were looking for child care for my own children (and because the majority of home daycares in this state are legally unlicensed), I would ask this question to make sure the person is not going over the legal limit. Another reason is because I also would want to know if the ages coincide somewhat with my own children. For example, I would not necessarily want to enroll my 3 and 4 year old children with a home daycare that has 2 young infants currently enrolled (the addition of my two would make the daycare go to the legal limit); instead I would want them to go to a place that also has at least one other preschool-aged child.

I absolutely answer this question, but I am vague about my answer because things do change. I usually answer that I provide care for up to 4 children plus my own two children. Their ages range from 2 to 5.

As a parent, I would be suspicious if you refused to answer because it would appear to me that you might have more children than you should.

[Starburst]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
Well one of the reasons maybe that they want to make sure their child isn't one in their age group so they can have some friends their own age. Another thing is that they might want to make sure that you are in accordance with local licensing regulations; which I think is a very reasonable and well informed question. One of my teachers said there was an illegal unlicensed home daycare a few cities over a couple years ago that had 2 adults and 22 infants (which are very hard spots to find) in a small 1 bedroom apartment (they were in high chairs all day and they only charged $10/day). In our state, if you are unlicensed you are only allowed to care for one child other than your own and even a licensed large family child care doesn't allow more than 2 or 3 children under the age of 24 months.

2. Do you answer?
If they asked and I had nothing to hide, yes. I would only not answer if they asked about the names, the races, or the family dynamics of the children.

3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
"As of now I currently have..... enrolled". If I have a lot of part timers then I may mention that some are part time and some are full time.

4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
unless they asked again, no need to bring it up every time someone leaves. That's also why I would say "as of now..." in the initial answer, at that point of time because it can always change; or if I knew that the family was going to be done before they leave I wouldn't mention them.

5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer?
I think it would look suspicious, like you got something to hide.

[MissAnn]

I had one parent complain that her son is talking baby talk. The dad. blames it in the fact that we have 5 girls and only 2 boys. Always daycare's fault......although I've never heard him use baby talk.

[KidGrind]

1. What is the point of asking this? Why do prospective parents ask it?
2. Do you answer?
3. HOW do you answer? It looks bad until you understand that some are part-timers...
4. If you answer, what do you do if some of them are going to be termed if/when you get a new family?
5. Does it look bad to refuse to answer?

1. The point is they are trusting you with their child. Their should be some transparency. They may not want the child with a provider with 5 other children in care.

2. I always answer there is nothing for me to hide. Currently my answer is I have 5 full-time and 1 part-time.

3. I typically have 4 or 5 children in care Monday thru Friday.

4. Recently a DCP seemed to interrogate me about the addition of the new enrollments. I told her I am within regulation. If she thinks I am no longer a right fit for her child, she can e-mail, text or write me a two weeks notice. I receive calls for infants often. No client has a right to limit your income & choose how you run your business as long as you are operating within the appropriate guidelines.

5. I think it does. Honest and upfront without breaking other clients’ confidentiality is the best route.

[SilverSabre25]

Thanks everyone. I was just asking because I've been getting this question a lot and the conversation is always over after I answer...and it's annoying. The people around here want teeny tiny groups (I'm trying to fill my last two spots so I'll have six daycare kids) but also want to pay a pittance for it. It's really really frustrating.

I'll change my answer to something slightly more vague...I like the "I can have up to six kids at a time and right now I have ages 1-5, with two spots open." That should be good enough for most reasonable people, right?

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Thanks everyone. I was just asking because I've been getting this question a lot and the conversation is always over after I answer...and it's annoying. The people around here want teeny tiny groups (I'm trying to fill my last two spots so I'll have six daycare kids) but also want to pay a pittance for it. It's really really frustrating.

I'll change my answer to something slightly more vague...I like the "I can have up to six kids at a time and right now I have ages 1-5, with two spots open." That should be good enough for most reasonable people, right?

I would imagine so. If you are getting that question during interviews, I would have a paper printed off with the benefits of a small GROUP (not one on one nanny care!) that they can take home and re-read.