Neighbor Family Childcares: Can It Work?

[spedmommy4]

I am moving to Oregon in a few short weeks. (A large suburb of Portland). The housing market is really tight so we made an offer on an amazing house in a great neighborhood sight unseen. Our offer was accepted and we are buying the house.

We took a mini trip to see the house yesterday and there is a family childcare next door. There isn't much information online about the owner. The only thing I was able to find out was that it's registered and accepted all age groups.

My program has traditionally been preschool, serves more kids with special needs because of my background, and I'm preschool only. Am I in for a neighbor feud in I plan to reopen? I need some perspective.

Note: there's good space (a wall of trees) between the neighbors and we have a huge RV pad for parking so I don't see it creating extra headache for the neighborhood in general.

[Thriftylady]

I am guessing it would work fine. You will have different types of clients. Maybe you could work together in some ways filling spots and such.

[Unregistered]

Introduce yourself. Bring blueberry pie. Let them know what you do and that there are possibilities for cross-referrals if they are interested. Observe reactions.
Then just be a good neighbor and see how things develop.

I have done child care for years, with 3 or 4 providers within a block of me. We backed each other up on closed days, went on field trips together, met at the parks for picnics, etc. It was great. (I am the only one who stayed in child care, though the others had 12-17 year runs.)

It could go bad on you if they feel threatened, but then hopefully you each just go about your business.

[Indoorvoice]

My neighbor opened up a daycare next to me and didn't say anything. I reached out to her and congratulated her and she ended up asking me a bunch of questions. Now we share materials and referrals often. It works well because she offers different services than I do and we have someone to vent to. I think opening up the lines of communication is key.

[Blackcat31]

There is a daycare right next door to me, another one across the street and another 3 houses down.

All of us are in different stages of this career/profession and none of us have suffered loss of business due to the others.

There is only so many kids we can each take and there is a right and wrong fit for everyone so it's nothing I would worry too much about.

Congrats on the purchase of your new house and the impending move! happyface

[KiwiKids]

I live a few doors down from another daycare and we work with different age groups and refer families back and forth because our programs are so different. No stress between us at all!

[sharlan]

I would introduce myself and let her know that while you are opening a daycare you will be marketing towards preschool and special needs.

My neighbor opened a daycare. I didn't feel any competition because they marketed Asian families. They lasted 2 years before shutting down.

[spedmommy4]

Thank you all. I feel so much better about all this. My DH kept saying he thought reopening with one right next door was a bad idea. I am relieved that so many on here have experienced the same situation and it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

[Nisaryn]

I have a daycare next door, she does before and afterschool care only so it works. There is another just a few houses down, she does only 2 - 5 only so it works as I'm infant only. I haven't been open long enough to "exchange kids" but we all get calls and do referrals to each other all the time. And sometimes people will ask me, "What do you think of ___? I was considering looking at her daycare?" and I can tell them how I know that the provider personally and think she is great (which isn't a lie, both my neighbors are awesome). So it can really work out! I'd just go introduce yourself.

[AmyKidsCo]

I am guessing it would work fine. You will have different types of clients. Maybe you could work together in some ways filling spots and such.

Maybe you can work together - she can do the younger ones then transfer preschoolers to you, and you can refer any younger ones that call you to her.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

If you approach her kindly and say you will refer those who are younger than preschool age her way I think it could work out beautifully!

I offer a special program and have made friends with a woman who offers almost an identical program a couple of streets away. It started off rocky but has turned out fine.

[Unregistered]

Honestly, I would just open. What if she is opposed to this? She either can't so and if she did, you would open anyway. I would just open. If she wants to colab or be friendly, it's on her. I've had this happen to me several times. Not next door, but close enough. As I said, I feel a lot of the back and forth was patronizing. Like if I said "Go catch fire" would they have not opened? No. So, it was a lot of phony conversations. Here due to Head Start, we all sort of fight for the same kids. I'm not saying she will feel this way, but I did.