Interesting "trend" in unlicensed care in my area

[Baby Beluga]

I have noticed a recent (6 months or so) interesting trend in my area.

Here you can have 4 children before you have to be licensed. 5+ you are required to be licensed.

Providers now are advertising that they have full time assistants and are upping their ratios. Without going through the licensing process. These assistants are usually family members, grandmas, etc. Many advertise they are retried teachers.

The best part? My community has been in a recent uproar over ratios for state licensed care being too high. Yet no one cares about the many over ratio illegally run daycares.

[Cat Herder]

Seems parents only want cheap or overregulated.

The regulations go out the window when cheap is an option for some. Overregulation means bragging rights for others.

A: "My provider only charges $100 per week for 14 hours of care per day."

B: "Oh, well, mine has 5 stars, a seven-year waiting list, 4 curriculums, 9 special diet plans, speaks 12 languages, has a PA on staff, submitted DNA to the crime lab, allows me to eat and take naps with my child every day, and has video cameras in her home so the state can watch her 24/7."