Why Did You Start Your Own Daycare?

[squareone]

I had always hoped to be a stay at home mom when I had children. After we began our family though, that wasn't a financial possibility. When I was working outside the home I was only getting about 2 awake hours with my kids. It was making me very depressed and miserable so I had to make some changes. Since I have many years of informal childcare experience and still needed to bring in an income, I thought a home daycare would be perfect for me. I became licensed, opened my daycare, and haven't looked back.

[SilverSabre25]

I had planned to be an elementary school teacher...then I had my daughter while I was still in college full-time. My Dh and I struggled financially and when it was finally coming up to time for me to enroll in the Master's program (the only way to get a teacher's license at my university is to get an M.ED), we looked at our DD, at our finances, and at our life, and made the very difficult decision that one more year of me being in school full-time (more than 40 hours a week) was impossible. My mom was not willing to watch my DD for free full-time anymore like she had been and there was no way we could put her in childcare.

So, we bought a house and started a daycare--I knew it was the only job I could do with my qualifications (mother, Bachelor's in Early Childhood Development and Education) that would bring in anywhere NEAR enough money to help us survive.

And it's been the best decision ever...it's a hard job, and some days I can't exactly say that I love it, but it is more rewarding than anything else I could do.

[squareone]

I decided to take on SA's because that was the age of my kids, and because it would leave my days free to clean, run errands, and volunteer at the school. I feel like it's the best of both worlds.

I had a brief stint this year with little full timers and I must say BRAVO to those of you who do it all year. I have my ups and downs with my SA's, but they're definitely my preferred age group!

I plan to transition to school-agers next year when ds starts school. I only want to do before and after care so that I have my days free to do the same things that you mentioned. I thought about taking on one preschooler so that dd would have a companion during the day but then I realized that once I made the switch I would have time for playgroups!

[Zoe]

I was an elementary teacher (or was trying to be anyway) and I couldn't get a full-time job. After my second child was born, we were getting into serious debt with me not working more than sub hours and we made too much money to apply for state daycare assistance.

After the 4 year mark of trying to be a teacher, I went back to school for special ed. Still....nothin'.....

I've done unofficial daycare before with my friend's children when she was in a bind and I LOVED it. So after year 5 of no job, I decided to stop trying and apply my experience and education to daycare.

I'm still new to the daycare scene, but I absolutely love it. I do wonder how I'll feel when my own kids are older and no longer play with the daycare toys, and how that will affect my family. But for now, I'm good!