10 Things Childcare Providers Could Do For Parents

Thinking about running your own daycare business from home?  It’s a great idea and will be successful for you when you know what you are doing.  Too often parents visit a daycare with the hopes of registering their child, only to find out the daycare center or home daycare is not what they planned. 

Parents have complained of daycare facilities and home daycares being unclean and smelly.  Children being fed a diet of sugary snacks between meals and in some cases didn’t bother to feed the children a meal when they asked “because the parents would be coming to get them soon.”  Lazy workers were uninterested in teaching the children as promised.  Older children (in home daycares) were allowed to interact with toddlers and babies (and in some cases bullied them.) 

Without proper planning when running a daycare, childcare providers may lose business or worse encounter lawsuits, so know your business and know your parent’s needs.  The following list is comprised of some things you can do to ensure your daycare is up to par.

One.  Provide the daycare’s license number without the parents having to ask.

Two.  Upon signing up, all updated daycare policies should be provided to parents including exactly how much your rates are without any sudden changes verbally.

Three.  Have receipts prepared before we get there.

Four.  Be sure the environment is clean.

Five.  Change babies’ diapers often.

Six.  Provide healthy snacks like they claim they do (cookies, candies, and cakes served before the parents pick them up are loaded with sugar and add to behavioral issues).

Seven.  Show and tell parents what their children did during the day besides the negative reports.

Eight.  When telling parents about any negative acts the children did, include what you did to discipline them.

Nine.  Document the children’s day what they ate, participated in, whether they were ill, etc. then give parents a copy.

Ten.  Notify parents in advance about anyone new who will be working with their children.

Share this article with childcare providers and hopefully your voice Mom will be heard.  In order to have a quality daycare business, one has to consider the feedback from others.  All four of my boys have been in childcare, although older now, I didn't forget the good care they received as well as the not-so good care.  Daycare memories can last a lifetime for children, so do think of this when dropping children off with caretakers.

Nicholl McGuire is the author of When Mothers Cry now available at Barnes & Noble.  She also maintains this blog, so do reach out for advertising space or blog sponsored posts.