Tips for Starting a Home Daycare

Starting a home daycare is an exciting venture. Kids are very important to the future of the world.  A person who does not have the heart to be around children every day should not go into this business. It is not the type of business a person should start just to make money. The person looking to start a daycare should have patience, understanding, kindness and again a lot of patience. 
The reason the home daycare provider needs patience is for dealing with the children, but also patience is needed for dealing with the parents. The parents can be a handful sometimes. Some parents are very picky and never satisfied. They find everything to complain about how the provider treats their children. On the other end some parents do not show any concern and the provider might have to give parenting tips to the parents. There might be a parent that brings the child dirty and hair not combed every day. The provider can let the parent know that they have to clean the child up in the mornings and it would be appreciated if it was done before the child was brought to the daycare. Some people would suggest just stay out of the situation and keep cleaning up the child everyday but the child's health is at stake. There is a risk of the parent getting upset and not bringing the child back to the day care. There is also a chance that bringing it up can help that person's situation. It is good for the childcare worker to discern in the situation what to do. 
The child care provider should have a policy in place. The policy should include the vision statement of the daycare. The statement should tell why the daycare was started and the goal of the child care provider. The policy should also include the cost, days and hours of service. A description of services should be included so parents know what to expect. If the daycare provider is going to provide meals, a nutritious meal plan would be appreciated by the parents. Vacation and holidays should be announced well in advance to let the parents make alternative arrangements. It is very important to have the parents sign and date that they agree to the policy. The agreement should include that the parents know the policy is subject to change. This is important because the daycare provider might want to change prices or add something else as the business grows. 
After the person has established a policy for the daycare they should get licensed. Getting licensed will allow the daycare to get certain assistence from the government, like the cost of some meals. Parents sometimes prefer the daycare center that is licensed. Each state has different  rules about getting licensed. The person should contact their state Department of Human Services to get more information. Every state has a website that is very helpful. 
Shaping the lives of little children can be very rewarding. A child care center is a great way to reach out to children but there is a lot of behind the scenes paperwork. The paperwork, policies and licensing are worth it when the provider sees the smiling faces of the children.