I don’t know how it is where you live, but I do know that where I live there is a shortage of day care. Many families in my town want to find quality child care so that both parents can work, but there are not nearly enough spots available in the local day care programs. If something similar is happening in your community, you may be able to find work helping one or more of the families that are caught in the day care crunch.
High quality, private child care is something that many parents would love to have for their children. Group day care can be a wonderful thing, but available openings at high quality day care centers can be very hard to come by, especially for families with multiple young children. Depending upon how many children you have and their ages, you may be able to expand your circle of care and attention to someone else’s child or children.
Before you begin to ask around about whether anyone is looking for child care, make sure that you know what you are able to offer as far as how many children of what ages you could care for. Check your state rules and regulations to see what kinds of child care arrangements must be registered and/or licensed, and then decide whether you will simply hold yourself out as a babysitter for one family or whether you would like to pursue a small registered and licensed home day care. Whether you will be babysitting or operating a home day care, it is important to carefully select your client or clients. You (and your children, if you have children) will be spending a lot of time with your clients’ children and you want to make sure that you are a good fit for them as far as parenting styles and general expectations of what their child will be doing all day.
One great thing about caring for someone else’s child or children is that you can care for their children in your home while caring for your own child or children. That said, both you and your potential client should spend some time together with all of the children to see what the group dynamics look like. If it appears as though your families are a good match, you and your potential client may want to talk with the children in a developmentally appropriate way about the child care arrangement so that they know what to expect. If you and your children find the right client or clients, both the parents of those children as well as all of the children involved can benefit greatly from the child care arrangement. Are you another family’s answer to the day care crunch?