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Okay bloggie friends, your advice is needed! I am NOT happy right now, but I’m trying to stay calm and not overreact. I’m curious what y’all think.
- We currently send Stella to a licensed in-home daycare 3 days / week (+ Nana watches her one day and I’m home on Fridays). This is the only licensed daycare in the county.
- Licensed is good because it means (1) they’ve jumped through the education & safety stuff necessary to get licensed, and (2) I can claim up to $3k for one kid and $6k for two kids on my taxes under the “Child & Dependent Care Credit.” This is huge since we currently pay around $6,500 for one kid and will be paying about $9,500 for two.
- She is licensed for 6 daycare kids + her two kids (ages 8 & 11) who have thus far been there after school & on summer break. Of the six daycare kids, 2 can be under the age of 2, the rest are generally toddler aged. She currently has 3-4 daycare kids there each day (1 is full time and the rest are like Stella and come 2-3 days each).
- Starting in March or so, my infant will start there. Starting in May, another infant will be starting there. She says it will be rare that she has 6 daycare kids there at the same time because of most kids’ part time status.
- There are no other options for licensed daycare available. Even un-licensed, I don’t know of any good options in town! I have one friend (WOHM) who is considering quitting her job & staying home who has offered to watch my kids (for a fee) if that happens, but that’s a very up in the air maybe-someday sort of thing right now. I’d also have to run the numbers on how losing that tax credit would affect our bottom line if I sent the kids somewhere like that.
- My daycare provider has two elementary aged kids. About a month ago she mentioned in passing about being unhappy with the public school system and that she was considering homeschooling her kids. I told her at that time that the idea was concerning to me because of the dual time commitments involved with homeschooling & daycare. Nothing else has ever been said. Today I found out via a Facebook post on her wall that she is switching to homeschooling them, effective immediately.
- I immediately wrote her and expressed my concerns about this. Here was her response: “It is mostly online, with a teacher helper. Most of the work they do does not require hands on by me. The subjects that do require help we will do at nap time or after daycare hours. We have had the kids do sample work and it is perfect for doing daycare and homeschool too. The curriculum is time4learning if you want to look it up. I will also be doing more with the 2 and 3 year olds (colors shapes, body parts, animals and sounds etc. and letters and #’s as they progress.) don’t worry, my job comes first from 7:30-5:30 and I would not take this on if it meant that I could not be there for my daycare kiddos. There might be a question here or there that I have to answer for [my son] but it is geared towards their level and helps them along on the internet. The program is more of a “work at your own pace” with certain goals everyday. They focus on the children navigating and answering questions on their own. With a lesson from a “teacher” at the beginning of each new lesson.”
- She also indicated that her husband was probably being laid off in December, so he would be around to help the boys with homeschooling. Honestly, from what I’ve seen of her husband, I highly doubt he would be of any help. He’s a nice guy, but he has spent the vast majority of the time Stella has been going there being laid off, in-between jobs, and sitting on the couch, basically just being another mouth to feed and kid to clean up after.
I’m beyond frustrated this wasn’t cleared with me beforehand. As a paying daycare parent, I feel I was owed the courtesy since this does affect the number of children in the house at all times, and no matter what she thinks, this has got to involve more of her time and attention being directed towards her own children & the homeschooling program.
She doesn’t seem to think this will affect her daycare in a negative way at all.
What I’m wondering is this:
- Would you be upset about your daycare provider doing this without running it by you? Or do you think it’s none of my business?
- Do you think it’s possible for her to have time to properly take care of both of these commitments? She seems to think the hands on stuff can be done during nap times & weekends – I just don’t think that’s realistic. How often will all the kids nap at the same time (especially once there are newborns in the house)? How likely is it that both of her kids will be incredibly self-motivated and not need help from her? However, I’ve never been homeschooled, so maybe I’m way off base with my concerns?
I’m honestly not looking for a bunch of people to back me up in being upset about this. The reality is that I don’t really have any other options for daycare, so this is kind of it. I’m not too stressed about how this will affect Stella (and yes, it could be a good thing with the additional learning in the house), but I am definitely concerned about how this will affect the time, care, and attention my newborn receives.
Thoughts? Opinions?