How would you feel if your in home daycare bought a facility and planned on becoming a center?

That would frustrate me. The entire point of an in home day care (at least in my opinion) is that it IS NOT a center and the provider can provide more focused attention on each child in attendance. This has probably been something on their radar for a while now and I don't think it's fair to spring it on parents like that.

It's frustrating that it wasn't your choice and happened so quickly for sure! Honestly in my experience with both home daycare and daycare centers, I WAYYYYY prefer my center over a home. They have soooo many more regulations to follow to keep your kiddo safe. My center focuses so much on the age specific education and messy play, where the home we were at was pretty much survival mode with so many different aged kids. Also with the center there will probably be enhanced communication and visibility into what your kiddo is doing since there's more income.

As a daycare provider it sounds like they are moving up in their career so for them it’s a positive thing. Although you may not love the idea it takes a lot of hard work to go from inhome to a center. I would hope you would be happy and positive for the transition. And if not then I’m sure they would understand you not moving into the center and looking for another inhome.

@Michelle I was thinking this as well, however, I doubt this was something they decided on and completed just during the week of spring break. They of course have the right to move up in their career, and that's great, however... I feel like that vision should have been shared with the families they are currently serving. Like, some time in the near future, we plan to transition to a center, and we will notify you when we have a timeline for that. Thats what I would appreciate as a parent at least.

It depends on how they plan on doing things.do they have a wait list to where they can do this? How wil center be organized, etc.

@Megan I’m sure there is a lot of preparation and things that had to be done prior. Yes I get from a parent perspective of being disappointed but telling parents too early before everything was approved can also cause issues as well. June gives time for a parent to make new arrangements for a child if they are not comfortable with the transition. Daycare providers are lucky if a parent gives a two week notice to termination.

I think you all hit perfectly well why I have very mixed feelings about it haha. I am happy for them being able to move up, but I really wish there had been some previous communication, like hust mentioning at some point that they were even considering rather than springing it on us that it was a done deal

I'm not against centers - we considered both equally when we found this daycare. But centers mean more people and more germs. She's already so prone to getting sick, and she has pretty intense stranger danger. She's comfortable where she is and I think the change will be really hard on her. Not to mention, you hear so many horror stories about abuse in daycares, so I'm nervous about the potential of new / more staff.

I really want to know what the policies will be and how they're planning on running it. And I really want to see the facility before they officially make the move