is there demand on infant home daycare in Rockville?

[Anonymous]

A veteran of childcare force here. I am considering converting my townhome into a small in-home daycare, 4-5 infants and toddlers max, for 2 experienced superstar caregivers. Will apply for license, of course. Is there demand for this service? How would people find me?

[Anonymous]

Of course there is. Advertising in local FB and listserve.

[Anonymous]

There’s lots of demand. I found my in-home by searching on CareLulu.

[Anonymous]

To have just 4-5 kids seems such a nice small size group, but the tuition has to be pretty high to make it work, OP, so not sure if you will be able to find parents willing to pay more than average for the area.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to those who responded. I was thinking of charging around $700 a week with home made meals provided, for 9,5 hr day. Vegan option would be included. Does it seem reasonable to DCUM parents? With small group, it would be almost like a oversized nanny share, not a real "daycare". I think it will work for the parents who are very covid cautious but still want their child to socialize. I would appreciate any thoughts from parents living in Rockville/Potomac. Others, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to those who responded. I was thinking of charging around $700 a week with home made meals provided, for 9,5 hr day. Vegan option would be included. Does it seem reasonable to DCUM parents? With small group, it would be almost like a oversized nanny share, not a real "daycare". I think it will work for the parents who are very covid cautious but still want their child to socialize. I would appreciate any thoughts from parents living in Rockville/Potomac. Others, too.

For reference, we paid $375 per week for our infant at an in-home daycare with homemade meals and 10 hr days. I think you’ll find most parents looking at in home daycares will balk at that cost. I agree it might appeal to parents gravitating toward a nanny share, but I’m not sure how you would market that and find those families.

[Anonymous]

They must have 12 kids, at that rate.

[Anonymous]

That is well above market rate in Rockville even for a center. It's $3,000 per month. If you search for in-home daycares in Rockville on the Maryland Family Network's search tool you'll see this is about double the rate of what most in-home daycares charge. You may want to talk to Monday Morning Moms about their service for connecting providers with families.

For this to work you'd really need to play up the ratio and the experience and education (do they have bachelors and/or masters degrees?) of the caregivers. Even so I do think it will be too much. Not saying it's unreasonable (I think child care providers should be paid a lot more than they are), it's just not in line with the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They must have 12 kids, at that rate.

I would encourage you to do a general search on a website like Carelulu to see what the going rates are in Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A veteran of childcare force here. I am considering converting my townhome into a small in-home daycare, 4-5 infants and toddlers max, for 2 experienced superstar caregivers. Will apply for license, of course. Is there demand for this service? How would people find me?

Are you one of the superstar caregivers?

[Anonymous]

The two challenges here are the price is far above market and you are in a townhome, which will make it even less likely parents want to pay premium prices since you don't have a large yard/playground for kids to run around in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A veteran of childcare force here. I am considering converting my townhome into a small in-home daycare, 4-5 infants and toddlers max, for 2 experienced superstar caregivers. Will apply for license, of course. Is there demand for this service? How would people find me?

What do you mean you’re a veteran of childcare?

Just so you know, your proposed rates are higher than the centers, and about double of what in-home daycare‘s charge. Even with two superstar caregivers that is a very big leap for most people to make. If you want to take up to four infants both of the caregivers will need to do the full 45 hours of the basic childcare training plus all of the other required coursework.

If you want to serve meals you will need to adhere to the comar regulations for food and if you want to be reimbursed for a portion of the meals you will need to apply for the food program. There are very strict guidelines about what you can and cannot serve.

There is a high demand for infant child care (under 2).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A veteran of childcare force here. I am considering converting my townhome into a small in-home daycare, 4-5 infants and toddlers max, for 2 experienced superstar caregivers. Will apply for license, of course. Is there demand for this service? How would people find me?

What do you mean you’re a veteran of childcare?

Just so you know, your proposed rates are higher than the centers, and about double of what in-home daycare‘s charge. Even with two superstar caregivers that is a very big leap for most people to make. If you want to take up to four infants both of the caregivers will need to do the full 45 hours of the basic childcare training plus all of the other required coursework.

If you want to serve meals you will need to adhere to the comar regulations for food and if you want to be reimbursed for a portion of the meals you will need to apply for the food program. There are very strict guidelines about what you can and cannot serve.

There is a high demand for infant child care (under 2).

Ps I don’t want to squash your dreams but I do want to temper your expectations especially when it comes to tuition.

[Anonymous]

I so much appreciate all the responses! We have gourgeous playground 2 min walk from us, and yes, backyard for water and sand play. I do have master's degree and yes, will be one of caregivers. Centers would not come even to close comparison to my proposed services. Many parents dislike the centers, and for good reason too. We would have Music tpgether on site, and other enrichment activities included.

[Anonymous]

Isn't MD required ratio for under 2, 1:3. 2:5 is not so much less