Finding appropriate and affordable child care can be very challenging. In-home child care providers deserve to be paid appropriately and have expenses that are frequently not factored into pricing by the provider or the parent. A formal child care provider in Oregon, depending on location, is able to charge up to $13,000 per child annually. These costs are prohibitive to the average working mom or even working couple. With minimum wage in Oregon set at just $12.75 an hour, paying a child care provider appropriately is challenging for a good portion of the labor market. This gap is frequently filled by relatives or other home-based providers.

Before my children started school, I was earning a good wage, especially for Eastern Oregon. However, when I had my second child, even with that good wage, I was basically just working to pay the sitter. I did some research and found that by taking in just three more children I could remain exempt from the need to be licensed and still provide the additional income that our household required. I knew I was only going to do this for a few years until my own children were in school so this seemed a logical choice given my financial circumstance.

In order to get paid by those families in need of state supplemented child care, providers must be, at a minimum, registered with the state. This requires getting trained in CPR, obtaining a food handler’s permit, taking training to recognize and report child abuse or neglect and other child health and safety issues. When doing child care in your home it is imperative that you get your home insurance supplemented with a child care rider, should there be any issues that you could be liable for. This required training and insurance coverage is crucial, plus you must keep consistent bookkeeping and a daily journal of events should you need to provide an accounting to the state in any way.

OregonEarlyLearning.com provides an easily understood list of requirements and descriptions for the various types of child care available in Oregon. From that list you can make an informed choice when considering doing child care and as a parent on the type of facility you want to entrust your child’s care to.

From my own experience there were things I hadn’t factored in, such as my own children’s response to having to share their personal space, toys, and parent with other children. I had issues with parents treating my home as a public space and walking in without knocking, issues with children biting other children (my daughter was bitten to the point of drawing blood), non-payment for my services, no-shows, changing schedules, and issues of what was appropriate discipline for misbehaving children. What is considered an appropriate meal can also be a factor. Issues of housekeeping are important, plus having necessary space for play and naptimes. Outdoor space issues come into play as well. You can’t have certain plants in your garden, tomatoes for example were on the no list. Pets can also be an issue.

I dealt with children with behavioral issues, such as lying and aggressiveness towards other children in my care. It is especially hard when your own child feels “second best” because you are taking care of others and may have to make choices that seem to not be supportive of your own child’s needs. There is the emotional stress of parents not liking the choices you have made regarding care of their child. On the financial side, issues with late changing schedules or cancellations can dramatically affect your income. You are intimately involved in people’s lives, you know their personal financial struggles, you must diplomatically deal with sick children and personal illness because people are relying on you to get to their jobs and support their own family.

In the end I was grateful to have an opportunity to stay home with my children until they started school. Most of the children I cared for were darling and I understood the struggles the parents faced regarding the need to work but to also find affordable child care and I was able to fill that need for them. Still, close to 20 years later, those years were the most stressful and challenging of my working career and I would advise any parent looking to provide home child care to really take the time and consider the situations they will be faced with in doing so.