Do You Have Friends Come Over During the Day?

[midaycare]

For those of you that do allow friends to come by WITH their children (or children they are minding) it's important to remember to have a plan in place for situations where the visiting child injures or causes injury to one of your DCK's.

Would your clients be alright with that?
Would you liability insurance cover it?
Would your home owners cover it?
Would licensing be okay with it?

Etc etc.....

I don't know how each state/providence works in regards to this but it IS important to consider liability ANY TIME you are in charge of someone else's child(ren).

I agree with all this. I didn't let DS have play dates before this year, and now it is only if I have an extra spot, because of licensing. It happens maybe once every two months. And I keep paperwork on all the friends who come over as play dates, because I know licensing would want it. I never thought about liability, but yeah, since they are registered with me, I'm sure that helps. The steps we go through for our kiddos!

[Heidi]

Sorry, double post...

[Heidi]

I think it really depends on your circumstances.

When my kids were younger, my sister did daycare down the street. We often went on walks together. Sometimes, another friend and dcp down the street would join us, and we'd have 24 kiddos and 3 adults. Due to our regs, we couldn't "land" at any of our dc's, but we could walk to the park or fire station.

If we had low numbers, sometimes we'd have play dates at each other's daycares. As long as we didn't go over 8 children together, we were within licensing regs.

Yes, everything is a risk. Being a dcp is a risk. I think you need to weigh out the possible cost vs. the benefit.

More recently, I have on occasion had people come here to join us for an activity. For example, a former dcp and her children would come over a few hours. I generally had only 5 or so enrolled here, and I had 8 "spots". We kept our routine, and the visitors always went home before nap.

Sometimes, DC is isolating, both for the provider AND the kids. Who wants to play with the same people, day in and day out, with no variation? I see some value in the occasional "play date" for everyone, as long as the regs are followed.

[kendallina]

Depends. I run a preschool in the morning (6 kids), I would never have a friend over during that time. Last year in the afternoons, I only had two extended day kids, so I would occasionally have my best friend with her kiddos over for a playdate. And it was just as much for me as for my extended day kids, although they enjoyed the extra company too.

[craftymissbeth]

Nope. First of all, my licensor required all of the children present more than a few minutes during daycare hours to have all of the required paperwork on file (health assessment, immunizations, etc.) whether they were receiving care or not. I'm guessing this is to prevent providers from being over ratio, but using the excuse that they were just having a play date.

Second, the liability of adding extra people into the mix was too nerve wracking. I was already worried about something happening to my dcks... I didn't want to worry about something happening to dcks because of guests or whatever other negative scenario that could have played out.

[crazydaycarelady]

Yes, I have done this and had no problems.