Camera for In-Home Daycare?

[Small Batch]

IMO if I feel like a parent doesnt trust me to take care of their child, then they are not right for my program.

Trust is a complex thing. It isn't black and white, it isn't yes or no.

People drop their kids off at daycare or school all the time to be watched by people whom they barely know. Would they trust these same people to look after a suitcase filled with $10 million in cash? Probably not. And yet, those parents care more about their kids than they would care about that $10 million.
Trust is another word for confidence. It can vary by degrees. You take a risk when you rely on someone else to do an important task for you. The confidence you have in someone doing something for you depends on the risk involved. How well do you know that person? How competent are they? How important is this task? How many ways might something go wrong?

By having cameras monitoring what is happening to their children, parents are able to reduce the risk of harm being done to their children. First, people behave differently when they know the are being observed. A provider who was thinking of harming a child might reconsider if the odds of being caught is higher. And if harm does happen, having evidence of it can prevent further harm from being done.

Are you aware of any center or home care provider that offers audio with video?

Audio recording of an area can be difficult, particularly with the low quality microphones that are typically pieced together with cameras. When you are present in a room and hear something with your own ears, your brain filters out what sounds are unimportant and focuses on those it believes to be useful. It ignores white noise, it cancels out echos, it adjusts the perceived volume of things you're looking at. Microphones don't do that. They record everything equally, and play it back exactly as it was recorded.
Audio also tends to convey less information than video, so I don't think it's likely to be more intrusive than video. But that also means it's less likely to be useful. Combined with the difficulty of getting a quality recording, it tends to not be of high importance to people looking for surveillance solutions.

Read the entire thing if you are TRULY concerned about the children.

It's disingenuous to suggest that the respondent isn't concerned about the children merely because he/she didn't propose a solution to protect every child in every situation.

Pay special attention to the data regarding who actually injures and kills children.

The data you provided says that many daycare providers actually harm children.

You will see study after study that child care providers are a mere blip on the radar.

A blip is not nothing. Four tenths of one percent of a huge number is still a big number. And statistics are numbers; they don't tell the experience of the individuals included. Do you imagine the victims and families of those children abused in daycare would be comforted by being told that what happened to them is just "a mere blip on the radar?" Is improving the safety of a child in daycare not worth considering because abuse only happens to a couple thousand of them a year?

Don't you care about the safety of kids away from daycare?

Does the respondent have it within his/her power to do something meaningful about child abuse outside of daycare?

Not to mention your plan isn't anything new. Other companies do the same thing.

How many other companies? What is the correct number of companies that there should be who offer this?

A $2500 offer to the center to install free equipment won't cover a month of staff time dealing with parents who want tape reviewed because snowflake got a boo boo.

Do you have stats on this, too?

The other issue is that cameras are useless unless a dedicated person is watching them. They are only valuable AFTER an incident.

First, no, cameras are not only valuable after an incident. It's true that cameras are not crystal balls, and can only record what has happened. But people tend to behave differently if they think they are being observed. And there truly are a lot of studies showing this. It's referred to as the observer effect or Hawthorne effect. It's the reason why even conspicuously-placed fake cameras can improve security. People tend to behave better when they know someone might catch them doing wrong.

Second, no, cameras don't need someone constantly monitoring them to be useful. Most security cameras are not monitored live. They record the video to media, which is usually viewed only after some other evidence of an incident is discovered. Being able to view that recording allows corrective action to be taken.

Why in the world would a provider have you put cameras in and draw a fee from the parents when they could go to Costco and pay less than a grand and charge the parents a fee each month for the service? They don't need you.

A lot of people still need to be told by a trained technician to reboot their computers, modems, routers, etc when they experience problems. Setting up printers, programming DVRs, syncing an mp3 player... these are things that have gotten much easier to do since these devices were introduced to the market, and yet people are still paying for tech support to help them do it. I would be surprised if nobody was willing to pay for assistance setting up an IP camera and connecting it to a streaming service. You affirmed this yourself when you wrote, "Other companies do the same thing." Why would there be any companies at all doing this if everyone could just go buy a camera at a store?

[Unregistered]

Small Batch Reply

Thank you, Small Batch for your insightful input. I would like to have a private convo with you to further discuss my new company and why I am doing this. You seem to get it, the motivation behind my plan. If you are interested in a chat, please email me,.

As for the rest of you who made comments, some aggressive, I do appreciate the feedback. I know that I would face the backlash from those who have their own vested interest. I am fine with that, I don't really care how harsh or closed minded you can be prior to hearing all of the details. Once we are ready to present it to the public, you will realize that the children are my priority. It will also provide security to the business owners regardless of whether or not you think its too big brother.

I will be advertising on this site and many others. This is coming and you can choose to participate, or not. That is the beauty of this country. Free choice. I am free to try and correct problems when they affect innocent children that are too young to advocate for themselves. Realize that you have 12 children who belong to other people and just because you work from you home does not give you a bigger right to privacy that a commercial center.

I will be absent for a couple of days due to a serious ankle injury, but I will be back and ready to answer your questions, or just listen to the naysayers.

Have a nice long holiday weekend.

[Rockgirl]

Thank you, Small Batch for your insightful input. I would like to have a private convo with you to further discuss my new company and why I am doing this. You seem to get it, the motivation behind my plan. If you are interested in a chat, please email me,

As for the rest of you who made comments, some aggressive, I do appreciate the feedback. I know that I would face the backlash from those who have their own vested interest. I am fine with that, I don't really care how harsh or closed minded you can be prior to hearing all of the details. Once we are ready to present it to the public, you will realize that the children are my priority. It will also provide security to the business owners regardless of whether or not you think its too big brother.

I will be advertising on this site and many others. This is coming and you can choose to participate, or not. That is the beauty of this country. Free choice. I am free to try and correct problems when they affect innocent children that are too young to advocate for themselves. Realize that you have 12 children who belong to other people and just because you work from you home does not give you a bigger right to privacy that a commercial center.

I will be absent for a couple of days due to a serious ankle injury, but I will be back and ready to answer your questions, or just listen to the naysayers.

Have a nice long holiday weekend.

Actually, yes, it does. This is my home.

And "this is coming"? Uh, ok.

[mommyneedsadayoff]

It seems kind of fishy to me that "unregistered" seems to be promoting their business idea, as well as acting like another person (also unregistered) who approves of it?

As for the last post, I will leave it to the pros (nanny, BC, cat) to respond, as they will clearly obliterate your (lack of) argument. You say you run a daycare, ut somehow I doubt that.

[Rockgirl]

It seems kind of fishy to me that "unregistered" seems to be promoting their business idea, as well as acting like another person (also unregistered) who approves of it?

Indeed!

[Blackcat31]

Thank you, Small Batch for your insightful input. I would like to have a private convo with you to further discuss my new company and why I am doing this. You seem to get it, the motivation behind my plan. If you are interested in a chat, please email me,
As for the rest of you who made comments, some aggressive, I do appreciate the feedback. I know that I would face the backlash from those who have their own vested interest. I am fine with that, I don't really care how harsh or closed minded you can be prior to hearing all of the details. Once we are ready to present it to the public, you will realize that the children are my priority. It will also provide security to the business owners regardless of whether or not you think its too big brother.

I will be advertising on this site and many others. This is coming and you can choose to participate, or not. That is the beauty of this country. Free choice. I am free to try and correct problems when they affect innocent children that are too young to advocate for themselves. Realize that you have 12 children who belong to other people and just because you work from you home does not give you a bigger right to privacy that a commercial center.

I will be absent for a couple of days due to a serious ankle injury, but I will be back and ready to answer your questions, or just listen to the naysayers.

Have a nice long holiday weekend.

Um, pretty sure this site isn't available for you to advertise on for free. Especially a product or service that most providers find ridiculous. So unless you've already gotten approval from the owner of this site, I'd tread lightly when stating how you will be using this site.

Of course, you can still open/start any type of business you want. That IS free choice but I will share with you right now that if you continue to "sell" your product/service in the same manner you presented it here, you will find yourself without many customers.

Don't under estimate the members of this forum or their reach into the child care community.

I "converse" daily with 1,000's (NOT an exaggeration) of other providers across the country (in home, center and in other roles in the early childhood field) and when I brought up this subject and the type of service you are trying to sell most were much harsher than any member here was.

You can probably sell the idea to parents but since they aren't the business owners....good luck with that. I wouldn't count on parents being persuasive for you as most of us have years and years of experience teaching parents who actually runs our businesses.

I also mentioned this concept to my licensor and according to her after speaking with DHS relayed to me that your biggest fight will be the state. My licensor said she would never approve the use of open video feeds or cameras for parents. It would create way too much work for them having to follow up on complaints that parents "think" they witnessed as well as dealing with privacy issues.

I wish you luck and am glad to see that you are not feeling detoured due to the responses you are getting here. It takes determination to continue moving forward when your entire marketing group does not agree with you.

[Mike]

I wish you luck and am glad to see that you are not feeling detoured due to the responses you are getting here. It takes determination to continue moving forward when your entire marketing group does not agree with you.

Good luck in your business venture, seriously. There will be a few who like the idea, but I doubt you'll find any here.

[Unregistered]

I am a real daycare owner

It seems kind of fishy to me that "unregistered" seems to be promoting their business idea, as well as acting like another person (also unregistered) who approves of it?

As for the last post, I will leave it to the pros (nanny, BC, cat) to respond, as they will clearly obliterate your (lack of) argument. You say you run a daycare, ut somehow I doubt that.

I do own my own business, an actual in home daycare in California. When we are ready to go live with the business, you will all realize that fact. And I am not acting like another person, I don't need to do that. So negative without all the facts. I will be a paid advertiser on this site as I expect nothing for free.

[Unregistered]

Thank you.

Good luck in your business venture, seriously. There will be a few who like the idea, but I doubt you'll find any here.

Thank you for your best wishes, I assume you are sincere. But I don't think you speak for all of the members. Time will tell if this will work, and I have plenty of that and over 25 years of startup experience in very large businesses. So I am used to being told what won't work by "experts". And I am also used to proving them wrong.

Buy thank you, Mike.

[Unregistered]

Parents have a voice in this

Um, pretty sure this site isn't available for you to advertise on for free. Especially a product or service that most providers find ridiculous. So unless you've already gotten approval from the owner of this site, I'd tread lightly when stating how you will be using this site.

Of course, you can still open/start any type of business you want. That IS free choice but I will share with you right now that if you continue to "sell" your product/service in the same manner you presented it here, you will find yourself without many customers.

Don't under estimate the members of this forum or their reach into the child care community.

I "converse" daily with 1,000's (NOT an exaggeration) of other providers across the country (in home, center and in other roles in the early childhood field) and when I brought up this subject and the type of service you are trying to sell most were much harsher than any member here was.

You can probably sell the idea to parents but since they aren't the business owners....good luck with that. I wouldn't count on parents being persuasive for you as most of us have years and years of experience teaching parents who actually runs our businesses.

I also mentioned this concept to my licensor and according to her after speaking with DHS relayed to me that your biggest fight will be the state. My licensor said she would never approve the use of open video feeds or cameras for parents. It would create way too much work for them having to follow up on complaints that parents "think" they witnessed as well as dealing with privacy issues.

I wish you luck and am glad to see that you are not feeling detoured due to the responses you are getting here. It takes determination to continue moving forward when your entire marketing group does not agree with you.

Again, you don't speak for everybody. We will be reaching out to the parents as they are the people that write you the check. Don't forget there is power in their checkbook.

[Rockgirl]

I can't be the only one starting to find this comical.

[nanglgrl]

I can't be the only one starting to find this comical.

You're not. I do rather enjoy reading some of the responses though. Why don't we have a mic drop emoji?

[Blackcat31]

Again, you don't speak for everybody. We will be reaching out to the parents as they are the people that write you the check. Don't forget there is power in their checkbook.

Only if I value the almighty dollar more than I what's right or wrong.

[Blackcat31]

Again, you don't speak for everybody. We will be reaching out to the parents as they are the people that write you the check. Don't forget there is power in their checkbook.

I don't recall speaking for anyone but myself.

Like all your other posts, you just gloss over what's being said and have yet to show anyone anything that backs up what you are saying.

You've posted no statistics, official reports or survey results. You have no marketing analysis or results of any types of preliminary sales projections.

You have not answered any of the questions or expanded on anything NannyDe has asked you nor have you attempted to "sell" any of us your idea/product/service.

Instead you appeared with fists raised and with an attitide reeking of immaturity and a lack of understanding or perspective for your target audience.

Will you have interested clients? Sure! Even Edsel sold at first.
But then the reality of why its a bad idea for all parties will factor in.....

I sincerly wish you luck. I won't ever be a customer but as a consumer in general, I like to do business with companies I can partner with not companies that attempt to use fear and paranoia as marketing tools.

[Rockgirl]

I sincerly wish you luck. I won't ever be a customer but as a consumer in general, I like to do business with companies I can partner with not companies that attempt to use fear and paranoia as marketing tools.

Exactly. I hope your business is successful. However, your delivery needs work. What you have done is to put people on the defensive. You are coming across as borderline threatening, telling us "This is coming" and saying you will talk to the parents, and implying those parents will pull their children if we don't install the cameras.

Also, telling us we don't have a right to privacy in our own homes....that's just absurd.