I’ve actually worked at both chains and mom ‘n’ pop owned daycares, and as a director at both kinds, for that matter. The issue is that sometimes the director is not the owner, and there can be issues just based on that. For example, in a chain operation, the director is most certainly not the owner. It’s probably a corporation of some sort. So because the daycare is a business, in the business of making money, the director has to be concerned about her center’s bottom line. And typically there is a bonus involved with the center’s financial performance. The better the performance, the higher the bonus. Well, good performance often comes by charging very high rates buy not spending any more money on the program that is absolutely necessary. When I worked for a chain, it would infuriate me to no end to look at my profit and loss statements each month and see how much of what my center earned was going to the company’s overhead (those corporate CEO’s and such have to be paid somehow). It also use to piss me off that the company would rewrite the curriculum every year, send me the new books, then take the cost of the books out of my budget, even if I could not afford it. The same with marketing materials. I didn’t order this stuff; it was just automatically sent to me.

As for mom ‘n’ pops, well that’s a whole different world, but the thing that drives it is just the same – money. As I said, the one I worked for, I was the director, but not the owner. Well, the owner was in it to make money, so spending any money on the facility was just a bad idea to them, unless they could turn it to their advantage. For example, they got this hairbrain idea to sell candy and chips to our afterschoolers. Well, we are already required to serve them a nutritious snack, so basically, the kids were offered a “free” healthy snack or an unhealthy one they had to pay extra for. More often than not, they would choose to buy the trash. Or worse, they would eat both, which really led to overeating. But the owners refused to deal with the parents on a daily basis saying that this was the director’s job, but as the director, I could not make any decisions without consulting the owners. It was a very bad situation. And then the employees, well that was a completely different issue. I was very supportive of my staff, but then the owners walk in, see a worker do something strange (but not inappropriate), then tell me to fire them on the spot with no warning. But then another employee would show up late all the time or violate policies routinely, but because these employees were the owners “special projects,” they were helping them turn their lives around, I would have to give them chance after chance. Truly made me look stupid in the eyes of the entire staff as a whole.

I think the best solution is for the director and owner to be the same person. Then she can balance the need to make money and spend money to supply and grow the center.

Then again, another good situation is for the progam to be non-profit. I am now a public school teacher, and my district runs a daycare for employee children. Yes, I do pay for daycare, but the directors and workers do a fanstatic job because they are not in the business of making money. Instead, they are in the business of providing me with quality childcare so I can do my job and in the business of educating my children.

As for kids and parents, this is more of a socio-economic issue, sad to say. I don’t want to offend anyone, but it has been my experience that mom ‘n’ pops charge less than chain operations. So parents who don’t have a lot of money are likely to choose the cheaper choice. And again, I’m not trying to offend anyone, but parents typically do not have a lot of money because they do not have a good education and/or a good job.

I have been working for a daycare for about 10 years. Parents have changed over the years, you have some that are interested in their child and others just don’t give a crap. Those kids act like they have been raised out of a barn. Some parents act like they have been raised out of a barn also. No manners, No respect. Every year it gets worse.

Is my director supportive- That is a good joke- Heck NO. All she sees is dollar signs. She always sides with the parents on anything, no matter what it is, even if the parents is wrong. She is rude and has no manners, She lacks professionalism.

Well as for Non-profit daycares some are no different either.

have worked at many daycare and they are all different. as long as u feel good about the staff in your childs room then that is the most important thing……. from experience u dont always get support from the directors…… the kids are always great.. if u happen to have a clash of personality with a child u just deal with it. i found a child will bond with at least one of the staff. it is hard to like everychild but out of my ten years in care it was always the evil children( spoilt rotten) that u couldn’t bond with. most parents were good though u did get the occassional busy bodies or the few who needed to know everything that was going on…. i didn’t work for mom n’ pops but think they would all be similar to what i described…… there are def good and bad centres, u just have to go with your gut.

I have worked at both a chain and at a local daycare program. The chains are worse, I think, because they loose sight of the children and become about the money. more harzards are obvious in the chains, because they are set up and can let themselves go. I loved the local daycare, and every day that I was at the chain I wished that I was at the local one.

what is concerning you? im me if you want tracedaace2007

i worked at a military daycare for about a year, the kids were mostly great, lots of parents werent quite so great but i managed! the directors sucked. they would say something and c hange it a week later. i didnt like that much. or they would say something and then claim the workers didnt implement it well if it didnt go over with the parents.

I worked for 2 different day care chains in the States and absolutely hated both of them. I was given no freedom in curriculum planning – expected to teach what was in their book exactly. The very second numbers went down staff was sent home to save money. They hired staff with as low qualifications as possible to save money and then got upset with me if I tried to educate the new staff about appropriate practices (like toddlers washing their hands before they eat, for example). I didn’t last long before leaving those centres.

My best experiences were with non-profit centres. All money goes back into the centre, for the children and staff. I’d never work at a centre that was not non-profit.