The ABCs of Running a Family Daycare Author:Jean L Stewart From The ABCs of Running a Family Daycare... "If you are thinking about starting a family daycare in your home, the first thing you should do is to determine how serious you are. Running a family daycare is a full-time career and it demands a great deal of energy, time, and patience. Not to mention the stress you have to deal with on a daily ba... more »sis! "If you are planning to babysit for a while in order to pay some bills or until a better position comes along you should just take in a couple of kids and "babysit.' Babysitting is far different from providing childcare as a service. Babysitters just watch kids. They let the children play as they go about their daily housework, watch the 'soaps,' talk on the phone, fix dinner, and anxiously wait for the parents to come and get their kids. "A childcare provider, on the other hand, is a professional because, among other things, daycare is a business. It has joined the ranks of the fastest growing industry in the U.S. home-based businesses. Running a daycare is a way for mothers to work at home, have the luxury of caring for their own children, and avoid the high cost of daycare that other working mothers pay-all while making a higher than average salary...."« less