The challenges of surviving and thriving in the home day care business: Rethinking Child Care

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Co-owner Marian Pycraft, 63, is a mother of six grown children — four biological and two adopted — and says in 35 years she’s never taken a single sick day, not even after giving birth. It’s a hard job, but she says it’s worth it.

Looking around, it’s clear that this is a business that is fully integrated into their lives. There’s a child-friendly bathroom by the front door. The closet around the corner has been converted with low hooks for children’s backpacks and each one is labeled with names and photos.

A passion for children, a head for business and an unimpeachable work ethic may be just what it takes to survive and thrive in the home child care industry for more than three decades. Somehow, amid all this change, Pycraft also made the time to go back to school and get her early childhood education degree from Lorain Community College. But while that gave her the skills to help educate children in her care, she says it was the accounting degree that turned out to be the major advantage.

The rising costs of doing business have been passed onto the parents, in some cases forcing them to cobble together other solutions. Some work from home or only part-time, and she learned early on that she simply couldn’t accommodate parents with complicated schedules or part-time needs. Parents had to pay for a full-time spot, or nothing, and that has meant that some of them moved on.

“This is such a risky business. If your client leaves your pay instantly drops. ... We don’t want to charge the parents more money, but someone’s got to pay for the cost of care.” Fortunately, both Pycraft and her husband can manage those ratios themselves, and they have another full-time employee to relieve them.The biggest problem, Pycraft says, is simply getting society — and that includes the government — to buy into the idea that child care is important. Child care is valuable. And high quality child care is worth paying for.

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