CHILD CARE: The Provider’s Perspective

By Chris McCue

You’ve spent months looking for day care for your child and you’ve finally found the right place, the right person. Now you can rest easy, right? Wrong. Actually, your work has just begun.

A solid relationship with your day-care provider is a lot like a successful marriage – it takes work. You need trust, respect, open communication and a good understanding of your provider’s needs for the relationship to thrive. The relationship should be shared 50/50 between parent and provider, but parents aren’t always aware of what providers expect of them.

Whether your child attends a family- or center-based day care, the provider’s concerns and frustrations are probably the same. Providers and day-care experts offer these suggestions to help you forge a strong alliance with the person who will care for your child.

FORGE A PARTNERSHIP

“Parents should view the relationship with their day-care provider as a partnership,” says Amy Newmark, a senior parent counselor at the Child Care Resource Center in Cambridge, a state-funded resource and referral service covering Greater Boston. “Caregivers provide a valuable service, but it’s not like dropping off your clothes at a dry cleaner and picking them up.”