Questions to Ask a Home Daycare Provider
Questions for a parent visiting a home daycare: who is in the house during the day, how many children of what ages, how naps, illness, and injuries are handled, what happens when the provider is unavailable, and what the contract actually commits you to.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How long have you been doing this, and how many children are here today?
Why ask it
Compare the number they say with the number you can see and hear. A provider running near capacity on the day of your tour is running at capacity every day, and the answer tells you how much individual attention a new child would realistically get.
Are you licensed or registered, and may I see the certificate and your most recent inspection report?
Why ask it
Requirements vary by state and country, and some home providers are legally exempt below a certain number of children. What matters is whether they hand the paperwork over easily. Hesitation, or an explanation of why the rules do not apply to them, is the answer to a different question.
Who else is in the house during the day?
Why ask it
Home daycare means your child is in someone's household. Ask about a spouse working from home, an adult child, a parent living upstairs, and anyone who comes and goes. Then ask which of those adults have had background checks, since in many places only the licensee is required to.
What are the ages of the other children, and are your own children included in that count?
Why ask it
A mix of one infant and five preschoolers is a very different day from three toddlers. Providers' own children usually count toward legal ratios but are sometimes left out of the informal answer, so ask directly rather than accepting a total.
Can you walk me through a normal day, from drop-off to pick-up?
Why ask it
Listen for whether the day has a shape or is improvised around the youngest child. You are also listening for the gaps: what happens between lunch and naps, and how many hours pass with a screen on. Ask what today looked like specifically, not what a day usually looks like.
Where do the children sleep, and how do you put infants down?
Why ask it
Ask to see the room. For infants you want to hear about a firm flat surface, on the back, no blankets or bumpers, and separate sleep spaces. If you hear about propping a bottle, sleeping in a car seat or swing, or blankets in a crib, that is a safety issue and not a difference of style.
Are you trained in infant and child CPR and first aid, and when did you last renew it?
Why ask it
The renewal date matters more than the certificate. Certifications lapse quietly, and a provider who knows their expiry month is tracking it. Ask what happens if a child is choking while she is alone with five others, and listen for whether she has thought it through.
What do you do when a baby cries and will not settle?
Why ask it
A concrete answer describes trying to work out why, and holding the baby while managing the others. Vague answers about letting them self-soothe deserve a follow-up on how long that means. This is also the question that reveals how stretched the provider is.
What happens when one child hits or bites another?
Why ask it
Biting is routine among toddlers, so the useful part is process: how both children are handled, whether both sets of parents are told, and whether the bitten child's name is shared. A provider who says it never happens either has very few toddlers or is managing your impression.
How do you handle behavior you find difficult, and what would you never do?
Why ask it
Ask the second half. You want to hear an explicit rule against physical punishment, shaming, and withholding food, and you want to know it applies to everyone in the household. If your family avoids time-outs or specific language, say so now and see whether she agrees or negotiates.
Who provides food, and what does a typical lunch look like here?
Why ask it
Ask to see this week's menu if there is one. Then ask how allergies and dietary rules are handled in practice with several children eating at one table, which is harder than it sounds in a home kitchen. Ask specifically about how a serious allergy is kept separate.
How much time do the children spend outdoors, and where do they go?
Why ask it
Ask to see the yard and whether it is fenced, and how they cross any road to reach a park. Also ask what happens in bad weather, since an indoor day with a full group in a living room is where behavior problems and screens tend to fill the gap.
Would my child ever be in a car with you?
Why ask it
School runs, errands, and outings often go unmentioned until they happen. If the answer is yes, ask about car seats, license and insurance, who supervises the children left behind, and whether you need to give written permission each time.
What is in the house that a parent would want to know about?
Why ask it
An open question that lets a careful provider volunteer the pool, the staircase, the dog, the trampoline, or the firearms and how each is secured. Someone who says nothing at all is either not thinking about their home as a childcare setting or is not telling you.
Are there pets, and how are they kept around the children?
Why ask it
Ask what happens at feeding time and whether the animal is ever loose with crawling babies. Bites in home daycare usually involve a familiar family dog, and the relevant answer is about separation rather than about the animal's temperament.
What symptoms mean you will call me, and when can a child come back?
Why ask it
Ask for the specific thresholds: temperature, vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, and how many hours symptom-free before return. Then ask whether you still pay for the days out. Providers who send children home readily are usually also the ones who tell you about the outbreak going around.
Can you give medication, and what do you need from me in writing?
Why ask it
Many home providers are permitted to give only prescription medication with a written form and the original labeled container. This matters if your child needs an inhaler, an allergy pen, or antibiotics, so establish it before an urgent morning rather than during one.
What happens when you are ill, or need to close?
Why ask it
This is the single biggest practical difference between home daycare and a center. Ask how many days she closed last year, how much notice you get, whether there is a substitute you would meet in advance, and whether you pay for closure days and her holidays.
How will I hear about my child's day, and how do you raise a problem with a parent?
Why ask it
Ask for an example of a difficult conversation she has had with a family and how she opened it. Providers who avoid conflict tend to say nothing for months, then give notice suddenly, which is far worse for you than being told early.
Could I talk to two families with children here now, and may I stop in unannounced during the day?
Why ask it
The unannounced visit answer matters most. A confident provider will agree with a caveat about nap time. A refusal, or a rule that visits must be scheduled, is worth taking seriously. Ask the referees what surprised them after starting, not whether they are happy.
Choosing a Home Daycare
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to do on the visit
Go during the day, with children present
An evening tour of a tidy empty house tells you almost nothing. Ask to come mid-morning when the group is awake and busy. You learn more from ten minutes of watching how she speaks to a child who is upset than from an hour of answers.
Ask to see every room the children use
Including the sleeping room, the bathroom, the kitchen, and the yard. If part of the house is off limits during the day, ask how that boundary is maintained with toddlers, and whether stairs and doors are gated.
Watch the other children rather than the provider
Are they occupied, do they go to her when something happens, does anyone seem to be waiting a long time for attention. Children who ignore a stranger walking in have usually seen a lot of tours. Children who look anxious are worth noticing.
Bring your child if you can
Not as a test of your child, but to see how the provider responds to a new one in the room. Someone who greets your child at eye level and offers something to do is showing you her default.
The paperwork to settle before you start
- The written agreement: rate, hours, late pick-up fees, and how much notice either side must give to end the arrangement.
- Payment for days your child does not attend: your holidays, her holidays, sick days, and public holidays. This is where most disputes come from.
- Whether the rate changes as your child moves out of diapers or into part-time hours.
- Permission forms for photographs, outings, sunscreen, and medication, and who else may collect your child.
- Whether she carries liability insurance, and whether her home insurer knows she runs a daycare.
- Emergency contacts, allergies, and your child's doctor, in writing rather than in a text message.
Things that should give you pause
- A television on during your entire visit, or children in front of a screen at ten in the morning.
- Reluctance to show you the sleeping arrangements, or infant sleep practices that do not match current safe sleep guidance.
- More children present than she told you, or a count that changes during the conversation.
- An adult in the house who is never introduced or explained.
- Cash-only arrangements with no written agreement, particularly combined with vagueness about licensing.
- Speaking dismissively about another family's child in front of you. It tells you how she will talk about yours.
The first few weeks
Vary your pick-up time
Arriving twenty minutes early once or twice in the first month shows you the unrehearsed version of the day. This is not distrust, it is ordinary diligence, and a good provider will not mind.
Pay attention to what your child does at home
New words, new games, and new routines tell you what the day is like better than a daily report does. Sudden changes in sleep, appetite, or clinginess at drop-off are worth raising rather than waiting out.
Raise small things early
Home daycare is a personal relationship as well as a service, which makes people reluctant to complain. Mentioning something minor in week two is much easier than raising it in month six, and it establishes that you will say things directly.