Title: Home daycare: Overview | BabyCenter
Headings: Home daycare: Overview
Home daycare: Overview
IN THIS ARTICLE
Introduction
What do the experts think?
Top questions about home daycare
The bottom line
Nancy Montgomery

Content: Home daycare: Overview | BabyCenter
Baby
Childcare
Home daycare: Overview
By Nancy Montgomery
|
Photo credit: iStock.com / lostinbids
IN THIS ARTICLE
Introduction
What do the experts think? Top questions about home daycare
The bottom line
Introduction
Home daycare, also known as family daycare, is exactly what it sounds like – daycare in a home instead of a center. This arrangement has been around as long as parents have had neighbors and friends nearby to help care for their kids. Today it's a way for many parents who prefer to stay at home and who truly enjoy taking care of children to do work they love and contribute to the family finances at the same time. " Most home providers have made a conscious decision to do this as a career," says Anne Mead, treasurer of the National Association for Family Child Care. The United States has more than 280,000 regulated home daycares – almost three times the number of licensed childcare centers. According to a 1996 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, home daycares (and probably many more that aren't regulated) provide care for 14 percent of the more than 21 million U.S. children under six, making home daycare the third most popular option after center care and relative care.