Stand atop a tall building and look down. What do you see? You think you can see the bottom, but you can’t see the individual floors. That is the current childcare model.
As a top-down observer, you may be able to see the bottom and solve problems accordingly, but you are neglecting the needs of a significant section of society, those who live on the ground floor and who miss out on the benefits of childcare.
As it stands, the current system provides either full-time daycare services or occasional care babysitter/nanny services, which have no connection to each other. It is mind-boggling that two services in the same industry, offering similar care, for similar age groups, are not connected.
The problem is that babysitting, and nanny services are usually costly (depending on the number of children you have) and that daycares are often fairly priced (especially home-based daycare), but that they require you to sign a contract for the entire year.
This problem is more complex. It also includes the fact that the programs offered at daycares are often not high quality. Babysitters are often not experienced and doing the job as a side gig. Parents are concerned that they aren’t getting enough for the price they are paying, and providers believe they are not compensated enough. There are also parents whose jobs don’t pay enough to cover the cost of daycare or their working hours do not align with regular daycare hours. Many of these parents find it cheaper to stay at home than to send their children to daycare.
The current system works for a lot of people but not for enough people. After researching for several years and talking to parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds, I believe it’s time to change.
It is important to develop models that are more flexible, inexpensive for parents, pay providers decently and provide a high standard of care for kids.
I propose “drop-in care”. Although it is not a new concept, it is less popular.
In the form of drop-in care, we create this network of childcare providers who are able to provide occasional childcare from home. We provide them an easy-to-use tech platform to put up their profile and open bookings. As a result, this will reduce occasional childcare costs since (home) providers can accept more children, unlike babysitting services. Since kids are looked after in a group environment, parents will not have to pay for exclusive childcare. Providers on the other hand can earn more by opening spots for more kids (law permitting).
By creating a network of childcare providers across countries and continents, parents can find childcare wherever they go. Our seamless platform will ensure that parents can use their profiles and have access to local providers, wherever they go. Occasional childcare will no longer be a place-specific service.
In parallel with building the network, we work with industry experts to develop a high-quality early childhood and pre-school education program. By encouraging our network providers to join the program, we are able to open spots for full-time care, ensuring that motivated providers are ready to jump into regular care too, weaving every form of childcare in the same thread.
In addition to creating jobs for providers, this model will also help parents get back to work again. While doing that, the standard of childcare is being raised and kids have the opportunity to socialize with other children.
As the world rebuilds post-pandemic, parents will have to look for work again, some will work odd hours, others will travel again, and a lot of us will need some respite care. So, let’s get down to building a community that will take care of their childcare needs in the best possible way.
