Starting an In-Home Daycare

I knew when I got pregnant that I would have to go back to work after my daughter was born. We wouldn’t be able to support our family on my husband’s income alone.

Since day one back at work, I have been miserable. My daughter is almost 16 months now and I’ve been trying to figure out how to stay home with her since the first day I had to leave her.

The idea of opening a daycare at home has always been in the background but I never thought that I was the type of person that could actually take care of multiple kids all day long.

I have done all of the research already (licensing, laws for CA, insurance, etc) and could realistically open for business within the next month.

The problem is, I’m scared! As much as I know I want to be with my daughter full time, I’m terrified that it’s going to be way harder than I expected. My husband thinks the kids are just going to be like tiny tornados all day; tearing through the house. I have a lot of experience with kids. I have five younger sisters between 10-16 years younger than me. So I know chaos. I’m just not sure what it will be like on a daily basis. Just being stuck in my house with screaming and crying children for 9+ hours a day....

Do any of you run an in-home daycare? Any advice on the mental-sanity portion of the job?