"Friending" Daycare Provider

I would not send a friend request to a teacher or daycare provider. I would accept a friend request if one was sent to me by a teacher or daycare provider.
The same goes for kids of my friends and I would only accept if I was a friend of the parent

Hi,

I run a babysitting service with over 30 families. About half of them are on my facebook where i have either friended them or them me. But I am close with them as in we go to each other's kids parties. I get holiday cards. We shoot the bricks about everything you name it... Then i have the other half that it is strictly business and they are not on my fb...

HTH

Hi Apmommy, I have a different opinion than below:
I would not do it. I would share in person with the provider that you only 'friend' close friends and family....
from my experience, i am unsure if you want so much of yourself and your family and friends exposed to her, even if you are friendly.....
Jilly

Depends on the personality? I'm 'friends' with my daughters 4th grade teacher from last year, but not with her 5th grade teacher this year. Seemed 'natural' with the one, but not the other.

Does that make sense?

I'm also friends with my kids' old preschool teachers, but would not consider being friends with the directors.

I'm friends with our chiropractor, but not her office staff.

Just depends...

Eh, my daughters kindergarten teacher has a facebook, I wouldnt friend her, I would think it was weird. But, if your personally friends with her, then I think its ok.

I don't think it should be a question of personal vs. professional.

I think it's more a question of whether or not you really are "friends". FB can be as personal & as sharing as you wish it to be.....or it can end up being completely unpersonal thru overuse of the "friend" thing.

My Daycare provider has a FB page so that we can get updates on closings and such when the weather is bad. But if the director wants you to Friend her/him personally, you can either ignore the request or Friend and the Hide. That way you still show up as friends but you don't get each other's updates. Best of luck!

personally I would not, but then I consider face book actually friends and family would you friend your dentist?

I did it with 2 girls from my son's daycare. (when he was in daycare) I guess it depends on how close you are with them. I don't think it's a big deal.

I am very very FB friendly. Altho I have less than 100 "friends" on there. Many ARE daycare providers as we migrated from a common childcare provider site when most of us began FB. I DO NOT friend parents/clients as a rule. I do however have a separate FB page (business page) for my childcare where I post little daycare tidbits and parents can reply. I have written and verbal permission from a few to post pics of their kids (they do on their own pages) so I have a few times..but usually in the distance (like when they are in the backyard, etc).

Sometimes my FB posts on my personal page are little vents ("Ugh...snot, stinkies and crying everywhere I turn! Is it 5pm yet?"..things like that...) to which the bulk of my "friends", who are fellow providers will commiserate with me about and we all move on with our day. Its a mini support group that takes me 30 seconds to vent to. Thats not what I want their parents to see me posting. So I don't friend them.

JMO~

I would not send a friend request to her, but if you want to accept one from her and don't mind her seeing the sorts of things you post, that's fine. I teach college and have students send me friend requests all the time. It's awkward. I don't mind it for some of the students that I get close to, but for others, we are just very different people in terms of religion, politics, etc. Really, I need a personal FB page and a professional FB page. I also had the FB page for my college itself send me a friend request, and that too was awkward. No thanks!

as long as you two can respect each as professionals when needed then it should be okay

If you consider the provider a friend then do it. We were friends with our daycare provider prior to our kids attending the woman's daycare. It does make it sticky if something comes up a change or disagreement about something.

If you feel hesitant about doing it, then don't.

yes, you reap what you sow. G. W

i work at a childcare center and have many parents of the kids i take care of as facebook friends, and no i have never treated those kids any differently because of being on facebook. i dont see a problem with it, unless your making it a problem. and why shouldnt daycare providers be considered "friends"

If you want to keep tabs on them, friend them. If you genuinely like them, friend them. If you want them knowing what YOU do in your personal time, friend them. It's their decision whether or not that's unprofessional... but at the same time, maybe they're wondering if they should friend you. Won't hurt anything to ask, I suppose.

BTW... I'm friends with every single one of my children's previous preschool teachers, AND my old girl scout leader, etc... I think it's kind of nice :)

It depends on what she feels about it. I'm friends with my son's old daycare provider and his speech therapist and occupational therapist as well. Some of my friends are FB friends with their children's teachers.

When my little guy was in preschool I did friend one of the teachers and it has been fun. My little guy enjoys seeing her new pictures and sending her messages. She always enjoyed hearing the stories about his evenings and she could send me a message if anything happened that i needed to know,he didn't go every day so sometimes they would plan a field trip and we would not know about it.

I found it to be quite fun and very much okay. We are still friended even though he hasn't gone there in almost a year. We are not friends in real life, if we run into each other at Walmart we stop and say hi and chat a moment sometimes but nothing more that.