Cost of care vs Age of child

[Emilys4Guppies]

I was told this weekend that I should charge more for infants and less for preschoolers. I charge the same for a fulltime spot. I do this for a few reasons:

1. It's a spot. You pay for the spot.

2. Infants are more work. But toddlers eat more and use more of my supplies (toilet paper, food, crafts, cost of admission to certain things that infants are free for).

Thoughts? What do you do?

[playfelt]

Since we moved to the one year maternity leave and I stopped taking JK/SK students then I started charging the same rate for everyone because they are only with me for a little over 2 years. Before I did charge more for an infant based on the work I was doing - I provided food for example. If someone were to come to me with a baby under 9 months I would likely add a premium. Mostly now I just raise my rates when it comes time to replace a child leaving for school so it balances out. I don't raise my rates for families once they are in care.

[giraffe]

I charge the same as you do e4g. I feel tha a spot is a spot. Bu in other provinces where age is an issue I could see charging less for over 3s because the spaces are harder to fill.

[playfelt]

The other reason for charging more for an infant is that in some areas it effects the number of children you have in care. If you are only allowed 2 under age 2 then you have to use some of your spaces for school age kids which pay next to nothing. Being free to pick my age mix means I can charge by the space regardless of age.

[Tot-Time]

I charge the same for a space too.

My thought process is that all ages of children have their own set of challenges whether they be physical, mental, or on the pocket book ;)

I find infants to be more difficult on the body while toddlers / preschoolers become more emotionally challenging. As for the pocket book I think it depends on the child. I have one little one who eats me out of house and hold no matter what age she has been, I have some who are difficult on the budget because they love crafts which aren't cheap ;) etc.

I think the only time I would give a reduction is for children in school full days, the reduction is in that I don't charge them for the full day, but hourly their rate is higher.

[Stircrazy]

I too charge the same price right across the board

[Play and Learn]

\I think the only time I would give a reduction is for children in school full days, the reduction is in that I don't charge them for the full day, but hourly their rate is higher.

Same here. Same price for full-timers, any age. BUT parents supply the forumla and baby food if needed.
School agers are a different price as I probably only have them up to 2 hours max a day!

My rates are as follows:
Full-time ~ $35/day
Part-time ~ $25/day (less than 4 hours)
School-Agers ~ $20 before and after school or $10 for before, and $10 for after school.

[disbrina]

Here in sask we can only take a certain amount of infants vs pre school and school age. The max a day home can take is 8 including your own children. So if you have 3 infants you cant take any pre school kids. You could still take on 5 school kids though. So here i charge more for my little ones cause i cant take any pre k kids. I also charge differently though. I charge a daily rate.

30$ for under 30 months.
25$ for pre k kids at home all day
20$ if the pre k kids are in a pre k program ( cause they are gone half the day)
20$ for kinder as well.
15$ for kids that are in gr 1 and up. ( all my full time school kids take a bus and are gone all day)

[horsegirl]

I agree with charging the same for all ages. They are taking up one spot. Infants are a lot of work, but so are toddlers(preschooler s). The school age are only charged for before and after school but if they are here the full day--over 4 hours they are charged the full day rate.

In our area it seems that the rates vary from $35-$50 per day for in home daycare and $60. for centre/institutional care. Before and after school is $28. or just before or after is $20. In Vancouver the rates can be almost $90. per day--for alicensed cente/institutional care.