Great....what timing!?

[Mamma_Mia]

It's been dead for the past 4-5 months re: daycare. No calls, No email....nothing.

Well in the last 2 weeks I've gotten 3 emails and 2 calls.....but my situation is scaring people off!! It fricken sucks!!

We're going on our annual vacation March 1st for one week. Then I'm due June 21st and plan on taking ONLY 2 weeks off after baby is born.

My current parents have no problem with this. The newbies are all worried about having to take "so much time off"...GRRRR I already booked my trip and I WILL BE TAKING TIME OFF after having a BABY!

How the heck would you handle this? I would honestly love to have just one more child.....even though by law I can take on an additional 3....I don't want to overwhelm myself.

Grrrr.....so sucks!

[gcj]

It does suck, but I don't think you want families who don't get that, anyways. I understand that probably financially you need that one kid you're looking for, but be patient.....the right one will come along. And the right one will understand you and the fact that it's perfectly reasonable to take a week off for a planned vacation and....well....2 weeks after a baby isn't reasonable, but for you......more than reasonable for them!

[playfelt]

What if you changed your available date to be right after your vacation so that week wouldnt' be involved. Then it is just convincing them about the mat leave part as in one thing not two. I filled my last space finally - had 4 calls from Sept to Jan and non were what I wanted. Had 4 calls the first week of January and filled the space to start in March. Instead of taking down some of my ads like here on daycarebear I changed the date from Jan to Sept when I have a child leaving and have already in the last week had 3 calls for that space.

[Fun&care]

Same thing happened to me when I was expecting...I never did end up filling the spot. It definitely scares parents away when you say mat leave, and I can't totally blame them. There is a lot of unpredictability when it comes to pregnancy, and babies, but hopefully once baby arrives and you are settled in you will have better luck :)

[Inspired by Reggio]

Hmmm that is a challenge ~ I agree I would not want a client in care where taking 3 weeks off in a year is considered a 'problem' for them because I take 4 weeks over the course of the year .... 2 weeks in the summer, a week in December over the holiday and at least 5 'days' for personal use such as attending my professional association's spring conference, annual physical and 1-2 days for just 'illness'.

However I do empathize if these are people returning form 'mat leave' that taking time off so SOON for them might be a challenge :(

I like Playfelts ideas that if you can swing it budget wise I would be advertizing for start dates of AFTER the March vacation ... that way it is two months before the 'babe' is due and you take your mini mat leave ... which I admit breaks my heart to hear mamas who take so little time to recoup from childbirth and get the one on one down time with their newest :(

[Mamma_Mia]

Thanks ladies. I'll do that...I'll make my availablity date March 11th and hope that helps.

I mean I 100% understand what they're going through and it could be scary. It's true pregnancy & labour isn't a planned/perdictable thing. If I'm not feeling 100% we have the backyard and a park within walking distance so we'd be taking it easy(er) than most summers. I am aiming the best I can to go to the end but who knows, right?

Fingers crossed that it'll help changing it to March start. Thanks!

[Momof4]

Playfelt's advice is good. I had an opening in June last year but I had a vacation coming up at the end of June so I advertised for a start date of the first week of July so my vacation week wouldn't cause anybody any problems. I take 3-4 weeks off every year so that's really no different than what you are doing MammaMia. I choose my weeks and advise the clients before the year starts so they can book off the same weeks with their employers. All my clients are perfectly happy with this system.