Two questions: Sick leave and hours

Question #1: So I woke up this morning with a bit of a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat. I chalked it up to allergies. Then around 2:00 this afternoon it suddenly hit me like a ton of brings. Like a FULL BLOWN head cold. I could barely stand, I was dizzy and SO cold. I texted my client and told her that I was sick, but it wasn't an emergency that she come pick him up. I just didn't want her to show up and be like WTF? What do you do in this situation? What if you suddenly get sick in the middle of the day? What if you wake up sick?

Questions #2: My hours are 7:30-5:30. I have a potential client who is pretty much perfect - looking for Monday to Friday full time. Her baby is cute and I like her...anyways, she starts work at 7 and her husband starts even earlier. She wants her kid here for 6:30. I haven't gotten up that early in MONTHS and I don't really want to. My son doesn't even get up till 7:30-8. What would do in this situation? Suggestions?

THANK YOU!!

Oh, I hope you feel better quickly. I've worked sick so many days in the past 4 years. There were times when I was directing the play from my recliner chair in the middle of the room under a blankie feeling like death. But I told the parents at the door in the morning that was how I felt and they left their children here anyway! And who gave me the sicknesses? Yep, the little children in my daycare!

My hours are 7:30-5:00 with a maximum 9 hour day. If they go over it is an extra $5/half hour overtime. If they come before 7:30 or stay past 5pm it is $5/half hour early/late fee. I am not a morning person so would not even negotiate with a family who wanted care for 6:30am. I just won't do it. But if you want to do it, I recommend charging the extra fees.

Oh no - feel better!

As for calling in sick - my contract says I will give parents as much notice as possible if I feel I cannot work however they have to accept that 'illness' does not come on a schedule and they may be called at anytime to cancel care or pick up their child.

I have woken up feeling 'iffy' in regards to health in the morning and unless I am actually vomiting or diarrhea when I wake up I tend to just give parents a heads up at drop off "Just to let you know woke up this morning not feeling 100% but am hoping to make it through the day if we keep it a 'light day' of free play and quiet fun likely a little more Treehouse than I am generally comfortable with - if anything changes and I feel it is not prudent to continue trying to care for all the kiddies I will give you a call" .... generally they are all perfectly comfortable leaving their kids here with my 'germs' plopped in front of the boob tube doing 'quiet day things' as long as it means they do not have to take time off to be home ;)

If I am feeling 'done in' after a day like that I will use a sick day the following day and tell them that at pick up time .... "today whipped me so I think in the best interest of everyone I am going to take tomorrow off and hope a days rest will have me back to my ole safe - I will call by 7pm tomorrow night if I am going to need another day other wise see you Wednesday morning' .... that way they have ample time to make plans for back up care.

I have only had to call in sick in the middle of the day once - got hit with a Rotavirus that every client had already had and it hit me out of the blue - one minute I felt fine serving the kiddies lunch and next minute I was in my kitchen feeding the kiddies and the vomit and poop was coming whether I liked it or not it was HORRIBLE cause I did not even make it to the bathroom ... the kids were awesome and stayed sitting in the kitchen entertaining each other with conversation until I could compose myself enough to help them clean up from their lunches and move to the couches in the livingroom where I proceeded to call their parents with a bucket between my knees .... everyone showed up within 20 minutes tops to collect their children and most apologetic cause they knew it was their kids who had 'shared' the gift with me :rolleyes: But seriously it was nasty took me THREE DAYS to recover from that bug!!!

More often that not I work through anything but vomiting ... I took time off this year because I found out I had pneumonia in both my lungs, a UTI and the Xray showed a cracked rib presumably from the coughing and in reality I only closed because the antibiotics had the side effect of vomiting and after going to the Dr after work and taking them I woke up in the morning puking ... I would have worked otherwise cause I am an idiot and had been WORKING with that for weeks anyway because at the time I had no fever or other symptoms other than the nasty barking cough ... assumed it was a 'virus' and nothing could be done about it...if I had not developed the UTI symptoms that gave me the fever I am not sure how long I would have been walking around with the pneumonia untreated assuming it was virus :(

I have worked through colds, migraines, zero (and I mean ZERO, due to a hospital visit that went all night) sleep, pregnancy woes, and a number of other illnesses. The beauty of our job is we can stay in our jammies and sit on the couch while the children play, if required. And maybe catch a nap at quiet time, if we're lucky.
That said, I have had to close a couple times. Once because our entire family, except my hubby, came down with the worst stomach flu I've ever experienced. We didn't have enough bathrooms to accomodate all the sickness!! Ugh... And once because I was ok, but my kids were incredibly sick.
I will call parents as soon as possible. I open at 7:30, so I will call people at 6am. It gives them and hour and a half to find someone. If I am outright cancellling on them, I will chalk it up as one of my paid personal/vacation days. If I call and give them the option of coming, and they choose to stay home, I still get paid. So far, all the parents I have dealt with have been GREAT. But I make it very clear, upfront, that I have 4 young kids and that on occasion, chances are I will have to shut down.
In regards to the hours, I know that some people work out extended care fees, etc. I don't. My hours are my hours, and I learned early on that I have set them that way for a reason. Is the child going to be picked up earlier, since she is getting dropped off so early? I would hope so. The only caution I would give you is; if you say yes, don't get resentful of it later. I wouldn't want you to take this family, because you are really in need, and end up hating that you said yes to a 6:30 drop off. Then you'll need to change it, and she'll get mad, because you did agree to it! And another thing, if you told her your hours and she ended up asking for different hours anyway, I always proceed with caution. This type of mom may feel like she is in charge, and in the future, attempt to dictate other rules, etc. Of course, she could be totally nice, and just liked you and was hoping you could accommodate her. I am just speaking from experience.

If I'm dead to the world, I close my doors. I ask my parents when they sign on, what the earliest time I can call them to cancel for the day. Usually call if I'm puking or have diarrhea (or both!).

For extra hours - I don't do them. 7:30-5 are my contracted hours, and if they don't like them, then tough. I've lost some great families due to my hours, but I need ME time (or sleep time!). I am NOT a morning person - it's hard enough for me to wake up at 7 a.m.

But like above posters have stated, IF you do decide to take them on, make sure they're paying for it. And hopefully they're picking up earlier too!

My hours are 6:45 - 5:00 ..... I did have someone that I accepted into care for 6:30. I didn't mind it cause she went right to bed and slept for 3 hours. But she was also there till 6pm ..... I only charged them my regular fee cause I was new and didn't know any better ..... I have since smartened up and would charge more ..... My children don't get up early either. So you have to decide if you really need to fill the spot? And if the answer is yes and there are no other prospects and they truly are the perfect family then charge them a premium ( enough so you won't regret them later) Also if they child is quite young and will go right down for a nap that will give you a chance to vege for a bit till your day starts. In my area I had to open earlier in order to get families as I am in a rural area and parents need the time to navigate into the city. Just my nickel ! (formerly 2 cents)

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Originally Posted by Crayola kiddies

.... Just my nickel ! (formerly 2 cents)

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:laugh::laugh: gotta love inflation!

I do 6:30-4:30 because there is a demand for it in my area since government workers do 7-3. or 8-4 mostly and need to allow 30-45 minutes to get to work some days. My hubby catches his bus to work for 6:30 so I have to be up before he leaves so I don't sleep through my first arrival so figured if I was up anyways might as well and a lot around here won't so it helps me on that front. I have two that come then and just watch tv till next one gets here at 7 than all are here by 7:30 and we can start our day. At the end of the day they start going home just after 4pm too and right now are all gone by 4:30 so I have a relax time before needing to do supper since hubby doesn't get back home till about 4:45-5. The parents that come early are so appreciative of me opening for them at 6:30 that they go out of their way to keep me happy - can't complain with that either. I check emails, eat my breakfast etc after they get here. They come already fed.

My regular hours used to be 7:30-5:30, then I pushed it to 7:45 cause I learnt that the family that was coming earliest had flexibility with their work to start whenever they wanted and everyone was coming at that time anyway (also thought I was going to be doing yoga in the morning-didn't happen, I needed my sleep more). I had one occasional mom that would drop off her two kids at 7am and I knew after doing that a few times that it wasn't for me but I do still do it on occasion-like 3 times a year. The earliest I have committed to now is 7:20. not even 7:15. I just know myself and that I really need that 5 extra minutes to get myself together :) So 6:30 would be crazy. In the end what matters is your quality of life.

In terms of sick days. I unfortunately don't have anything written in my contract and haven't really taken any until this past month.. am definitely going to change that upon renewal of my contract though!.
I would be very hesitant and feel super guilty to cancel on someone the morning of. I did shut down my dayhome once for 2 days to help my own kids recuperate after one of the families dropped their son off on a monday morning with Croup. I let everyone know the night before. I hoped that taught them a lesson cause he wasn't allowed back for two days, and then i shut the dayhome down for two. All other parents totally understood and didn't want their kids having croup either. Aargh...i hate it when parents drop of their sick kids. This family always did and I put up with it so long, as well as being the first ones to drop off and last ones to pick up, yet alone all their lateness. I finally was able to let them go this March after a disagreement over potty training and life is so much better. I feel like I have my dayhome back.
I say do what you know will help your life at this time. If you need the money, then sometimes wedo need to sacrifice the sleep, but if it can wait, then wait for someone that fits within your hours.

My hours are 7:30-5:00. That usually takes care of everyone. I had a LO who started at 6:15 and honestly it was NUTS! My kids get woken up too early from the noise of them arriving. The LO had such a hard time with this time. She was here until only 4 but that is almost a 10 hour day. It's very hard on the LO's. I wake up at 6:20 regularly and my 1st one arrives at 7:30. My kids usually wake up around 6:45 so that gives me 20 mins to have a cup of coffee and read my emails. I really think that 7:30 is early enough. I definitely started resenting that 6:15 drop off as someone else mentioned but I couldn't take it back after I said I would do it. If you do decide to start that early charge for it! They will find a way to either pay or drop off later!