What would you do? Part timers or full timers...

Hi,

I currently have two daycare families at my home daycare. One family (been here since May 2011) has their child here two days a week and then the sibling will come in June and they will both be 3 days one week and 2 days the next. The other family (been here since September 2012) is their friend/neighbour and has their child here two days a week as well but come November the sibling starts and they both will be here 3 days a week and come January 4 days a week.

I have a chance come the spring to get in all full time children instead of the part time children I have now which would be better financially for me, but I don't know what to do as I don't want to hurt anyone or ruin my reputation.

What would you do?? Thanks.

You need to make the decision whether you want to do part time or full time. In fairness the first thing you need to do is to offer your current families the chance to switch to full time if they want to. But just give them a couple months notice that as of whatever date you will be doing full time only and they have a week to return the form (you need to give this info in writing) stating that they wish to a) move to one of the full time spots b) will be giving their notice regarding daycare and understand that they must give xxxx number of days notice. Then fill your spaces accordingly. Letting them know it is a business/financial decision and has nothing to do with the families or their children will help the relationship.

When I take a part time on now i make sure it's written into their contract that when and if I see fit I may replace with a ft position. If I choose to move that position to ft the current client has first right of refusal. It's a standard policy in most YMCA centres so I adapted that as well. I can do PT until I need to do FT.

I would let the client know that due to financial reasons you need to make their space a FT spot. These are the rates, here is the new contract, this is your 2 weeks notice, either take on the FT spot or move on to someone else. You may find that they take the FT position.

You really have to present it as 2 options. Either you make the space FT or you close becuase you can't handle it financially. Either way, that person is out a daycare provider. At least if you offer them the FT spot they have the option to maintain their daycare.