What hours do you keep?

What are your hours? How do you feel that your hours affect the ability to keep children in your dayhome? Does local industry drive your hours?

Hello
I work 5 days per week from 7AM to 5:30PM. These hours are not written in stone however. If a parent needs a longer day I am very flexible. If I have something planned that evening the child will come with me till Mom or Dad pick up. Parents appreciate this and with the longer hours employees are working now, it is a much needed service. It's a long, but fun and exciting day always. I have been a licensed family caregiver for 15 years now--working out of my home and I love it.

I work Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. I have to close pretty much at 5 as I run a dance school out of my home Monday - Thursday 6-9 p.m.!

My scheduled hours are Monday to Friday from 7 - 5. I do have children coming starting at 6:40 because they start work 8-4 so pick up early too. I live just far enough out of Ottawa that parents need to leave earlier in the morning and as a result also need extra travel time home. Government and many area businesses keep the same hours of either 7-3 or 8-4. Now that my own kids are grown I am more flexible about the pickup time as there aren't as many after hours activities I need to do. I am up and ready when my hubby leaves for work at 6:30 so will start then too as long as it is the going on for 7 side of 6:30 - as now they are scheduled for 6:45 but know they can come a few minutes early without issue.

I am 5 days a week from 7 or 7:30 am to 5:30pm

My chosen hours are 6:30-5pm. We have a few large factories and a nuclear power plant near us that all offer shift work. My hours seem to work well for those families, and also for the many teacher's who have children here. I will open earlier but not later...our evenings are important to us now while my own children are small.

I'm open from 7:30 - 5. I don't bend on my hours unless I'm paid for it. After 5 pm is my family time and before 7:30 is when I'm getting my kids ready for school so again, it's family time.

My hours are Monday to Friday from 7:30 - 5:30. I don't like to work outside of these hours unless it is occasionally and I am being paid extra for it. I have previously worked 12 hour days, but I have found that my current hours work best for my family.

I guess I have a reduced work day as I am open from 7:30 - 4:30, Monday to Friday.

But, with that being said, I would much rather my little ones with me than a stranger, so if my families need childcare outside of daycare hours, I usually accomodate them. It doesn't happen too often, but I am there for my families.

I didn't really know what to set my hours at when i started my home daycare last year so I set Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm. I find it to be a very long work day sometimes when the kids get dropped off just after 7am and most of the time don't get picked up until after 530pm. I have been thinking about closing earlier (maybe 5pm or 530pm) because some days we don't eat dinner until 7pm or 730pm.

I sometimes think that my parents take advantage of me and leave their kids here for the whole 11 hours because they can (I have subsidized daycare children). They don't work long shifts and i know they are able to pick up their kids earlier but they choose not to.

I don't want to lose the kids I have but I don't want to lose my family time too.