Is it fair of me to up my rates?
Good afternoon everyone. Hope you are all enjoying a nice spring day. Unfortunately we have heaps of snow still in Northern Canada, and it's currently raining. Still, it's got to all melt sooner or later! :yes:
I had quite an interesting visit from a parent today. Her son attends my day care part-time/casual, about 6 days a month. She works part-time and her husband works full-time on a rotating schedule.
I had to update the bill that she owed me for this coming pay day for a couple of reasons (she wanted to drop off her son today for two hours, so I had to add that, and then she needs me to watch her school-aged child for a morning one day coming up). I realize that I had also forgotten to include Good Friday on her total. Even though I am closed Good Friday, I still get paid for it from all parents (it's in my contract -- there are a number of holidays I get paid for even though I'm not open).
I texted her her new total and she said she was confused and didn't understand why it was so high. I explained it all to her and she didn't respond. Originally her husband was going to drop her son off after lunch, but just as the kids were finishing up lunch she showed up.
Right after coming in she started telling me that she hoped her text didn't sound confrontational, but that she was confused. I assured her they were not, and that I don't take anything personally when it's about the day care business. She said that she didn't think she had to pay for stat holidays because her son was only in day care part-time. I explained to her that I charge all of the parents for these holidays so I have to be fair for all of them. She told me that I shouldn't have told her that in a text. So I said fair enough, from now on we'll conduct all day-care business face to face or on the phone, which she agreed to.
Then she started talking about how she can't afford to pay more. She was crying and everything, even though I was being really nice and professional about it (and trying to talk to her while all the kids were running amok, lol). She's been going through a lot of things and she kept being worried that our day care relationship might ruin our friendship (we were friends first). I kept assuring her that no matter what happens with day care, she will always be my friend, and that the two are separate.
I did mention to her that I only am allowed to have a certain number of children in my home. Because her son is only here about six days a month, that's a spot that I could be getting a full-time income from and instead I'm only getting about a quarter of that (or around there). I told her that I am considering changing my part-time rates so that if you want to have your child attend my day care part-time, you need to still pay half the amount you'd pay for a full-time spot. So she'd end up paying me for roughly 11 days instead of the six she is now. I explained to her that this was because I don't make a lot of money with him only coming in six days a week, and I have had parents that were willing to pay for a full-time spot and only have their child in part-time. I said that I don't feel right about this, but that I do think there should be a minimum payment (half of the price of a full-time spot) to make it worthwhile for me to keep the spot for part-time children.
She said she was going to start looking for other day care, even though I told her this is just something I'm considering and haven't decided for sure on yet (I want to talk to my childcare coordinator about it) so she doesn't really need to worry about it yet, but she seemed really upset.
Do you think this is a fair way of me being able to take part-time kids but still making a decent amount of money on them? I mean, I could just say I only want to take full-time kids, then she'd be out of luck completely.
What do you all think? Thanks in advance everyone!
