Sick days...

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Originally Posted by childcare

.. but an uncommon autoimmune disorder that I was diagnosed with a few years ago. This does not mean that I am unable to provide adequate care or the inability to run a successful daycare, however, it sometimes might mean I clearly take more sick time than most.. my question was how my fellow daycare providers handle it etc... I see now that no one that responded can relate and that is fine. That is great if most of you don't take sick days. I wrote that the days I have taken were because of fever etc I just really didn't think I had to go into detail as to why I am taking sick days, but I feel I do as I am a very strong woman and I am definitely not weak. I can muscle through fevers like the best of em!
Thanks ladies and take care!

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When my husband was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016, it meant that he had to go to daily radiation in the city. Obviously he was not well enough to drive himself in and out. Once a week after his radiation, he had a meeting with his oncologist and we found that he wasn't taking information in as well as he normally would and so I needed to go with him for that.

Clearly I couldn't close my day home for several weeks because parents don't get that much time off and I was concerned if they went elsewhere, they would not want to then come back and have another adjustment for their child.

Our son drove him in and out but knowing that once a week I needed to go with him, we found someone to provide back up care.

Since you clearly know you have the potential for sick days, and since your client's clearly didn't get that message even if you tried to forewarn them at interview, perhaps you also need a plan B.

Find someone who you trust. Pay for their police checks if they don't have them. Get the children used to that person. And add a clause into your contracts that in the event of illness, you have a back up carer, that parents will be notified if you are ill and that carer will be in your place. Then all you have to do is isolate yourself out of the day care space or any common spaces.

It required a huge amount of cleaning and sanitizing to make sure that with a compromised immune system my husband didn't catch anything from the day care children. The same amount of cleaning will be required for you to ensure you don't pass anything to the children. Same situation, different people at risk of being passed sickness.

This might sound harsh - but when you know that you will likely have more time off sick than the average person, or your availability might be compromised more than other provider's, then you plan for that. And yes, it does mean paying for someone to cover your business but the alternative of losing your business due to being unreliable is worth the expense.

All in all, my husband was in treatment for 6 weeks so 6 days I paid for cover for the day home. Yes, it meant paying more than I earned those days but that's the way it goes. He still has regular checks and in time, if nothing more is found the frequency of those will reduce but for now, we keep the same back up carer, inform client's as soon as we have an appointment and we bring in the back up carer. We also bring her in every couple of weeks anyway just so the children can maintain a relationship with her for the time being.

I can relate - I just don't compromise on my reputation of being a reliable provider with a quality program.

Thank you Suzie_Homemaker! I appreciate you opening up about your husband and some things that you tried and that worked for you. I have been using my mom as a backup for appointments and such. This is a great way for me to ensure clients are happy and kids are taken care of for scheduled appointments. I think the best strategy for me is to use my backup for sick days (which I haven't done yet). I think then at least if I have to take a sick day I don't have to inconvenience parents. I don't know why I haven't been doing that, but I will for now on.
Again, I appreciate all of your input and honesty!

I wish I could charge for sick days and even some personal days/holidays. But pickings are too slim in my area, so I can't. Luckily, I'm rarely ill and don't have many appointments now my kids are grown. Wouldn't taking all this paid time off make centers more attractive to clients? They are available every day to children are they not regardless of employee health and appointments etc?
I wouldn't want to give a family any more reason to go to center. I do of course charge when their child doesn't attend. ?

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Originally Posted by ebhappydc

I wish I could charge for sick days and even some personal days/holidays. But pickings are too slim in my area, so I can't. Luckily, I'm rarely ill and don't have many appointments now my kids are grown. Wouldn't taking all this paid time off make centers more attractive to clients? They are available every day to children are they not regardless of employee health and appointments etc?
I wouldn't want to give a family any more reason to go to center. I do of course charge when their child doesn't attend. ?

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Absolutely.

I'm not sure where you are but in Ontario we are going through so many changes and our work as private or independent homedaycares have been scrutinized, they're doing everything possible to bring it up to the media and show how bad and unreliable are the "independent or private homedaycares" yet they do not show publicly, incidents that also happens in the licensed sector.

We, who make our living through this work and support our families, we keep defending ourselves, we keep showing that offering services in our homes doesn't mean that we lack of proffesionalism.

If we keep advocating for our proffesionalism we must assume that role and act responsible as one.

Yes, we can go and work on centres (some offer good benefits some don't but in general the pay is low, having access to sick days or vacations etc is also relative) parents go to centres because they've been sold on the idea that a centre is better (honestly far from the truth, unless you visit centres operated directly by the government non-for profit and their educators have generous benefit packages and belong to an unionized system ).

Unfortunately thanks to those selfish, unprofessional, and people who don't care for the rest of us or families or children, we have all been affected (they didn't have any social responsibility ).

Now, it is up to us to keep cleaning our image and act as competent professionals in the field. We are against a huge mountain I found this some time ago. An agency uses this to attract and convince parents:

"while many unlicensed or informal home daycare Providers do a very good job, the absence of regulatory safeguards or of a back-up Provider should the home child care provider fall I'll or be otherwise unavailable are two of the major reasons many parents prefer Licensed child care"- ADCO

Now you judge it and tell me what do you thing about this?

It is upsetting but that's one of the reason I do act with professionalism just so parents are aware that my caring services are competent and still keep it in an environment that nurtures children "Home".

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..When my husband was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016, it meant that he had to go to daily radiation in the city. Obviously he was not well enough to drive himself in and out. Once a week after........

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Im really sorry to hear your situation Suzie_Homemaker, I went through a similar situation with my husband on Feb, he went through a major surgery, but same as you the very same day of the surgery I was open and working (but also had arranged a back up in case of an emergency requiring my presence at the hospital; my group of parents were very supportive so, we all had open phone lines that day and one by one called after the surgery to ask and see how can they help. Having not any relatives here in Canada it really meant a lot to us.

I just cannot imagine the pain you went through, hopefully it is all ok now.

I'm sure it would have been easy to close shop but, we have a responsibility towards families that rely on us. Life must continue, I was advised to close for the surgery day but my mind and my stress probably could have driven me crazy in 8 hrs of surgery. I kept working and distracted the time went fast and at the end at the day I went to the hospital and stayed beside my husband's bed after his successful surgery.

I cannot relate how you did it Suzie_Homemaker for that lenght of time. You're a strong woman.

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Originally Posted by Peacefulbird

Im really sorry to hear your situation Suzie_Homemaker,

I just cannot imagine the pain you went through, hopefully it is all ok now.
I cannot relate how you did it Suzie_Homemaker for that lenght of time. You're a strong woman.

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Thank you.

It was and still is a very frightening time. We are lucky that one of our four sons is still in this Province and fairly local but of course he has a family and work commitments of his own too. My husband has been amazing. No complaints and he really struggled some days. Not in the clear yet but he will be checked regularly and we just hope for no active cancer growth each time. We were very lucky and received exceptional care and treatment.

Fortunately my husband is a stubborn old goat so that was a big help and my client's were fantastic. Meals left at the door, offers to drive him into the city if my son wasn't able to on some days and thankfully amazingly understanding when we do have to notify them of the next appointment and bring in the back up carer.

It teaches you to value each and every day and to not take tomorrow for granted.

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It teaches you to value each and every day and to not take tomorrow for granted.

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You're absolutely right Suzie_Homemaker, and I will say to that one, AMEN.

BlueRose If I can ask...4 weeks vacation...are these paid weeks ....and is it the same for sick, personal, bereavement and emergency days? I realize we can all put whatever we want in our contracts, but I will say...it's not easy to find clients that will pay for all that....my clients frown about paying for when they take vacation, let alone me!

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Originally Posted by susansmith

BlueRose If I can ask...4 weeks vacation...are these paid weeks ....and is it the same for sick, personal, bereavement and emergency days? I realize we can all put whatever we want in our contracts, but I will say...it's not easy to find clients that will pay for all that....my clients frown about paying for when they take vacation, let alone me!

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While I don't take 4 weeks, I do have 10 days which are paid. I was one of the first to have paid days in my area and I admit that initially for new client's, it did raise some eyebrows. But yes, that would include any closures regardless of the reason.

How I brought it in was simple math. I had not increased fees for a few years and I had a stable group who had been in my care for some time. I proposed to them that since I hadn't increased fees, I would make the commitment to keep fees as they were for 2 years with 10 paid days or I would have to make a fee increase and set aside the extra for when I was off.

It was an easy sell but unlike Ontario and other provinces, child care is less expensive here. I'm the top end for my area at $38 a day and I do understand that for parents paying $50+ for their day home, paid closures aren't so easy to sell.

But for me, $38 x 10 paid days would cost each client $380 a year. Or a $2 a day increase x 5 days a week x 50 weeks a year would cost them $500 a year.

Once paid days were in the contract and accepted by the core group, then finding one client who accepted it each time there was a vacancy wasn't so bad. I see since I introduced them in my day care, more and more local providers also do the same. I do have in my contracts that any leave I was to take over 10 days would be unpaid but I've never taken more than 10 days.

Thank you Suzie_Homemaker for that input. That explanation makes great sense!