What are your daycare hours?

Hi there,

I started a home daycare this month. I originally wanted my hours to be from 7:00am to 5pm. I had a family ask for a start time of 6:45am, which I thought wasn't that big of a deal... well, I am two weeks in and already regretting agreeing to such an early start time. I feel tired for the whole day when my days start so early. It doesn't help that I have a baby getting up for 2 feedings in the middle of the night as well. I was wondering what everyone's hours are? When do you start and when do you finish? I'm already thinking that I won't be able to keep this 6:45am start time for too long... Have any of you been in a situation where you had to terminate a client because it was too early of a start? I'm thinking of changing my hours to 7:30am start time and once I find a couple of families, I may be letting the 6:45am start family go.

My hours are 7:30 to 5:30 and I am firm about it. More, and I would crash and burn!:)

My hours right now are 7:30 to 5:30.
but I am going to be changing them to 7 - 5pm, My oldest son will be starting school in Sept. and I have to have him there for 8 am, so a 7:30 drop off time will not work.
I am so not a morning person, so its going to be fun, getting up even earlier.

My hours are 6:45-4:30 ..... I have to have the early open because of my location to give enough time for parents to travel into the city .... Plus I like being off early!

Yes this is the challenge with this industry ~ we really need to decide on our hours of business and stick to them otherwise before you know it your starting 15 minutes early for one client, staying late 30 minutes for another and after a while you are working 12 plus hours a day :(

My program hours are 7:30 - 4:30 for my base fee ... I offer 'extended hour service' as early as 7am and as late as 5pm for an ADDITIONAL FEE.

I made this change heading into my 2nd year in business when I was starting to feel burnt and I wanted to help ensure that clients truly NEED more than 9 hours of service because I have found over my years that often clients will say they 'need' 10 plus hours because the daycare is advertizing they are open those hours and it is really just EASIER to leave the child in care and go run errands and so forth before or after work ~ however when they have to pay EXTRA for those additional hours in additional to the normal '9 hour work day' well suddenly it is not so much trouble to take Johnny to run their errands or they realize it is cheaper to invest in a 'second carseat' so that the other spouse can share in the drop of and pick up to keep the child in daycare less than 9 hours and so forth ;)

Find the hours that work for you and STICK to them hon ... we do not have to say YES to everyone who shows interest in our program it is ok to hold out for the BEST MATCH!

How much extra do you charge for more than 9 hours? When I interviewed this family I told them it is a max of 9.5 hours per day, and somehow they are here for 9.75 hours per day. If I were to do it again, I would make sure the client falls between the hours of 7:30am - 5pm. Like I said, I can see myself replacing them eventually because I can only do such long, early hours for so long.

I charge $5/day for overtime in the morning if they need to drop off before 7:30 am and an additional $5/day if you need care past 4:30 ... some clients arrange it for just 'specific days' each week and others might need it consistently daily.

Reality is it is still cheaper than 'centre care' would be to get that same extended hour service but they get the 'pro' of having the same staff at arrival and departure verses centre care and it compensates me for working 'overtime' like any other person in the working world would get!

Daycarelady, my official hours are also 7:30-5pm with a maximum 9 hour day and $5/half hour overtime or early or late fees. I'm really lucky that my clients right now arrive at 8 and are all gone by 4:45pm. I love it and I'm not exhausted the way I used to be in my first 3 years where my start time was 7am. The extra hour in the morning has made a huge difference in my health and sleep. You also have to watch out for the clients who say they want to start at 7:30 and arrive at 7:15. You have to tell those clients that is not allowed.

My hours are 6am-6pm and have been since I opened over 11 yrs ago. Over the years, I've only had a couple years during which I didn't have 6am or 6:30am arrivals. You get used to the early mornings within a couple months to the point that you don't even notice. I had young ones up in the night when I first started too. It sucks, but passes.

The trick to doing the early hours is to also do the early evening so my first arrive just before 6:45 but all are gone by 4:45. Hubby leaves for work at 6:20 so I am up anyways - if he didn't wake me I would for sure sleep through so this way as long as I am up might as well start the day. What I really like is that most nights the kids are gone or I am down to only a couple before I have to start making supper as we time it to be done so we can watch the news and eat.

When your own kids get to be school age you will for sure appreciate the earlier finish time as it means getting kids fed and out to evening activities a lot easier.