Searching for care not finding anything that fits!!!

i'm currently seeking child care for my 18 month old son starting ASAP or in June a little back ground on us as a family we've been married for 2.5 years we're a relatively young couple. my husband bids for his shifts every few months or so, i'm a part time security guard who works on call so my shifts vary week to week and sometimes month to month depending on the need for coverage, i'm finding it very difficult to locate a child care provider that starts early enough for us. we're also part time maybe leading to full time depending on everyone's schedules. i've considered even starting my own daycare because i find the lack of coverage for people like me (a security guard who start earlier than 7am) appalling i understand that when you work for yourself you set your own hours but wouldn't you want to go based on some demand i'm sure there's a vast untapped resource of money by setting earlier start times such as nurses, security guards, police officers etc. sorry about the vent but it is really annoying especially with my daycare provider moving soon so my search has been frustrating!!

Where abouts are you located? There are daycare centers that offer care to those who are needing early starts or late care. There's some that offer 24/7 care - especially for doctors and nurses.

i'm in burlington ont

You don't say where you are located. It pretty much goes by supply and demand as with any service. If there are enough clients that we don't need to work a 12 hour day at 8 hour pay why would we. Having said that my first child comes at 6:40 but because of that I don't take any children than need to be picked up after 5 pm so if you needed a late day instead it wouldn't work for me. One of the biggest reasons for mornings is that many providers are busy with their own chidlren getting them up, dressed, and ready for school.

What is probably causing you more issues than the hours is your schedule. I get the sense that because of the way you described your schedule and that it mattered in the start time that you are also looking for a provider that will only require you to pay for the days your child is in care. For full time clients providers will often make exceptions to things like hours. But if you are taking a space in the daycare but not paying for it then the provider may feel that they are already giving you a break and not be willing to give even more. Since providers have limited spaces in their daycare dictated by each provincial government regulations then you need to remember that you are paying to reserve one of those spaces whether you use it or not. On the hours issues - some caregivers will open early for an extra fee because their work day is now being extended.

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Originally Posted by playfelt

You don't say where you are located. It pretty much goes by supply and demand as with any service. If there are enough clients that we don't need to work a 12 hour day at 8 hour pay why would we. Having said that my first child comes at 6:40 but because of that I don't take any children than need to be picked up after 5 pm so if you needed a late day instead it wouldn't work for me. One of the biggest reasons for mornings is that many providers are busy with their own chidlren getting them up, dressed, and ready for school.

What is probably causing you more issues than the hours is your schedule. I get the sense that because of the way you described your schedule and that it mattered in the start time that you are also looking for a provider that will only require you to pay for the days your child is in care. For full time clients providers will often make exceptions to things like hours. But if you are taking a space in the daycare but not paying for it then the provider may feel that they are already giving you a break and not be willing to give even more. Since providers have limited spaces in their daycare dictated by each provincial government regulations then you need to remember that you are paying to reserve one of those spaces whether you use it or not. On the hours issues - some caregivers will open early for an extra fee because their work day is now being extended.

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it's not the hours it's guaranteed monday tuesday wednesday and i have no problem sending my son the minimum required days set by the provider! there's a possibility of thurs and friday as well. but with schedule it's the sometines it's 6 am drop off sometimes it's as late as 8am, every child care provider in burlington the earliest i have seen is 7am

Have you considered a stop gap provider in the sense of hiring a university student to stay with your son, let him sleep in and get him up, fed and then take him to the other provider before heading off to school or work themselves. You might also consider arranging for someone to stay at your house on the early morning days so they would arrive the night before and sleep over allowing you to get up and go to work and your child to sleep in longer.

Have you tried working with your company to do a job share so that you would take care of each others children on your days off since you would both be used to getting up at 5 each day. Please remember that while you are putting your baby to bed and going to bed yourself early since you have to get up early, your provider is also putting her own children to bed and then instead of going to bed herself is sanitizing bathrooms, washing toys children mouthed that day, cutting out shapes for craft time, cutting up vegetables to be served the next day. Our woek day does not end when the last child leaves. Sorry that you are having daycare issues. Odd hours care does sometimes require some unusual arrangements. Wish I had some other ideas for you. Be sure you are posting ads for childcare wanted on local message boards and talking to anyone you see. Ask around to other parents that work at jobs that start at early hours like you. Be prepared to drive out of your way to find someone. Find a 24 hour daycare and there are sometimes a few in each city and consider taking your child to care the night before so he can sleep in the next morning too.

I think if I were having difficulty filling my spaces, I would consider extended hours for an extra fee, but most providers I know have even shorter hours than me (I work 7:30-5:30). I understand your frustration, but you have to remember that we work very long hours and are not paid hourly and most of us do have our own families to care for as well. Maybe some of those providers who list their hours as 7am might be willing to negotiate an earlier start time for you for an extra fee if you contact them. Good luck!

Personally, I have my hours listed as a 7am start but I will consider opening as early as 6am for the right family who fits well. (that said, I will open early but I will not close later than 5pm).

Perhaps one of those care providers will work with you? Have you phoned or emailed any of them to see if they will be willing to compromise?

Definitely ask some providers whether they would consider starting one hour earlier on the days you need depending on whether you are a good fit. You may be surprised. I think most providers really do try to be flexible. We understand the situation working parents are in and a lot of providers will go above and beyond.

You could also offer them a few dollars more per day for the extra hours or promise an earlier pickup. All these things will make a provider more likely to work something out with you.

Just keep trying. Go to a busy park and see if there are providers there and talk to them and ask them of they know anyone who is looking for more children to take in.

personally I have seen providers and know providers who are willing to even offer overnight or late night care so you just have to look around. I know one provider near me who has a police officer's children stay with her 4 days a week and then 4 days with the parents because the parent is on rotating shift. There are these sort of arrangements out there - it is just a matter of finding the right fit /provider and having a dialogue with them:yes: Good luck

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Originally Posted by Devs_mom

it's not the hours it's guaranteed monday tuesday wednesday and i have no problem sending my son the minimum required days set by the provider! there's a possibility of thurs and friday as well. but with schedule it's the sometines it's 6 am drop off sometimes it's as late as 8am, every child care provider in burlington the earliest i have seen is 7am

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If you offered to pay a caregiver the full fee for all five days whether you use them or not you would probably have a better chance of finding someone. As I posted earlier you are asking the caregiver to reserve a full week for you even though she is only guaranteed pay for three of the days. Plus you want her to alter her hours of care and that also likely means you want your children fed breakfast which is not normally part of the daycare day. Financially it will be hard for you but as a caregiver I would not be going to all the trouble of extra hours plus extra meals plus lost income many weeks. Instead I would continue to advertise.

There are providers out there who do part time and do not charge a whole week.

I had to use 3 different home daycares when I was not a SAHM or a daycare mom and all 3 providers I used were okay with me putting my child /children in Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and just paying for those days. I wasn't using these providers simultaneously. I had to give up the first provider because we moved 20 minutes closer to my work, I gave up the second provider when I got preggo with Baby #2 and she said she was switching over to real estate by the time my 12 mo maternity would be over and I gave up provider #3 because my work schedule became flexible to the point where I could work from home and balance my work for evenings and weekends and not need daycare anymore.

Once I became a provider I also made sure that I would be open to parents who need part time so I could pay it forward. Ideally it is usually in the childs' best interest to spend as much time at their own home with their parents so if a parent can make a part time schedule work then I try to make it work. I do 3 kids part time, 1 after school only and 1 full time and it has worked well for me.

In retrospect now I would probably like to just do 2 full time children but I do appreciate the part time parents and I had 3 awesome providers who let me do that too so hubby and I could still have our child whenever we could and not go bankrupt :)

I have some part time children too. Boy comes Monday only and another comes other 4 days, one of my other spaces I have a child that uses 2 days and another family that uses 3 days. The difference here is that they are all paying for the days they use. Because the family only needs 3 days of care I am free to find another child that needs the other two days. If the family that booked three days needs more for that week I have to say sorry I can't help you because they didn't reserve them. If you want all five days available to you whether you use them regularly or just occassionally you need to book and pay for all the spaces every week.

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Originally Posted by playfelt

I have some part time children too. Boy comes Monday only and another comes other 4 days, one of my other spaces I have a child that uses 2 days and another family that uses 3 days. The difference here is that they are all paying for the days they use. Because the family only needs 3 days of care I am free to find another child that needs the other two days. If the family that booked three days needs more for that week I have to say sorry I can't help you because they didn't reserve them. If you want all five days available to you whether you use them regularly or just occasionally you need to book and pay for all the spaces every week.

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Oh okay. I thought you were implying that every part time parent should have to pay the 5 days a week. I definitely misunderstood :laugh::o

Maybe I am misunderstanding but it sounded like the person looking for care wanted three days a week every week and then wanted the caregiver to keep the other days open just in case they needed them which wouldn't be every week. When we only have 5 spaces we need to have pay per space but yes I usually save one space for a shared space. The advantage too is my rate for part time is more so two in the space actually pays more than for one but over the year both children get gifts, newsletters, etc so it balances out. The luck of finding a child that only needed one day a week was totally unexpected but his grandparents have him but wanted one day a week to do running around, meet their adult friends for lunch etc. so it works out well for all of us.

I also have part time children. Part of why people choose home daycare is because of this flexibility. I also charge $5/day more for parttime children. I have one parttime who is set days but the other is not, so I cannot fill his 'off days'.

Oh I never had luck filling in my part timers with other part-timers so I have part-timers and basically I do save a whole week spot for them. I did try to fill in the other days and advertised them for a while but I never had luck. A lot of people say they will fill in the spots but that they also need one or two days more and I can't risk too many kids overlapping on certain days. I don't want to be at over-capacity.

Similarly to the poster - I have had parents come and say they want 2 days and then possibly more later. One of the boys I watch started with 1 day a week and then moved to 3 days a week now.

I don't mind holding a whole spot for these part-timers because I don't operate at capacity anyways. My hat always goes off to any provider who does 5 kids a day plus their own. I don't think I could stay sane. lol ;)

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Originally Posted by Emilys4Guppies

I also have part time children. Part of why people choose home daycare is because of this flexibility. I also charge $5/day more for parttime children. I have one parttime who is set days but the other is not, so I cannot fill his 'off days'.

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I never had providers ask me more for part time and I never even thought of charging more for part time. That is interesting and something I may just think about down the road :):):)

It seems to be the 'norm' for around here, Spixie33. I see it all the time on the ads where the providers list their prices (I do not).

I find that part-time children take longer to adjust to care, especially if they are not on set days. I also spend the same for birthdays, holiday parties, ect, that all the children attend, so it works out in the end. It might be less work to have a child only part time, but it is sometimes more effort when they are here because of the acclimation time. I have a little guy from Wed-Fri and, even though he's happy as a clam come Friday, our Wednesdays are always tough on him. However, my fulltime children have much easier days because they are with me more than not, kwim?

Sorry Emily....I am puzzling over the last 4 letters of your message? What is kwim?

Oh I'm sorry! Just computer-speak. KWIM=know what I mean.