Checking In--thinking of reopening
Howdy folks,
I hope everyone is ready for Christmas/Holiday season and have a fun filled daycare at this time.
School is going well although I think I'm going to be reopening my daycare in May when classes have finished and enrolling online for part time correspondence. I got used to the commute and only travelling 3 days is not so bad although I have winter term to deal with now so I envision many days not attending classes if there is ice or snow. I had already thought about switching to online in the Fall, but I really need to work and I am struggling to get responses from all of my applications and they are only for minimum wage jobs too.
The Canadian economy and forecast have me very nervous and living off one wage is already stressful enough with my husband working on average 60 hours a week and if anything comes up we are screwed. I have the means to take my degree slower studying from home and provide the household with some added security by working again, possibly enabling my husband to take a job requiring less hours or at the very least building up an emergency fund. We had a family member die and international flights sucked us dry getting family over here.
I guess, I could talk myself in or out of anything so it wasn't until the reality of living on one wage set in that we realized this isn't sustainable over the long term.
So, Over the Xmas break I will be clearing the basement out and moving the media room downstairs which has replaced my daycare space, and repainting and setting up my daycare room and advertising again. I refuse to see this as a negative move. I will still be doing my degree just slower, and making money again will hopefully mean I can sleep through the night again. Life is too short and spending it in a state of high stress and anxiety when there is another option seems like a sure fire way of making it shorter and quality of life poor. I'll also be reopening M-F...I was M-Th for the last 2 years I was open. It really restricted the amount of families I could serve but it was a choice I felt I was willing to make. If by some chance my initial enquiries are all for 4 day weeks, pretty please lol, then that would be fantastic. A full day to run errands, have appointments or study would mean far less time off. I literally never took time off for an appointment while working a 4 day week.
I didn't sell any of my daycare stuff...not a thing. I went away the day after I closed for 3 weeks and when I came back I had 1 week till school and since then I haven't had time. I didn't want to do a daycare closing sale this side of Xmas as so many are tight on money so I had planned for it in the Spring. Good thing hey! I don't have my minivan anymore as it was an unnecessary expense when 50% of the seats always sat empty, but I will manage without a vehicle.
So....sorry folks, plan on seeing me more on this site again as I become a daycare provider again :) Fingers crossed for a May 2016 opening that I'm going to be advertising for shortly.
