Changing maximum 10 hour care policy

I'm finding that my parents are choosing to run errands, go to the gymn etc after work instead of coming to pick up their children. About a month ago I changed my closing time for the same reason but I have a few clients that start quite early and are able to take advantage of me by leaving their children at daycare for as long as possible. I'm considering shortening the time that I allow children to be in care before I charge an extra fee. How long do you providers allow a parent to leave their child at your daycare in a day? Thanks in advance for your input!

I had that happen with my first clients, bugged the crap out of me! Now I have my 'program hours' (8-4) listed in my handbook, along with 'flexible pick up and drop off times are available that will be specified in your contract'. For each family, I ask when they need care for, and then when we do up the contract I add 15min to their average time (as long as it's not past my unwritten closing), and there's a late fee ($5/15min) after that. So if I have one written to come by 4:15, one by 5. If they both come at 5, one pays a late fee. Seems mean, but right now my latest pick up is 3:10 (contract time is til 4:15) and I don't want to work an extra hour so they can grocery shop!

I found parents were always doing the same here. I have a 9hr. maximum a day.

Hi, I open 8 to 5. I'm flexible when the weather conditions aren't the best or school bus cancellations or family emergency matters.

I explain this all during the first interview. Other than that, I'm not concerned on what the parents do (ex. Free day at home, groceries, gym, etc) My proffesional ethic is; for them to respect my hours 8 to 5pm. And as a proffesional I respect their personal life style or choices. I'm getting payed for the services I offer and the hours I agreed signed between both parts.

I only ask them to pick their child earlier if they're not feeling well.

I do my 100% keeping the children engaged so, when a parent arrives earlier it also disturbs our activities. Their children aren't ready to leave yet. So, as my philosophy is respect children's well beings the parents have to wait until we are done. So everyone gets home happy. Unless is an emergency or a special family event. But this has to be discussed time ahead so I can explain that child that he/she will be leaving earlier that day.

In my location there are several daycare centres and open longer hours for lower fee, it is very competitive.

My regular hours are 8am to 5pm (late fees start at 5:01pm, and can not enter until 8am)
My extended hours are: Start at 7:30 and/or stay open until 5:30 (late fees start at 5:31pm)

My reg. hours are at one weekly fee
My extended are at a higher weekly fee

I find most choose my reg. hours so they don't have to pay more. So they pick up before they run errors, unless they get off work early.

My hours are 9 hrs max or I would have had to quit a long time ago for burnout. Most parents pick up early if they can.
I know of a couple who sent their child to care all summer full time even tho both parents home for summer. They didn't know what to do with their child when his daycare closed for 2week holiday. Sad.

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Originally Posted by ebhappydc

My hours are 9 hrs max or I would have had to quit a long time ago for burnout. Most parents pick up early if they can.
I know of a couple who sent their child to care all summer full time even tho both parents home for summer. They didn't know what to do with their child when his daycare closed for 2week holiday. Sad.

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that is so disgusting:( why have kids

Hi, I do not find it disgusting. We are all different and have different strengths some like us are.more patient with children and are able to handle it and some aren't. But we all want to be parents some day (that is our human nature); I fin that parents that can not handle or basically entertain their children value much more our work, they know how hard is with just one. I've seem new parents in need of guidance (I was a young parent too). What I do is try to get resources from my community and at least guide them towards other programs (summer camps, drop in, sing alongs, parenting workshops, etc). We are all in it, we are raising our new generation and we need to help each other out one way or another, anything counts. I have seen successful proffesional parents and no clue of how to keep a baby or toddler busy; they do not have our experience and long accumulated knowledge in childcare. When they look for care they also rely on our experience.

As soon as you show how rich your experience and knowledget is, these parents will stay for a long time keeping your spots full. You have not only helped raising their child, you have also helped them to become better parents.

I tell my families that a full time spot is for 7-9 hours. And even that is a long day for little ones! I work long days...7am-5:30 and each daycare spot is really filled with 2 children (one before school and one for the rest of the day)...but for the sake of the child, I wouldn't let them come for the entire 10 1/2 hours I'm open...it isn't right..

Lately I reluctantly changed to a maximum 10hr day because I was having some trouble filling spots. But based on some families I've met with I decided it's not worth it. I am going back to 9hrs even if that means I will have to turn people away. May try 9.5hrs which is a compromise...If I could raise my rate and stay competitive I would do that and increase my max. I don't want to work more hours for the same pay :/

Interviewed one family who could comfortably do 730-430 but once I mentioned 10hr max she mentioned some days could be 530 pickup. That annoyed me but if you give them the time people will use it.

I envy the hours a lot of you keep.

If you find your suggestion of 10 hrs open missleading, then do not even mention it. Just stablish your hours and thats it. Unless you are open 10 hrs. But everyone has different contract time agreements. Ex 7:30 to 4:30, 8 to 5, 9 to 6, etc. I have tried that but to keep up with my records was also extra work. But I have charged accordingly. I will bill my 9 hrs of service plus extra time if they were late(with a recorded date and pick up time). You can also stablish a 9 hrs rate 9 and a half, and 10 hrs rate. I think parents will be more helpful if you give them the choice to decide to pay for 9hr. Service or 10 hrs.

To clarify, I charge the same rate no matter how long they are here for (8-9.5h), but each client has contracted hours that they must stay within. My reasoning is that if my latest pick up client leaves, and I replace them with other parents with early hours (say I finish a 7:30-5 contract and get a 7-4) then I would have every child contracted to be picked up by 4, and I can plan my life around that. If I give them a set close time or max hours, I never know when I'm going to be working later, or entertaining just one child for an extra hour while they wonder why every parent came except theirs.

@ ebhappydc I have a teacher parent like that. Full time all summer. Not even early pickups or shorter days. Very sad, and it's definitely a child who would benefit from the extra TLC. She also picks up 1 minute before I close, even though she's been home from work for 1.5 hours. The best part is, 2-3 days a week, he goes straight from my house to the daycare at the gym, so mommy and daddy can work out.... There are no words...

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Originally Posted by Busy ECE mommy

@ ebhappydc I have a teacher parent like that. Full time all summer. Not even early pickups or shorter days. Very sad, and it's definitely a child who would benefit from the extra TLC. She also picks up 1 minute before I close, even though she's been home from work for 1.5 hours. The best part is, 2-3 days a week, he goes straight from my house to the daycare at the gym, so mommy and daddy can work out.... There are no words...

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Oh sad. Well, I know them personally. Dad often plays video games in free time. They're not young parents either. I call it detached parenting!

I do 7.30 to 5 now after I had to change it from 7.30 to 4.30 as that half hour made a big difference to the parents in travelling to and from work and I know they are not working out at the gym

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Originally Posted by ebhappydc

Oh sad. Well, I know them personally. Dad often plays video games in free time. They're not young parents either. I call it detached parenting!

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So SAD, I hope the children feels loved at the weekend

I personally think there is a missunderstanding. And I remember someone explaining it long ago. We are selling a service and we are open for a certain length of hours but, it shouldn't matter what the parents do or not do during their hours and I do not find it ethical to post it and then judge it, unless we are perfect human beings.

I'm just glad that at least I have made a living, from responsible and caring parents that had made the decision to choose my care to help raising their children. Other than that I do not ask what they do or not, it is their private life, I respect it and they also respect mine.

What I find it sad, is the fact to use a website like this one very popular to parents, when they look for care, and find this kind of unethical comments against them, I'm a parent too and I'm not perfect.

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Originally Posted by Peacefulbird

I personally think there is a missunderstanding. And I remember someone explaining it long ago. We are selling a service and we are open for a certain length of hours but, it shouldn't matter what the parents do or not do during their hours and I do not find it ethical to post it and then judge it, unless we are perfect human beings.

I'm just glad that at least I have made a living, from responsible and caring parents that had made the decision to choose my care to help raising their children. Other than that I do not ask what they do or not, it is their private life, I respect it and they also respect mine.

What I find it sad, is the fact to use a website like this one very popular to parents, when they look for care, and find this kind of unethical comments against them, I'm a parent too and I'm not perfect.

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For many of us, we are isolated in our work. Other jobs provide lunch rooms and water coolers to chat with fellow coworkers and vent their frustrations. For some of us this chat room (this section which is dedicated to caregivers), is the water cooler. We don't have other people to vent to. We vent, we know that others can feel our frustrations and we then can perform our job that little bit better.

I agree we need to vent. We need to share and support each other but in an ethical an proffesional way. I do not think there is a need to denigrate other human beings, especially when you are making a living from them. You can address any issue but focused in what it is occurring to you or explain what is your situation. There is no need to go over others people's lives or activities on what they do or not after your hours of work. As mentioned before, this site is not just for caregivers to vent, it is for parents to search for childcare, and caregivers to advertise. And along the way it also offers a chatroom to support each other through empathy, experience an thoughtful advise.

When you go through some comments, it doesn't show respect for others private lives which also doesn't speak in a positive manner from our side including me as a."caregiver". I know centres have a break room but, lately they're also taking action about the discussions teachers have, mostly ethical, proffesional and respectful. The college of early childhood educators have sent letters to this regard. They now have fines and if a family finds out how some of their personal information is being shared or handled they have all their rights to take legal actions for invasion of privacy.

This post started with the length of work ours and how some children stay until the end of the opened hours. Most of us have given advise and reason and ideas of reducing hours, charging more, giving choices to parents in hours with extra pay etc. I think this keeps it more focused to the problem or issue.

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Originally Posted by Van

So SAD, I hope the children feels loved at the weekend

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i had a family that the kids were here 12 hours a day, in activities after care, in activities all Saurday, and spent Saturday afternoon and night and all day Sunday with grandparents. Grandparents would drop the kids off right before bed.
I thought and when do you as a parent actually spend any time with their kids? How can an individual even call themselves a parent if the spend less then 20 minutes a day with their kids. Thats less then 3 hours a week?????
Really why have kids in that case?

I will not judge it, but I think the kids where lucky to have grandparents to share their time, I wish my daughter had a chance to meet her wonderful grandparents. She would had definitely felt loved and spoiled here and there by them.

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Originally Posted by 33 Daiseys

i had a family that the kids were here 12 hours a day, in activities after care, in activities all Saurday, and spent Saturday afternoon and night and all day Sunday with grandparents. Grandparents would drop the kids off right before bed.
I thought and when do you as a parent actually spend any time with their kids? How can an individual even call themselves a parent if the spend less then 20 minutes a day with their kids. Thats less then 3 hours a week?????
Really why have kids in that case?

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That's a lot of time away from home unfortunately. Can only hope child thrives at daycare and at grammas. I have known some parents cope better when the kids are out of the toddler/preschool years. When child is older some parents connect better. So we can only hope. My hat goes off to those daycares open 12 hrs. I couldn't cope with those hours; that'd be the end of me! I do feel lucky to be able to be 9hrs. One parent usually drops off and other picks up is how they work it. I have had to turn away families tho because of my hours. And have had space empty for weeks because of it.... Don't want to burn out tho.

Thank you for everybodies input. I think having a fee for later pick-ups is a great idea, that way if they really need more travelling time, then it is available. I have no problem giving parents extra time to get back from work but we daycare providers do have a longer than average day and our personal time is limited. It's not just the time we spend in the daycare but also the time we spend getting supplies and picking up things for our program during our time off.

I do a little differently. My business hour are 7.30am until 4.30pm. If someone need come earlier, I will do that but not before 7am but they either expected to pick up 30 mins earlier to give me back my personal time lost in early opening and if they not able to do that, then they expected to pay higher rate for longer day.

I do contracted hours only, no open no close. I ask right off the hop, what time do you NEED TO be at work, and what time are you finished work, how much driving time will you need?

But that said, I am paid to provide a service, I will gladly take your child during your CONTRACTED hours if you choose to do something personal, it's their business.

Now, if I find out you are late because of that something personal, then we have a problem...Or, if you lie and say you are at work and are not.