Hi. I have a mom who has had her son in my dayhome fulltime for 4 years. She is having a second child and will pull her son for a year, but wants me to hold a spot for both children. I don't know what to charge her for the year! Help!! :unsure:
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Hi. I have a mom who has had her son in my dayhome fulltime for 4 years. She is having a second child and will pull her son for a year, but wants me to hold a spot for both children. I don't know what to charge her for the year! Help!! :unsure:
When I have had moms go on mat leave they have always kept the children full time for the first three months to get past the sleep deprived newborn stage and then drop the older kid down to part time (3 days a week) for the rest of mat leave. I would not hold a spot or two for a year if I could fill it with a full time child .... I have two moms on mat leave right now .... One just start last week and she is keeping the older child in full time however she has said that doesn't mean she will bring him everyday but the spot is hers to use. The other one is 2/3 of the way through and is down to part time and can only use the same three days she chose.
It's up to you, some charge a holiday fee, some charge full rate for both children, and some say "see ya" and only take both children if it just so happens that two spots open up when mom needs them. Don't sell yourself short and lose a ton of money to keep a spot open. You never know, the family may move, mom may decide to stay home longer etc and you will get screwed. If it were me and I had two spots available now, mom would have to either start paying full rate for both or keep the oldest in daycare during her mat leave and hope a spot opens up for the infant, or mom takes her son out of daycare during her mat leave and hopes that you have TWO spots open up when she needs them which is unlikely. Do what's best for YOU not this family because when the time comes they ALSO will do what's best for THEM.
I have a mom going on mat leave and have offered this....once she gives me her start and end dates of mat leave I will post the spot as a term position. If I can find a family that only wants a spot for the year than current mom won't pay anything. If I can't fill the spot than mom has the option of sending the child and paying full rate or keeping the child at home and paying the holiday fee. Either way, it doesn't matter to me as I will either have my full payment(with term postion) or less workload(with mom paying holiday fee).
How do you determine what you charge for holiday fee? How does it work?
I don't hold spots. Simple. I do give all current families or previous families first pick at any spots I have.
I recently started charging a "holiday fee" (similar to 5LM) so if someone was interested in a spot that they were not going to be using they would pay $25 a day instead of my regular rate of $30.
I had 1 mom on mat leave that continued to send her oldest to me while she was off. When a spot came open 2 months before she needed the spot for the baby I told her I had one open and asked if she wanted it. She said she did. She began paying me for it as soon as it became available (not when she needed it).
I charge $10 less a day for holiday fee. So if this mom wanted to keep her spot but not send her child she would be saving $200/month. It's a big savings for a parent and not a huge dent in my income so it works for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Samantha33
I want to fill all my spaces with 'holiday holding fees' ha ha ha!!!!
I don't hold spots but have not really had anyone ask. I rarely advertise so guess I'm a bit under the radar.
I can't imagine anyone where I live paying close to full fees for an entire year for a spot they aren't using. There are at least 25 daycares within 5 minutes drive of me currently advertising spaces ha ha!!
lol wonderwiper...wouldn 't that be nice! ;)
Around here, there aren't many that charge a holiday fee that I am aware of. Mickyc has recently started doing this. If parents want to keep their spot at their hdc than they usually have to pay full fee. Hdc's are pretty common around us but quality care doesn't seem to be so some parents choose to do this or risk not having a quality dc for their kids when mat leave is over.
So when a Mom goes on mat leave and they want to keep the spot they pay me 3 days a week. So would this be like a holiday fee? They can use them or not but they all do.
I charge full fees if a family wants to hold a spot. I have had two families do this since I opened last spring, one was someone holding a spot for their baby while they sent their older child during a maternity leave. The other was for a school age spot. But here in Winnipeg there is high demand and I am licensed and accept subsidy so my spots would be worth paying to hold onto. I think supply and demand really affect how you would handle this situation.
The families were welcome to send their child if they wanted to during that time if they wanted, as it was technically their spot. But the days had to be prearranged.
It is similar yes. My holiday fee is for any days that they keep their child at home and have told me this before payment is due. Once payment is due, if they keep their child home for any reason they have already paid the full day's fee because I get paid in advance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Samantha33
If a parent is paying me the holiday fee for an extended amount of time and I find someone else to fill the spot than I wouldn't charge the holiday fee as I don't feel right getting paid twice for one spot. (this would be more for summers and mat leaves)
Hope that all makes sense! lol