How much would you add if a new family reuqire you to...

[Cocoon]

...work 1 more hour then your usual operating hours.

Morning ladies

I have an interview this afternoon with a family who has an 18 months old. I don't normally offer more then 9 hours a day in fact, none of my families needed more then 8-9 hours max. This family needs 10 hours care and It is full time. I was wondering how much would you add to your normal fees? I have to say that I'm a bit pricey for my area already and if I take one more child then I need to buy another stroller to accomodate the new child.


Thanks in advance for your help.
Cocoon

[Spixie33]

Hi Cocoon.....your schedule sounds heavenly I do a 10 hr day 7:15-5:15. I have had parents come and interview and ask for 7:00-6:00 which would be 11 hours. I told them it would be an extra $3 per day since that is roughly the hourly salary I get anyways.
They didn't sign with me. A lot of people in my area offer 11-12 hour days 6-6 and charge $30 so I was already taking a long shot by even offering.
I guess you have to decide whether you want to do the extra hour, and what your competition is. Good luck

[michellesmunchkins]

My rates are the same regardless of the hours they need. I am open 6am-6pm and charge $35/day. I have a family who commutes so their child is here pretty much open to close and they pay the same fee as my family who only needs 7 hours care...but...I find that the families who are off work at 3pm tend to 'leave' their child here until 5:30 because technically I'm 'open' until 6. I had a pretty rough group of families recently who totally took advantage of my hours and the fact that I'm just too nice lol. For any new families who come into care, anything after 5pm is an extra fee and anything before 7am is extra as well. Not only does it make for long days, but those children require more meals/snack. I find half the time I'm feeding them dinner because I want to have dinner with my family by 5:30ish and there are usually still dc kids here

[Cocoon]

There are quite a few day homes in my area and I don't know how much they are charging but some parents have told me how much other day homes charging when I was having phone interview with them. And I seemed to charge a bit more. I checked on this web site to see how much everyone is charging and found that some of the day homes are charging just a couple of $ less then me but they do have at least 5 kids which I don't have. I don't want to look after more then 3 kids max. And this does appeal to parents.

I have a family who drives 15-20 mins to get to my day home and according to her I was the best so she didn't mind driving. And there are lots of day homes in her neigbourhood(she met 12 day homes before she found me). So I'm hoping the right family will come along and thank god I'm not in a desperate situation.

Spixie33, like you I was thinking of adding $2-3 more on top of my fee. Will see what the family thinks

[Cocoon]

Michelle, where are you based if you don't mind me asking?

[Momof4]

I would charge an extra $10 on top of my normal fee for a 10 hour day. My normal fee covers a 9 hour day with my business hours of 7:30am-5pm. A before hours/after hours fee of $5 per half hour applies and if they exceed the 9 hour day another $5/half hour applies.

[Play and Learn]

I would charge at least $10. They want more time? I would want more money!

[Cocoon]

Normally, I would charge $10 for an extra hour. But I'm already expensive for my area and there are competitions. My daily fee is $50 and thinking of charging around $52-53 a day.

[Cadillac]

Off topic: For those of you who charge $35 or less for 10-12 hour days: where are you located? Is it less expensive areas to live? You deserve so much more for what you do.

[michellesmunchkins]

Cocoon, I'm in Oshawa Ontario. There are literally hundreds of other home daycare providers in the nearby area...well I should rephrase that...there are hundreds of stay at home Mom's who only charge $20/day to take in kids. I charge $35 because I used to work as a special education teacher and feel I should make more than someone without any qualifications or the formal education I spent 5 years in college getting. Its very frustrating to have people call and say oh we found someone cheaper...when really they just found someone who wants to stay home with their kids. I'm not knocking stay at home Mom's at all, just frustrating that parents can't see the difference between a 'real' home daycare program and someone just wanting to be home 'babysitting'. I worked hard on my programming but don't feel compensated enough financially for the hours that I work but can't increase my feels because everyone will just to with Jane Doe down the street for $20