How often do you take personal days?

[Inspired by Reggio]

I have 10 vacation days in my contract and 10 personal/family emergency days as well per calendar year ... I provide 60 days notice for vacation closures and 'as much notice as possible' for personal/emergency day closures!

IMO this is the reality of choosing HOME CARE clients need to have BACK UP care to closures .... either having ample vacation and personal/emergency days that EXCEED what we would take so that they have some for their own use AND for ours OR they need to have extended family who can help out if we are closed. If they do not have this as an option than IMO they need to consider CENTRE care as their childcare option because centres are open regardless!

I use my personal / family days to book any specialist appointments I cannot book 'after daycare hours' because you get what you get in those circumstances - so annual physical and my annual follow up for my Celiac take up at least 2 days. I also use 2-3 personal days each spring attend my professional associations provincial conference which falls on a Thursday / Friday / Saturday each June because I do not want to take 'unpaid' days to attend professional development as ultimately it benefits THEM as well having a passionate provider up to date in best practice! The remaining I use for when I am too sick to provide safe supervision to the children ...cause you know there is going to be at least one a year that 'something' runs through your program that knocks you off your feet for 1-2 days .... than if December arrives and I have not used up my personal days - I apply them to my Xmas closure because I am closed Dec 24 - Jan 1 and sometimes if the 1st is a Friday I may want to 'add' a day to that to finish off the week and while parents pay for the 3 'stats' that fall during that time frame there are often 2 or so days that are not 'covered' so are unpaid - if I have left over days I add them to that so I can have the week paid.... my parents on my plan B payment basically accept that they are paying the SAME fee 52 weeks a year regardless of if I am open or not unless I EXCEED the 10 days of vacation and 10 personal days in which case than they would get a 'lower fee' for closed days!