Anyone charge full fees for before/after care?

[sunnydays]

Thanks everyone...yes, I am not sure if I want to do it either...I do realize that the older kids can pose challenges and I would probably dread PD days and school holidays...but for the right family and the right hours, I would consider it if they pay be full fees because I am already going to be dropping off and picking up my own son at the same bus stop. I think the only thing appealing to me about it (aside from filling my spots) is that I would then have a lighter load during the day and be able to do more outings and have some peace and quiet. Well, if they are interested I will take it from there.

[cfred]

I've always charged exactly half for that age group, moving to full pay on holidays, etc. Yup, it's a loss, however, I think the fees will go up over the next number of years, judging by the number of people who won't do it due to financial loss. I'm looking at it as a pre-retirement gig.....people are still going to need before and after care, regardless of people wanting to offer it. Maybe then, rates can go up, making it feasible for us to take them

[Inspired by Reggio]

I've always charged exactly half for that age group, moving to full pay on holidays, etc. Yup, it's a loss, however, I think the fees will go up over the next number of years, judging by the number of people who won't do it due to financial loss. I'm looking at it as a pre-retirement gig.....people are still going to need before and after care, regardless of people wanting to offer it. Maybe then, rates can go up, making it feasible for us to take them

Might want a back up plan on that unless you are retiring soon ~ cause if the Liberal/NDP government in Ontario has its way the school boards will just offer ALL childcare ... look at the current trends and changes they have made in the past 4 years .... they have already passed legislation to move childcare from a social service to the Ministry of Education, to require ECE to be regulated through a College like teachers are in prep to move us into their system, we now how Full day early learning where 4 and 5 year olds by 2015 will be in the school setting and out of childcare domain, the new Early Years legislation is requiring school boards ;where there is a demand' to offer a seamless day to 4 and 5 year olds aka offering before and after school as early as 6am and late as 6pm within the kindergarten space in schools and they continue to be pressured to offer it for the 6-12 year age group as well although 'centres' are fighting this cause they do not want to loose their 'niche' for this age group.

But the argument being made for this push is that since the schools already have the space and equipment to provide 'care' from 9-3 to this age group from a 'cost perspective' of the government it makes more sense to advocate that the space be used to offer 'childcare' for extended hours past the traditional school year rather than funding additional locations Millions of dollars each year to offer the same services in 'additional space' within the community effectively doubling services while schools sit 'empty' during those hours .... for over a decade now all new schools built have 'childcare programs' being built in them to accommodate children from infancy up and so forth ~ it is not a hard stretch to see that this is the way they are moving to have ALL childcare under the Ministry of Education umbrella and eventually once society is more accepting to have it be 'free' to parents just like the 'school system' is now .... basically parents of children 6-12 already get 'free daycare' in Canada .... sure it is in the guise of academic education but once upon a time the 'free' option was only for poor people whose families could not afford which is also why school is in season around the 'harvest' schedule aka closed during high farming seasons cause attendance dropped anyway cause farmers pulled their kids to go help on the farm and 'wealthy' kids got tutored at home or sent to private schools .... but over time it just became 'normal' for all kids to go to the free system regardless... if there was not this 'free option' than parents would have to PAY for someone to supervise their children during these hours cause they are not old enough to be 'left alone' yet .... IMO it likely will not be long before society pushes to include the 'younger age groups' into this umbrella so that both parents can be working and contributing to the economy and so forth .... there has been a push for 'National Childcare System' for decades and we almost got it once with all the provinces signed on and than we had a Federal election and the Conservatives squashed it but they are still pushing for it