Your family dinner time

[DORITOSGIRL]

Hi
I am curious.. What time does your family eat dinner.

I have two full time daycare kids. One is gone by 530 at the latest and the other 6 to 630..

I really did not think it through when I accepted the offer to take care of the later kid.

He arrives between 830 and 9am and his dad picks up between 6 to 630.. My hubby works 6am to 4 Monday to Thurs and 6am to 1 on Fridays.. He is the type not to eat all day long so he is starving when he gets home.

Up until I started daycare we ate at 5 as when I worked as a server my hours were 630am to 2ish 4 days a week.

We have tried holding off dinner until the late kid goes home but we are both starving and my one year old goes to bed around 715 to 730 so 630 dinner is too late for her.

This week we started eating dinner immediately after the first kid goes home ( its never later than 530 and usually earlier) I offer the remaining kid a snack or a drink but I feel so guilty eating dinner in front of him.

Do you all wait until the kids are gone or do you eat your meal?

[KingstonMom]

All my kids are gone by 5pm and we are usually eating our supper by 5:15-5:30. Would you be willing to offer to feed this last child supper for an extra fee? like $3 extra per day? even after I tyoed that i am against that option. I believe its IMPORTANT that your family AND dck's family eat supper together, alone. As a family.
So apart from asking him to be picked up later, essentially changing your daycare closing hours effective Oct 1st or somthing if you want to provide some notice, OR continue doing what your doing and offer him a snack and a quiet toy while you try to enjoy your family dinner.
I personally would not like that, I think 5pm is plenty late enough for me to be open until, and luckily all my clients can work with this too.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I personally do not work past 5pm anymore for this very reason ~ whole point of working from home was to create work life balance and wanting to be able to get to evening extra curricular activities and so forth.

When I was working until 5:30 clients were aware that I would start prepping dinner and any children here that late would be engaged in quiet table activities in the kitchen ... dinner was ready to be 'served' the minute the last child left.

However if I was working until 6:30 that is very late for both your family and the child to be waiting for dinner ~ would they consider paying extra and you just feed the child with your family???

[jec]

We don't eat that late either as our kids are in bed by 7:30pm as well. It's not good to eat too late but, there are families that have no choice- you do and don't forget that families will do what they need to for what is best for their family and you need too as well. You can offer them options which is being more than fair.
I use break to get everything ready for dinner and will put the meat in the oven and turn on the stove around 4:30 and then eat when the daycare kids are gone ~ if I'm not cooking in my crock pot which I LIVE in for convenience.
You could offer them a few options. Let them know that you can have their son join you for dinner with a light snack/drink and or as Reggio suggested, pay extra for him to join you for dinner?

[monkeymama]

My DCK are gone by 5 except for one who is here until 6/6:15. During interview, her mom and I discussed dinner time. We eat every night at 5:30 and she joins us. This "extra" is included in my fee for the week. I woulnt do this with just any child but she is very well behaved little girl, probably my DD best friend and she fits in nicely with my family. I would feel awful eating infront of her everynight and waiting until she leaves is just not an option for us. I probably would not take on any other DCK who would be here that late, she is an exeption.

[Momof4]

My hours are 7:30am to 5pm and a 9 hour day maximum or there is a $5/half hour fee applied for overtime. Most days I work from 8am to 4:45 from the time the first child is dropped off and the last child is picked up. I basically do NOT do overtime. I also have an early and late fee of $5 if they arrive before 7:30 or come later than 5pm.

The reason for these fees is that my time is valuable and I still have so much work to do every evening to clean up from the previous day and prepare for the next day and I deserve my own time to relax and have a social life. You have to learn to respect yourself and demand respect from others. It's your business and your rules and if you search you can find the families who will fit into your hours. You don't want to burn out because then you will start to hate this business.

[kidlove]

If I were you, I would change my hours (if possible). i would ask the late pickup childs parents if they could pick up or have someone pickup by 5:30pm. Given he is not an "eater" at your house, I would find that situation a little awkward and annoying to have another child in the other room watching a show or playing while you are having family dinner. Not to mention maybe thats where the annoying would come in, it would be VERY difficult for me to be engaged in super @ 5:30 and have a daycare child in the livingroom. Eating and watching for the parent to pick up, or eating and trying to pay attention to your husband and daughter and have the daycare child need you as well. TOO STRESSFUL! and too much interferance with your personal time...just change your hours...if possible.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Hi
I am curious.. What time does your family eat dinner.

I have two full time daycare kids. One is gone by 530 at the latest and the other 6 to 630..

I really did not think it through when I accepted the offer to take care of the later kid.

He arrives between 830 and 9am and his dad picks up between 6 to 630.. My hubby works 6am to 4 Monday to Thurs and 6am to 1 on Fridays.. He is the type not to eat all day long so he is starving when he gets home.

Up until I started daycare we ate at 5 as when I worked as a server my hours were 630am to 2ish 4 days a week.

We have tried holding off dinner until the late kid goes home but we are both starving and my one year old goes to bed around 715 to 730 so 630 dinner is too late for her.

This week we started eating dinner immediately after the first kid goes home ( its never later than 530 and usually earlier) I offer the remaining kid a snack or a drink but I feel so guilty eating dinner in front of him.

Do you all wait until the kids are gone or do you eat your meal?

I think it's very unprofessional.

As a business owner, you fully have control over the hours you work. You agreed to work for this family until 6.30pm. While I understand you are used to eating earlier, you aren't available earlier because you are still working and being paid to provide child care.

You are at work. It is not family time. It is not personal time. It is not supper hour for you.

It's very unprofessional to sit and have a meal with your family during your business hours. It's worse if you are preparing it in business hours too but I'm assuming your partner is doing that. If your family is starving, then they can eat but it wouldn't be tolerated in a work place for you to sit down with your family during work hours and have a meal in front of a customer because you are hungry!

Your husband could feed your one year old and then you could do bed time and eat supper together. The reason you feel guilty eating your dinner in front of the one remaining client is because you know deep down it's the wrong thing to do.

Or since your husband knows he finishes work long before you, he's going to have to be a big boy and decide to eat during the day because he knows his wife remains at work until 6.30pm and isn't available to eat with him any earlier. There's lots of ways you can deal with the consequences of the decision to work later - none of which are to cease doing your job and have a meal with your family because the adults didn't eat during the day/are used to eating earlier/didn't consider that they would need to work around this commitment.

[cdngirl]

You're responding to a post from 2012 because this thread was bumped up by spam bots...

I think it's very unprofessional.

As a business owner, you fully have control over the hours you work. You agreed to work for this family until 6.30pm. While I understand you are used to eating earlier, you aren't available earlier because you are still working and being paid to provide child care.

You are at work. It is not family time. It is not personal time. It is not supper hour for you.

It's very unprofessional to sit and have a meal with your family during your business hours. It's worse if you are preparing it in business hours too but I'm assuming your partner is doing that. If your family is starving, then they can eat but it wouldn't be tolerated in a work place for you to sit down with your family during work hours and have a meal in front of a customer because you are hungry!

Your husband could feed your one year old and then you could do bed time and eat supper together. The reason you feel guilty eating your dinner in front of the one remaining client is because you know deep down it's the wrong thing to do.

Or since your husband knows he finishes work long before you, he's going to have to be a big boy and decide to eat during the day because he knows his wife remains at work until 6.30pm and isn't available to eat with him any earlier. There's lots of ways you can deal with the consequences of the decision to work later - none of which are to cease doing your job and have a meal with your family because the adults didn't eat during the day/are used to eating earlier/didn't consider that they would need to work around this commitment.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

Thanks. OMG, the spam here is just terrible. Worse than any other forum I know.