Difficult Situation!! any advice would be great

[Inspired by Reggio]

Yup ~ when I was new I started with a longer day similar to 'centre' hours of the 12 hour day trying to be flexible and accommodating to variety of families needs and quickly realized i cannot please everyone and be HAPPY MYSELF at the same time ... so I made two changes to my business plan!

First my 'program hours' are now a 9 hour day like anyone else works and that is what my 'fee covers' ... 7:30 - 4:30 of program time where I am 'working and on' so to speak and that is a LONG day as is.

I than chose to word it that I would be willing to offer 'extended hour service' on an as contracted basis at an ADDITIONAL FEE and this allows me the flexibility to choose as it fits my family to either work earlier in the morning or later in the evening ~ but I never do BOTH and I never allow my hours to get more than 10 hours in length total because that is my 'work life balance' threshold any more than that and I get burnt out! Families cannot just 'decide' to arrive before 7:30 or after 4:30 it has to be in writing on their contract ~ if they arrive late without permission they get charged $1 per minute AND they get a warning if late again their contract could be terminated ... my family time is valuable and if you do not respect that we are done!

Ironically I found when I made these changes the families who HAD been leaving their children in care 10 plus hours suddenly when it was going to cost them 'extra' to do so went out and invested in second car seats so that the one parent could drop off and the other parent pick up cause that was than 'cheaper' than leaving their kid in care for so long ... people IME often leave their kid in from open to close cause they are wanting their 'monies worth' and when you CHANGE that for motivation for them to it being cheaper to stay within 9 hours than them make it work

I do not offer breakfast either ~ if your child arrives to program on an empty stomach they are waiting until 'morning snack time' at 8:30 to eat ... breakfast is a parents responsibility and IMO a routine that needs to be established early on in life so kids learn to get up and give themselves time to eat before school / daycare / work .... for too long now we have become this society of 'rush rush out the door' and nutrition is taking a backside to this ~ IMO time to make it a priority again!

As for the maternity leave verses closing up shop ~ congratulations on your newest addition and I agree with the other ladies ~ I would wait on making that decision and make the HOURS change first and if you loose this client whose sucking your passion out of you with their behavior you might find yourself reevaluating what you LOVED about being home with your daughter and being able to be home with the second one as well ~ perhaps a combination of going to school part time / online versions so you can balance both!

[happyheart]

I totally agree that they are trying to get their moneys worth. Many times these parents have dropped their kids off in work clothes and come to pick them up with their house clothes on right before closing time, as if they were sitting at home waiting to pick the kids up. And other times they have said oh i have a drs appt after work so ill see you when im done or have gone grocery shopping before picking up their kids. I just dont understand why someone would even want to leave their child at daycare for 12 hours, especially whens its not necessary. I think the dcm just wants her husband to have to help her with daycare even if it makes absolutely no sense. The more I think about it the more confident I am becoming in putting my foot down with this dcf. I think I will change the hours and the breakfast rule as well as a few other policies that have been causing problems and see how it goes before I decide to close permanently. Hopefully not feeling so disrespected will bring back the passion I had about doing hdc in the first place.

[jazmic]

oh i have a drs appt after work so ill see you when im done

Uhh... sure. See when you're done. But my late fee kicks in 15 minutes after closing time. $5 for the first 15 and $2 for every 10 minutes after that. So yeah, sure. See when you're done and we'll see how much your late fee will be.

I hope you have a late fee in your contract! That would put an end to that!