Advice Needed!!! To Bump or not to Bump.....

[MichaelsMommy]

Hi Everyone,

I am opening my home daycare in December 2012. I have 2 full timers and 2 part timers already booked. My first inquiry was a family who lives just around the corner - they need care 2 days to 4 days a week, before and after school care for their 7 year old and 2-4 days for their 14 month old. It's rotating shifts, and they will be doing some half days and some full days and it's just all over the place. I don't have a signed agreement from them yet, but apparently it's coming this week. They don't need to start until late February/early March. Now that I have gotten somewhat into the jive of scheduling and fee's I'm starting to think that it's in my best interest not to take these two on (the only confirmation I gave her was an email saying I would hold 2 spots for them) .....does anyone have any advice?? should I try to work this out? should I let her know I can't take the kids? should I just take one of them? Any advice would be sincerly appreciated!!!!

[playfelt]

The fact they don't need care till March means they still have time to find alternate care and you still have time to replace with more regular families. If you don't want them anymore I would just let them know that now that you have started working with the various schedules - since each child comes with their own needs you are not sure that you will be able to handle the varied schedule and the not knowing from day to day what the routine is going to be. You could also indicate that you are unsure about how having a school age child will fit in with the group due to bus times and nap schedules if you think there would be a conflict there.

In a sense you aren't saying you won't take them but just that you are not willing to commit at this point. Then just leave it up to the parent to look for alternate care, contact you again in the new year, her choice.

[apples and bananas]

a rotating schedule is rough to manage. You may get going and decide you need to increase your income ( of just want to ) You may have days when just 2 makes the day drag and you will get to that point where you prefer a larger group and set hours.

If you are willing to accept them on a rotating basis you need to charge them a set fee per week/month and inflate it a little based on the fact that you can't fill the remainder of that spot to make up to FT income on those 2 spots.

I think this is a common thing we all do... at least I know I did it. I took whatever I could get at first because I was so worried about not filling I was not selective on who I took. Lesson learned! I went nearly a year with sisters who took up a part time space... stayed until 9 some nights and were a bit of a pain to keep on the schedule.

Now I have a strict business plan. 3 FT, 1 PT and 1 before after school.

Decide what you want/need and then fill those spaces.

[Momof4]

Welcome to the forum and to daycare life MichaelsMommy.

I started out in the business with some part-timers and my calendar made my mind boggle. I really prefer full-timers but hey, when you are starting out you do what you have to do to get a good client base started. Then you have great references and you're off and running.

A few other comments - I don't like have school aged children around because they are harder to handle than babies; holding spaces are tricky for several reasons; you will learn that having children arrive early in the morning so that you can plan your activities and not having anyone arrive or leave until after naptime is really important. You need a quiet time break in the middle of your day or you'll burn out.

Otherwise, Good Luck!