What are your daycare hours?

[Bugaboo]

My hours are M-F, 7-5. I'm firm on my hours. I just can't work a longer day without feeling burnt out or have family time taken away.

[jodaycare]

I open at 6am for two weeks of the month and 6:30am for the other two weeks. I normally close at 5 but sometimes I am open till 5:30 a couple of nights a week. I have been doing home daycare for almost 20 years and have always opened early.

[fruitloop]

My "normal" hours are 7:30 - 5 but I have 1 family that pays me extra to start at 7 (although they are rarely here right at 7...it's usually about 10 after). I have accepted another family in that starts in March who is also paying extra for a 7 am start. I will only ever do 2 kids at that time (for extra pay) because I'm trying to get my own kids up and ready for school.

[mom-in-alberta]

I am reopening, and new hours are 6:30-4:30. Used to be 7:30-5:30. I am switching to conform more to our family's schedule and the kids' extracurricular activities. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't have any interest, but I actually think I have just tapped a different "market" of parents than I had before. I WILL NOT work for more than 10 hours though. I don't think people realize that in home daycare, there are no breaks! I can't pop out for a coffee with my co-workers, or take a nice quiet lunch break.
I made the mistake of doing the "early start" for one family a couple years ago. What do you know, they started showing up earlier and earlier, and picking up later and later. Never again.
I will admit that I am loathing the idea of getting up at 5:45, though.

[DisneyPrincess]

Yep I'm a 7-5 also. Can't do earlier, I really need that extra 15 minutes to sleep no joke. Plus, I don't want to finish later than 5 either, 10 hours is enough... for me AND for the children. Parents do try to get more, but it's a NO sorry. (Unless it was one time for an emergency of some kind, with extra fee). They manage just fine believe me !!

[apples and bananas]

i used to open at 7am and close at 5:30. That was rough enough. I have since had that client go on mat leave so I run a pretty consistent 8 - 5 right now. However, that will go right back to 7am come November. UGH! And I have a 6 am that comes about 4 times a month.

When I started I had much longer hours and I've learned my lesson.

You have to have good balance when running your own business. You ahve to know what you can take and when it's time to rest.

[Nottellin']

Wow! You ladies have long hours!
My hours were 7:30-4:30. Most days I only had kids here from 8-4. I thought that I would have a difficult time finding families, but I actually didn't at all.

[DisneyPrincess]

Its not easy being a parent with managing work/kids/daycare... been there, and when I had to find a new job, I had to get hours to work around my provider's daycare opening hours and I had to miss out on good work opportunities because the hours simply didnt work with daycare that's life right !

[Cadillac]

My hours are 8am to 530pm

I hate getting up early

[DaycareLady1]

I definitely am changing my hours to 7:30am to 5pm... 6:45am is WAY too early! How do you tell the family that comes so early about the hour change :S