Quote Originally Posted by Inspired by Reggio View Post
Yes that is the tough balance ~ finding what the market can bare for your area in regards to hours, fees and so forth and what you need for your income!

For me to address this issue cause I was open 10.5 hours when I stated and found the same thing ... clients who slowly over time were here longer and longer than they initially said they 'needed' and even though my contract stipulated fees were 'based on a 9 hour day' you were always dealing with the 'reminder' of that fact with those few clients ... so now I am only OPEN 9 hours a day ... so all my clients I choose to attract are basically needing 7:30 - 4:30 care and than if they need care earlier or later it is contracted right from the start at the additional 'fee' which is a strong motivator for families to figure out a way to keep their child within the '9 hours' by having one parent drop off and the other pick up or for the single parents enlisting grandma or someone to help
Something to think about b4 I open- I now have 10.5 hours stated on my contract (7:30-6) but if parents are going to try and take advantage of me and keep their kids there all day, I may have to rethink my stated hours and change it to 5:30pm. The last thing I want is a power struggle with parents- I think we all just want to be respected,,,, I think Stacy55 was right to stick to her guns- we can't let parents walk all over us- what we do is the most important job in the world and parents better respect our time!