Ladies, learn from my mistakes...

[Monday 2 Friday Mama]

Oh - reading some of these posts makes me feel so much better. I made a lot of mistakes when I first started out. In no particular order (raspberry please):

I allowed my first family to not have to pay for days when their child was not in my care. After six months of 3 and 4 day weeks instead of my anticipated 5 day weeks I had a pretty clear picture of what this kind of nickel and diming stuff could do to my bottom line. When I was first getting started I also allowed my families to not pay dues for the weeks that they and their kids were away on vacation. This particular lesson really burned me with one family. I treated this family the same way I treated all my other families, (i.e. no paying for vacation time was kind of my Xmas gift to your family) and they dumped my butt after just 10 weeks. Turns out I was just a stop gap caregiver until their "real" caregiver had an opening. I would NOT have given a 200 dollar gift to a family who wasn't going to be with me for the long haul. Grrr....

Another mistake I made was taking the deposit and applying half of it for their child's first week of care, meaning that I only had one week of dues in reserve. Now I tell parents that their deposit is applied to their child's last two weeks of care (whenever that may be) It's amazing how much better people are at providing two weeks notice when they've already paid for those weeks.

I also had one family who changed their mind one week before starting up and wanted their deposit refunded - because I was such a great provider and would have no trouble filling the space. I added a couple of very explicit lines in my contract after that fiasco stating in no uncertain terms that the deposit is non-refundable, and can only be applied to the child's final two weeks of care, and at my discretion.

I have a much better list of questions that I run prospective families through - ranging from "Is your child on a wait list at any other daycares ?" to "Why do you prefer home daycare versus centre care ?" to "Where are you at in your search for a caregiver?" This last one is gold - it really helps me to identify the families who are seriously looking for a caregiver, as opposed to the "wafflers" who may change their mind about going back to work but want to have daycare lined up just in case.

I've also become much harder nosed about discounts - daily rates versus registration by enrollment, sibling discounts, teacher discounts etc. I've learned that this gig is hard enough - I'm not working for a reduced rate to save some other family money. If someone wants a sibling discount, or wants to know if I'll cut them a deal for the summer months, it's a big red flag for me. I don't want to work with people who are going to nickel/dime me over little stuff. I've also learned that some things - like Before and After School Care - are (for me) simply too labour intensive for too little pay.

Overall, I've been very fortunate. I've worked with more good families than terrible ones, and I've managed to avoid a lot of the pitfall's that I've read about on this and other forums. I've never had to terminate a client, and I've never had to deal with abusive parents. However, I am VERY glad that this site exists - I've learned a lot through other caregivers experiences, and frequently it allows me to think about how I would handle the same situation/question/challenge. Frequently, it's only a matter of months before the situation is unfolding in my own daycare and it's nice if I've already had a chance to think about what my response will be/what actions I need to take.