Power Outages

[crafty]

To have done it in the past, I find that is very hard to operate without power for the entire day. My house is surrounded by trees and the sun in the afternoon is at the back of the house and I do not get sun in the daycare area in the afternoon. I have an old farm house it's drafty and it gets cold really fast. I have a well so the power goes out there is NO water. I simply think it is hazardous if a child injures himself and I have no working phones or running water. My nearest neighbour is about a 5 minute walk .What if it happens on a day my cell phone dies ..You know Murphy !!

On top of that but not a real factor to my decision for this, I plan my menus and I am on a very tight budget right now. My first year was ruff ... haha So I don't always have a fall back plan for lunch. I may not have anything we can eat cold. Anyway different people, different situations but I think it my case, it absolutely makes sense to close for safety. I NEVER take risks.

[mommylove]

I agree different ppl different situations and in your situation id defiantly close but most peoples situations aren't typically like that (yours is special lol) generally speaking its not unsafe

[torontokids]

NOT OPEN......HAZARDOUS hmmmmm.......My power was out today and I remained open and will in the future.......I don't really think its a big deal, takes a long time for a house to get really cold Id put sweaters on them, and candles for what? open your curtains and let the light in it wasn't dark here for me all day, and the power is out if anything its alot safer no? I personally need the money and cant close for every little situation......and If the parents don't want to bring their kids here to play with the other kids and stay home with them in the same situation and miss a day of work then so be it but I will be open and therefore will still be paid

I was referring to needing candles and this being unsafe. I would close because my daycare is in the basement and it would be too dark and therefore unsafe

[treeholm]

I managed, but it wasn't ideal. Power went out at 11 am and didn't come back on until 7:30 pm. I kept expecting it to come back on. We had lots of stories. The funniest moments were when my 18 month old dcb was upset because we couldn't do our music class after nap, like we ALWAYS do. He kept pointing to my iPod speakers saying "music please." When I said we couldn't he yelled 'MOTE' (the remote). He was trying desperately to tell me to USE THE REMOTE WOMAN. How do you explain a power outage to a toddler, sigh... He also couldn't understand why we couldn't go outside, and kept trying to get his coat and boots saying, "side!". I was so worried about falling branches (we have a lot of big old trees, and limbs fell and blocked my driveway 3 times today!). Glad today is over and the power is back on... to top it all off, I have a group of 6 guests in my scrapbooking studio for a retreat this weekend, and I had to cook their dinner on my fireplace. My husband was able to hook up a generator in the studio (not in my house) and told them they could have either heat or light. Being scrapbookers, they chose light. They said they could always put on a sweater, but they couldn't scrapbook without proper lighting. That made me laugh out loud.

[mommylove]

I also run my daycare out of my basement but I grabbed some toys and craft and we hung out on my main floor and since the kids aren't up there often they played nice together and we had a chill out day upstairs that being said......you didnt say the candles are hazardous you said "I would close cause it would be hazardous to be open during a power outage" then you said "especially with candles" then you also went on to say that you wouldnt take your daughter to a dc with a power outage and you wouldnt pay them.........I think most daycare providers policies state if they are OPEN and you choose not to come you HAVE to pay......sorry but I dont understand your logic.

[mommylove]

treeholm good for you for making the best of your day its crazy how much we learn when the power goes out lol like how much our toddlers likes the t.v and going outside, sounds like you made it through your day just fine

[Momof4]

It's funny, I've thought of this before when our hydro went out for a few hours in the middle of the day. I have a poweful flashlight at hand and I remember I used it last fall and my newest baby FREAKED OUT! But we used the flashlight again on Groundhog Day and he was ok, yeesh.

We had a really bad storm in our city last night and the house next door had electrical problems just after midnight, eeeks, thank goodness it wasn't my rental house! We take electricity, breathing, sight, hearing and lots of other things for granted!

[playfelt]

Southweatern Ontario used to have a big ice storm every winter around February and my birthday every year - many a birthday party cancelled. It usually resulted in several days of ice, closed schools and power outages. The way the streets had been designed our power actually came from the back of our house and was tied into the same line that served the fire station a couple blocks away. We were always the first house on the street to get our power back and many years we became a soup kitchen to the neighbourhood with everyone bringing over a big pot to boil water and any veggies they had laying around. We always had soup bones in the freezer from getting half a beef so soup it was dutifully doled out. All of the houses around us went up months/years after ours did and their power came from a different transformer.

Along with this though was the fact thanksgiving weekend was also about spending time preparing making sure there were plenty of supplies like canned food that could be eaten as is, flashlights, batteries, fuel for the coleman stoves even though camping season was over - easier to use that on the porch than dig out the BBQ and hope it would work. Sleeping bags were stored where they could be reached etc. We do take so much for granted and forget just how quickly our lot in life can change. Here in Ottawa they lived through that ice storm several years back and even a few of those veterens admit to letting their guard down even though they know the potential results.

[Artsand crafts]

Power went out here from 10:00 to 11:30. I opened a can of tuna and have tuna sandwiches. Kids hardly noticed it, but they wanted some music. Oh, and they got scared when electricity came back since every time that happens the alarm goes off! So I have 3 toddlers crying in need to be hugged.

[daycaremom9]

What if the power went out after opening for the day. Also a few years ago we had no power for 3 days. I believe that I didn't charge since at that time I wasn't charging for missed days (silly me!)