Hi There!

We have a similar situation happeneing right now with our provider and wondered if I could get your opinions..

In April 2014 we hired our daycare provider to start in Sept 2014 - we paid her a 2wk deposit to hold the spot for us, that we understood would go towards the last two weeks of care.

In February 2015, I advised our daycare provider that our daughters last day with her would be Jun 25, 2015 (I gave her more than 4mths notice!). I assumed that the last two weeks of care (June 12-June 25) would already be paid for, with our deposit we had given her last year.

Daycare provider informs us that since she is entitled to 10 days (2wks) vacation every year, and has only taken 2 days so far in 2015, that we will need to pay her 8 days of vacation - meaning that instead of our last 10 days being paid for, we now have to pay 8 days.

Her contract states:

-Provider will require 2 week paid holiday per calendar year (regardless, if the child/chilredn are here or not for the full year)
-Parents will provide two weeks pay as a deposit with this contract. It will not be refunded if the child/children do not attend this daycare for any reason. However, it will go towards the last two weeks of daycare.
-Parents must give two month's notice in ending this agreement in writing, and pay for care until that two month period is done.


I interpret this to mean that during the year, my daycare provider is entitled to take 2 weeks vacation, even if we are only there for part of the year.. I was very surprised when I was told that we would have to pay for her un-used vacation time, this was NOT made clear to us last year when we hired her! We gave her plenty of notice as to when we were leaving, giving her enough time to fill our spot.. so if she goes on vacation at any time the rest of this calendar year, the person who replaces us will also pay her, therefore she will be getting paid twice for the same period!

I really want to leave on good terms with our provider, but I don't want to pay for something that is not in our contract.. would you interpret the contract this way??