Parents who take advantage

[JHolkemama]

I would change your contract as well. I dont charge parents for when I am closed. But they must pay for their time off. If you are worried about the mother pulling her kids (loosing/replacing 2 kids can be a burden on you), I would negotiate with her. Perhaps she would find it reasonable to pay half a months fee each, and pay you for their time at the cottage. She should be somewhat reasonable considering how long you have had her children, and obviously she wants to continue care if she is talking about next year already. I wouldnt want to loose 2 kids, so I would be willing to find a common ground with her! Good Luck, do what feels right to you because you are the boss

[cfred]

Definitely they should pay! I have run into this many times over my last 10 years in the business and finally got tough. ALL daycares charge for parents' time away and now, so do I and haven't run into an argument as of yet. I do, however, offer 5 'sick' days to parents every year, that they may use at their leisure, but not for statutory holidays. These renew in Sept as I want them to be all used up before my peak pay/work season (summer) and are not transferrable between children and not accumulative from year to year. Maybe that's a good alternative for you? You have the right to revamp your policies and send a newsletter out to your clients stating these changes. If anyone's not happy, perhaps they can find other childcare and you can find a new client. No one likes to do that, but it's not right that you lose out on thousands of dollars to satisfy someone else's whim. It's a proper business and you need to be able to count on that money at the end of the month, every month. Be sure to make potential clients aware of this and all policies at the intake interview.

[katherine mowat]

Pay,Pay ,Pay. I am sure that they would have a huge problem if they went into there job to find out that they were missing weeks of pay beacuse there boss decided to go on holidays. It always amazes me that people dont have respect for the people that are essentially raising their children.