Different Pick up times and changing the contract.

[MonkeyPrincess]

I have a parent originally write on their contract that they will pick up their child at 5:30 (closing time), but most of the time picks up earlier, like before 5. Every now and again they pickup just before 5:30 if they have a meeting, but i always have notice and i don't charge late fee because according to the contract, technically they are not picking up their kid late. I am currently re-doing my contracts for 2014. I would like to change their pick up time on the contract to 5pm. Can i change it and hand them their new contract with the new time or suck it up and continue with their original pick up time?- i shouldn't have to, right? Should i just change my closing hours? They are my last pick up, all others pick up before 5. I could get dinner and everything done a half hour earlier!

[nschildcare]

I've changed my hours once. It affected one family and they left. I was ok with that because I wanted the later morning start.

My family needed the extra hours, though. If your family doesn't *need* them, then I don't see it being a problem. I don't think the reason why you want to change them matters.... to the family. I just worded it that I needed to change the hours of my business to better suit my business' and family's needs, therefore my new hours are ..... effective ..... I gave lots of notice, though. Two months worth. And she stayed up until the new change of hours.

Good luck!

[torontokids]

If it works for your current families then change your closing time to 5 pm. Would you make yourself available for the odd 5:30 pick up for this family when they need it or strictly 5 pm?

[playfelt]

If you know they don't need the extra time and your other clients are all within the 5:00 window then I would say change your closing time to 5:00 and then make sure the late penalties are clear and severe and enforced no excuses. I would probably also either verbally or a page of highlights to the new contract ie major changes point out the change. It would be very easy to read the section and scan over the time and miss the change since it looks similar. That will give you a chance to speak directly to them. A lot of parents whose providers have late policies that apply to the contract time and not the closing time will find that a parent will put down the closing time just to avoid paying late fees and really there is nothing you can do about it other than change your closing time. You really can't blame a parent for doing it and then it does get convenient to start using that time.

[Crayola kiddies]

The longer you are open the longer the kids will stay .... If they are there before 5 95% of the time then change your hours .... Post a note on the door saying that due to family obligations effective jan xx 2014 your operating hours will be from xxx to 5pm.
Thanks for your understanding

Or don't give a reason just that they are changing.

[MonkeyPrincess]

If it works for your current families then change your closing time to 5 pm. Would you make yourself available for the odd 5:30 pick up for this family when they need it or strictly 5 pm?

Yeah, i would make myself available with the appropriate notice and provided i dont have any appts or other commitments.

[MonkeyPrincess]

If you know they don't need the extra time and your other clients are all within the 5:00 window then I would say change your closing time to 5:00 and then make sure the late penalties are clear and severe and enforced no excuses. I would probably also either verbally or a page of highlights to the new contract ie major changes point out the change. It would be very easy to read the section and scan over the time and miss the change since it looks similar. That will give you a chance to speak directly to them. A lot of parents whose providers have late policies that apply to the contract time and not the closing time will find that a parent will put down the closing time just to avoid paying late fees and really there is nothing you can do about it other than change your closing time. You really can't blame a parent for doing it and then it does get convenient to start using that time.

you are right about that!

[Sassygirl]

I had to change my hours because of one family as well. I was originally open 7-5:30 but found that one family was arriving right at closing dad had a change of clothes on, Mom as well, would arrive in her gym clothes. My older children have activites 3 evenings a week and we must leave the house by 6:15 so it is a real time crunch. I was getting so annoyed with this one family arriving right at closing knowing that they had gone home first or were running errands daily. All my other kiddos are picked up by 4:45! This was almost an hour later!
I ended up sending this one family a notice letter which I addressed to "Dear Parents" even though I only gave it to them giving 6 weeks notice of my time change to 5:00 pm. They have since been able to accomodate but the odd time Dad is maybe 5 mins late and always apologizes profusely when he is so I don't mind.

[Mike]

You can change your hours, but do give a little notice, at least a couple weeks, preferably a month.