I have a spot opening soon, and I have a waiting list with 9 or ten good families on it. I also have a spot opening in July, when my oldest daughter becomes school age (in the eyes of the provincial government). When I started doing interviews for the waiting list, I had accidentally let it slip into conversation about this extra spot, even though I don't know if I want to fill it in July or wait until September. So my first person on the waiting list is under the impression that she will be able to take this spot in July. I recently spoke with her and tried to suggest she should take this spot coming up at the end of March. It makes sense to me, because she actually goes back to work in June.
Where I live, it is pretty hard to find daycare for 1 year olds, so paying for a spot for two months before you need it isn't crazy. It is actually quite normal.
So here's my problem. I really can't decide what I should do with her. It would be easy for me to move onto the next family or two, because they are both teachers and I like both families a lot. And all my current families are teachers. The first family, that I don't know what I should do with, she isn't a teacher. So during spring break and christmas break, I would be running the daycare just for this one child. I think the only thing stopping me from moving to the next family is that I don't want to be a jerk and leave her stranded, because it can be so hard to find daycare sometimes. I'm thinking of writing her an email, something along the lines of "With the amount of families on my waiting list, it is no longer feasible to try to keep up with two different wait lists. Going forward, when a spot is available, I will contact families in the order of the waiting list. If you do not want the available spot, I will continue down the list. If you would like, I can keep your name on the list, but it will be bumped down to the end, to give other families a chance as well."
What does everyone else think of this? Too harsh?