Need to talk this through so I can process it and get opinions

[bright sparks]

First of all I wanted to clear up the bill 143. It is not 3 under 3 it is 2 under 2 so you can offer your spot to any child aged 2 plus, but that's once the bill is passed, and I think there is a good chance they will grandfather other children in who are placed with a provider already otherwise there will be an unbelievable amount of families left without childcare. I also wouldn't take a child on based on these ratios until it was a legal requirement. Who knows how soon or long till it is passed and enforced. Just stick to the ratios your agency have put on you rather than trying to run things as a licensed provider which is not in effect yet.

Put your business hat on and make the decision based on what's best for your business, not based on how nice the parent is. Fill the spot asap and don't give notice in September for the other family as this is just bad practice IMO and experience. I did it very early on as a provider where I gave notice to a part timer to replace with a full timer and 2 weeks later I had someone leave. I know this isn't the same but similar. Karma got me and I learnt my lesson.

Offer the spot to the family who want it in the fall if they are great clients and you really want them and their children full time. Explain that you can not hold the spot for such a long time and explain that it just wouldn't be beneficial to you from a business perspective to take the financial loss. Maybe offer some kind of middle ground if you'd prefer by offering to hold the spot for 8 weeks and then have the siblings come 3 days a week from end of May/beginning of June increasing to 5 days in September. I urge you to be cautious though, even the nicest people are looking out for themselves. Let me give you an example.

I had a woman bring me her 1 year old 5 days a week in the November and she had her second in the January at which point she would reduce to 2 days a week for the first and then she wanted 2 full time spots for the following January when she returned to work and I told her that I new I would have a spot in the September opening up due to kids going to kindergarten but I couldn't guarantee the spot until January. We agreed while she was on Mat leave that from Sept to January she could just pay for 1 full time spot and share it between the 2 girls, allowing her to send the eldest for 3 days and the youngest for 2 days, spending 1 day at home with mum alone. So the Fall comes and I do this for 4 months and a couple of weeks before Xmas mum tells me she will be taking extended mat leave and she has only just had it confirmed as she needed to get permission through a gruelling process through her school board as she is a teacher. I was pretty annoyed at this point but had no one to replace them with so what could I do. She took the rest of the school year off on extended leave and went back to work in the September and the girls were both here full time. 12 weeks later she gave me notice saying she didn't like paying for 2 full time spots for daycare when her mum could take them a day or two and how I wouldn't accept less than full time, and really why would I after doing so much for them and being used and taken advantage of. See where I'm going with this? I did not do what was best for me or my business and reading your post really reminded me of this. I honestly don't care how nice the mum is, my dcparent was lovely, and still is but was doing what was best for her family and looking after her best interests which is exactly what I should have done and exactly what you should do.

Our business is exactly that. To generate money, not do favours or cut people a break at our financial expense. This is not a volunteer service or an opportunity for others to take advantage of us. Fill the spot/s with the people who want to start the soonest and if they want to start any longer than 8 weeks away then don't let them have the spot unless they are going to pay for it. Once bill 143 is passed, under 2 spots will be high demand and they will realize how worth it it was to pay for the spot sooner, or bring the child to daycare earlier. I understand this isn't an option for many and forgive me for sounding callus, but as business owners, that's not our problem.