I used to have a dck that came at 4 am. in the morning and my daycare is open until 4:45 pm. Now THAT made for a super long day. Currently my earliest arrives just before 7:30 am. and the last one leaves by around 5 pm. My main issue with the parents is that they will be home from work and leave their child here up until 4:45 - 5:00 pm. How do you enforce that pickup is when the parents are done work....it exhausts me some days to have kids here for 9 hrs + Also, I have a total of 25 days off in the year, I send home my vacation day schedule in February every year and I always get parents who say "oh I didn't know you were off next week"....I always reply with, didn't you read my calendar I sent home and record what days I am off....grrrrr...it frustrates me to no end. I've been doing inhome daycare for 28+ years and feel that 5 weeks vacation is warranted in order to get some much needed rest and relaxation and recharge. If I was working out in the real world for that long, I would get 6 or more weeks. How do you deal with parents who make you feel guilty for taking time off