Hours of operation

[5 Little Monkeys]

I would be burnt out as well!! I have a friend who recently opened though and is working 11 hour days. She is from a small town though and has parents who commute so it can't really be avoided. She is up those hours anyways with her own family so she says she doesn't mind it.

I certainly couldn't do it!

[ttremble88]

Yup! 6am-6pm here. But I am one of those whom live in a smaller town where everyone commutes to the Toronto area. Yay for me! lol

[Secondtimearound]

Oh my goodness !! Wow I can't imagine !! I open at 8 and close at 5 ,

[DCMG]

I am currently 6:30-5:30 and there is no early pickups here. I used to be 8-5:30 which was wonderful for my own family in the morning but in January I took on 2 new early families. They are gone by 3:30 but it is still a long day with staggered start times. My 5:30 family is leaving for school in September so I will be changing my hours to close at 4:30 which I am sooooo looking forward to. I have turned away 4 families who need later hours and will hold out for the schedule that will work for me.

[jodaycare]

Oh believe me as I get older, it gets harder to do those long days! I have been working 11 or 12 hour days since 1994 when I started my home daycare. I think I am heading for burnout since my patience is running pretty thin these days, and I am convinced that I am in premenopause so that doesnt help either. I currently take 4 weeks vacation per year but am considering upping it to 5 in 2015! Thank goodness, my next holiday week in coming up next month.

[Secondtimearound]

I am impressed ! I'm a newbie , coming up a year lol !! I love so much of the work I do and wish I had an administration team to deal with parents lol !
I must say I really enjoy each of my families now !!! I went with a couple of families I wasn't sure about and learnt the way of experience to be picky ! But I'm sorry after 5 is too long ! Ugh I can't do it personally ! My dd was going to bed at 6:30 before dayhome and I upped it to 7 just to get some time with her !! I'm so drained done nights and still have soccer ect !!
I wish there was a way to visit each other's dayhomes ! Everyone sounds so interesting !!!
Wow way off topic !!

[martymonty]

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

[mickyc]

martymonty - unfortunately we cannot control what the parents do, if we are open until 5 then we need to be prepared to keep the kids until the end of the day. I do have in my contract:

"It usually takes approx. 5 minutes to get your child ready and out the door so please remember I close at 5pm and would appreciate if all parents don’t show up right at 5pm to pick up your child."

As for vacation time - I quit worrying about what the parents say. I deserve my holidays (I usually only take 10 days a year and it is never in a row). We all deserve our time off and too bad if they don't like it. I do a monthly newsletter that I email to my families. Maybe that would help remind your families on which days you have booked off. I find that parents need a lot of reminding.

[Busy ECE mommy]

I open 7:30-5pm and that is long enough. I used to do 10 hr days, but not any more. There is no work-life balance with this job, so you've got to reclaim time to put your needs first.
I have 4 weeks vacation in my contract, but usually only take 2 weeks. When I go over 2 weeks, people give me a hard time-GIMME A BREAK! I'm too burnt out with only 2 weeks, so I'm going to start taking more, and not feel guilty about it. Over Xmas sounds like a great time to do it!

[Other Mummy]

I am open from 7:00am - 5:45pm. Normally I open at 7:30, but had one family start care that needed the extra 30 min. They pick up earlier though. If I didn't need the income, I would have turned them away. When my numbers go down, I usually try to be flexible even if it means working an additional 30 min. a day.