Oops!!

[Lee-Bee]

You really need to see what the norm is in your area in my opinion. To allow yourself paid vacation in an area dominated by unpaid vacation time, may effect your spots from filling if equally good daycare providers will not charge for their time off. I personally have a hard time justifying having a parent pay for a service that is unavailable to them in addition to paying additional daycare costs for alternative care or having to take time off themselves which may be paid or unpaid time off depending on their employer. What self employed person gets paid vacation? I'm sure somebody can come up with an example but it is very rare. If it is the norm for a providers area, then fantastic but otherwise I don't think its okay to charge for time I am away.

I've only been doing home daycare for 5 months now (though it had been the long term goal). I find that having the opinion that you don't deserve time off is a HUGE factor is whether you get paid time off. Sure your service is not available but it really should be no different than working for any large company. If I worked for a centre based daycare my service would not be available but I would still get paid vacation. I as the person working have earned that paid time off...that paid time off is partial reward for good service and partial recouping time to come back refreshed and ready to work better.

Just because we are working in our own homes and do not have back up care for families does not mean we do not deserve paid time off. I understand that a lot of providers do not expect paid time off...and I understand that there are a lot of families out there that do not want to pay for time off. But I do not for a second believe we should not be charging for our vacation.

I believe that if we are providing a quality service and giving our all then we deserve to have the same paid vacation as your standard employee at any company.

We as home daycare providers are seen as 'babysitters' and people that just want to be home with our kids or just couldn't work elsewhere. For some home daycare maybe that is the only reason they are doing it...but I do believe that the large majority of us are in it for better reasons...whether it be a strong love and passion for working with children, a strong background (education and/or experience) and just plain talent and stamina.

Until we expect respect and acknowledgment of all we put into our work then the rest of the population will not give it.

I don't feel the argument that other self employed people don't get paid vacation fits this scenario. We are working with precious, live little children that will grow up to become an integral part of society. We are not working with tax returns, doing landscaping or cleaning peoples homes. I would think it is safe to say that the large majority of other self employed people have he ability to get up and go to the bathroom anytime they please, they can randomly take time off without having to coordinate with 5 families, they can have days where they slack off and put in half the effort. We don't have many of the luxuries that other self employed people have and we do deserve paid vacation as reward for the hard jobs we have.

Off to pee while I have the chance before my 5 kiddos wake from morning nap...I may or may not get to pee again before closing time ;-)