Gah! unpredictable hours

[CountryMommy]

So I had an interested parent who wanted very unpredictable hours/days of child care. Days could range anywhere from 6-16/month. And hours on those days would vary from 3-9 hours/day.

I usually charge a set PT rate that is for anyone who needs less than 100 hours a month of child care. But because some months I would only have the girl in my care for about 18 hours/month I tried to accomodate to these parents' needs. She said her previous provider charged a rate of $3.75/hour because of the unpredictable schedule.

Now I'm wondering, should I go with it or should I just state that I'd still charge her my usual PT rate and let her decide if she's still interested? In a way I understand where she's coming from; it'd be a lot to pay the PT rate for months when so little child care was provided. But on busier months this rate would mean that she would get a MUCH cheaper rate. On busier months she would potentially be here more than 100 hours and that would normally cost her my FT rate, but with this rate she would pay half of my PT(!) rate...

Would you just state that she is paying for a spot in my dayhome and not for actual hours in care or would you be okay with the 3.75/hour?

Dealing with situations like these are one of my less loved parts of having a dayhome.

[CPST_Manda]

While I think a little flexibility and understanding is important in any line of work, what she's asking you to do is pretty rotten. Would she like it if her employer told her some months she'd have to work 6 days and some 16?

Whether or not you take her on is totally up to you.

[CountryMommy]

This is the rates I have right now.

Full time: 650/month (more than 100 hours)
Part time: 434/month (less than 100 hours)

My husband suggested giving her another option, say less than 50 hours. That way if she were here for more than 100 hours, she'd pay my full time rate. If she were here from 50-100 hours a month, she'd pay my part-time rate. And if she were here for less than 50 hours, she'd pay, for example, $300/month.

I think I'm going to offer her this. If she's not interested then, I'll wish her good luck.

[CPST_Manda]

This is the rates I have right now.

Full time: 650/month (more than 100 hours)
Part time: 434/month (less than 100 hours)

My husband suggested giving her another option, say less than 50 hours. That way if she were here for more than 100 hours, she'd pay my full time rate. If she were here from 50-100 hours a month, she'd pay my part-time rate. And if she were here for less than 50 hours, she'd pay, for example, $300/month.

I think I'm going to offer her this. If she's not interested then, I'll wish her good luck.

I think she should be grateful to have those options.

[mlc1982]

I think she should be grateful as well. I had someone ask me about a plan like this and I refused. I like to have a set schedule and a set income every month.

[Judy Trickett]

Daycare is about paying for a spot - not the hours of actual care. IMO, she should be happy she found anyone who would take her for that kind of schedule and not charge her FULL TIME fees. Just think about it - if she is attending on a willy nilly bases on different days each week and each month then you are actually losing income because you can not fill those alternate days she is not in attendance with another child. And you can't fill the "blanks" she leaves because it is impossible to find another family who will just come when YOU say they can.

What she wants is called flex-care. And two things have to happen in this situation with regard to fees:

Option A - she pays full time fees because she technically needs to come any of the five days per week.

Option B - she pays far more per day than your usual rate. So, for example, if your usual fee is around $32 a day (which, looking at your numbers posted seems about your daily rate) then she should be paying $40-$42 a day to come flex. AND, if you use this option she should also be committed to a MINIMUM number of days per month that she HAS to pay for regardless of attendance. You will find that if you allow parents to come when they please with no commitment there WILL be months (let's say on the parents vacation or over December when everyone takes a lot of time off over Christmas etc) that the child might only attend one or two days or not at all! Then you lost out income for a whole spot that month ($650 in your case). I would say a minimum commitment of 2 or 3 days a week.

Trust me, BTDT with flex care. I have told the story before but the short version of my experience with flex care is that early in my daycare career I accommodated a flex family and over the course of 5 years I lost $28,000 in income because I allowed them to come willy nilly and pay as they went. Learn from MY mistakes. They pay for a spot or.................. NEXT!

Pick an option and stick with it but do NOT allow her to just come and pay hourly. That is not fair to you. You are running a business and should not have to lose income because a parent doesn't want to pay what's fair. Why should SHE save money and you lose it?? Are her bills more important than yours?

[playfelt]

I was going to suggest she pay a set fee for the month to reserve her space in your care - and then a daily fee for any day she uses. So it is like a reservation fee plus a usage fee. If the weeks over time balance out then she will pay more than your full time rate some months and less on others but over time it will be the same. ie even in the busy months she still needs to pay the daily fee not drop down to the full time rate. If she wants that she needs to book and pay that every week as in pick one system of payment and then stick with it. The set fee part will pay for the child's basics and allow you to budget and then anything else you get from the child is bonus. You could also ask for a monthly calendar and figure out a basic average number of days and ask her to pay that on a weekly basis so it spreads out the fee. How many hours she uses per day doesn't count so don't go to an hourly rate - if she brings the kids it is a used day and she pays accordingly as the space is gone and can't be given to another child.

[Sandbox Sally]

I have a child with unpredictable days as well. I insisted that they give me at least 14 days per month, and they were happy with that. They pay a flat weekly fee, regardless of his attendance. This means that he doesn't have to pay stats, but they also have to pay in full if I take vaca days. I determined their flat weekly fee by multiplying the number of days per month by my daily fee, then multiplying this by 12 (months per year), then dividing by 52 (weeks per year). It works out very well for us.

[mamaof4]

Look at it this way- if the child was in school and had to miss for whatever reason- would he or she be charged a different amount for tuition? No- they are paying for the spot- it is up to them if they use it.

[mamaball]

WOW I wish I could charge like this I have trouble having parents pay for missed days let alone just paying for a space and so many of mine are part time