Why be paid for stats?

[bright sparks]

I charge full day for stat days but only if it falls on a day the child is registered for care. i.e. if I had a child for Tues-Fri, then I wouldn't charge for a Stat which fell on a Monday as it means the family has to pay 5 days care instead of the 4 they contracted for. I admit that I tend to avoid PT'ers like the plague so that usually means all my clients are FT and so they all pay.

Like Mickyc, I take a couple which aren't officially stat days - Boxing Day and Easter Monday but they are all listed clearly in both my handbook and contracts. It's only been questioned once and when I stated paid or not I would not be working, they decided to go elsewhere. Shrug.

I also have 10 paid personal days a year. These are for vacation and sick. I've had 2 days off sick in the last few years and those were kind of expected since stomach flu had gone around the day care.

As my family is all in England, I also have the ability to take more than 10 days vacation but the additional time would be unpaid. My thoughts behind that were that one day I might want to visit home but as yet, I've never been able to afford to - but I still dream.

This is what my contact states...

I had really taken it for granted that Boxing day was a holiday Canada wide. I had no idea it was only in Ontario...that's ridiculous.

To me it isn't a question of why. My contract states each specific paid day off I take so regardless of what everyone else does, employed or otherwise, this is what works for me and my business. Family's who don't like that don't sign up with me. The time for questioning this is prior to signing on. Aside from stats I don't charge for any time daycare services aren't available. I also don't restrict myself to a maximum amount of vacation days per year. They are all unpaid and my average is between 3 and 5 weeks a year. I am upfront about this and anyone who has a problem with it should and do find a different provider who takes much less time off that better meets their needs.