Mat leave and holding spots????

[Tinyones1981]

Hello all, I am hoping to get some feed back on what your policy's are for mat leave parents. So what I am wondering is if you have a child who has a sibling and the parent wants to lock in a spot for the sibling for when they come off mat leave what do you do? Do you just hold the spot? Make older sibling attend to hold spot if so how many days per week? Do you make them pay a holding fee for the year? I mean I feel so lost on how to go about it. Any ideas or help how to go about this would be amazing thanks so much in advance for all your input!

[mickyc]

All parents who leave on mat leave always just leave and hope for the best when they want to come back. I don't hold spots. If I knew I would have a spot for baby the following year they would need to pay full time for child currently in care and begin paying full time for baby when spot is open if it is earlier than needed.

I have had 2 families so far return after leaving. One ended up at a different daycare for a month or two. I called and told them 2 spots opened up and they came back.

I need my spots full so I cannot take a cut in pay to accommodate anyone.

[sandylynn]

i will hold a spot for the new baby providing the other child comes 3 DAYS A WEEK ..WHILE THEY ARE ON MAT LEAVE ...THEY PAY WHETHER THEY COME OR NOT...NO EXCEPTIONS....

[Crayola kiddies]

I allows parents to drop down to 3 days/week for a maximum of 7 months while on mat leave plus I take a non refundable deposit (two weeks goes towards the last two weeks of care) as well as the first two weeks .... All is non refundable unless I cancel the agreement

[mickyc]

Also can you afford a reduction in your fees? Something to think about

[Suzie_Homemaker]

I used to allow older sibling to go down to three day per week but not any more. It did mean take hit on 2 lost days and not being able to find someone else because it need be available for child return after mat leave.

Now parent have two choice :-
1. Older child remain in FT and parnet get first refusal if another FT place open up. That does not mean if one is available many months in advance, I hold it for free. If they want it, they pay for the second place or my ad go up. If they opt not pay for second place, it risk that another place come up when they need.
2. They leave. And they hope for 2 place nearer time they need. But they have same seniority as anyone else applying for a vacancy.

[Van]

I have arranged the older child stay part-time and then when mat leave is up they know one child will have a spot but move the older child to new daycare and I take care of the baby as I only do infants and toddlers

[Busy ECE mommy]

No guarantees here. With the "2 under 2 rule" in Ontario, how could the timing of the 2nd sibling(infant) ever line up properly? I don't know many parents who would pay to hold the 2nd spot open if it came up early, but I guess it depends how desperate people are.
I don't promise parents anything. If it lines up, then great, but if not, too bad.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Unless they pay for their current spot all mat leave, I can't guarantee anything. It at least ensures they have one ft spot but most want the same dc for their 2 children so most just leave and hope for the best (it almost never works out tho)