I give an example of how capping my time off would have back fired for me.

Back in 2013 I had a vacation booked to go to Europe for 3 weeks for my brothers wedding. Whenever I go to Europe I always go for 3 weeks. It costs such a lot of money for flights to the UK to visit family that we always tie it in with a vacation to Europe too. This particular trip was to the UK for a couple of days then on to Czech Republic for 5 days for wedding etc then two weeks in Italy. It was over the Easter Period in April/May and I let families know a year in advance and I was up front to the families I interviewed. I also booked off 1 week in August to spend with my kids and because I knew that I would not be able to make it to Xmas without any time off.

Fast forward a little...I had to have surgery in the October and typical recovery time is 5 days. I ended up taking two weeks off on bed rest as I had a much harder time than expected. I still took my Xmas off too.

In total that year I had 7 weeks off. It was unfortunate and not my regular amount of time off, but thank goodness I hadn't limited myself to the amount of time I was able to take off because I would have no doubt paid the price. All the parents were fine. They understood the 3 wk trip and had lots of notice. The week in August was a ways after that and again no issue. Xmas and New Year I take off every year which I make parents aware of in my contract. Typically about 10-20 days off dependent on whether or not I take the whole time off that my kids are off school or if I just take off Xmas Eve till Jan 2nd.

One thing I have learned over the years is that you have to look after yourself because nobody else will, and quite frankly it isn't their job to either. I don't abuse my open ended time off and I try very hard to be considerate of others when I am making plans. That being said, I never ever charge for my time off so parents are never out of pocket should they need to take unpaid leave or pay an alternative caregiver.