Day home hours sudden change

[Busy ECE mommy]

I changed my hours a few years back. It was a total of 1/2 an hour earlier closing time.
I had 1 family who was here my full operating hours, and none of the other families needed that length of care, so when she went on maternity leave(the long day parent) I gave the families 2 months notice of the 1/2 hr earlier closure. I knew that none of my other families would be affected by the change, and no one complained. They had the option to leave, and none did.
For me it was a game-changer. That small difference in time allowed me to get dinner ready/kids activities in the evening/earlier bed time etc. Such a small thing, but huge to me. I have never looked back. On average, the business still requires 60-65 hrs a week, and takes a lot of time on evenings and weekends to keep running.
The lack of notice by the caregiver was unprofessional. I would think at least a month's notice would be courteous, as the hours changed at both opening and closing.
She may have felt that if the majority of families were not using those hours, then why not scale back the hours.

[delange]

Thanks so much for the input and support! It helps to know that we are not the only ones that think this is out of the ordinary.

I initially had the idea that the change in hours was indeed done to try and make us cancel, but when I gave the notice, they did not seem to like that very much.

Before, things were going OK, although not great. I do think that we are quite easy going. We always paid on time, and were only twice late in 6 months, and only by 1-2 minutes and a heads-up in advance. Our daughter is also very easy to care for; always happy, easy to play by herself, relaxed, does not move much or quickly :-)

We sometimes asked for information regarding the day (food, sleeps, etc), and also regarding their schedule, amount of kids, activities, etc, because we wanted to be informed, but those often did not go very well, to the point where they got quite defensive. It was not at all meant in a critical way, but purely informative. However, because of their behaviour we did not have a great feeling with it. Our daughter seemed happy though, so there was no major cause for concern.

In hindsight, I am glad we canceled, knowing how this was handled, but my daughter still has to go for another full month before starting the new daycare. The new one seems great, although very expensive... so I am hoping it will work out. Of course, I am also hoping they will give back my deposit, as that really seems illegal. We gave the proper notice, so there is no reason why they should not return it.