Quote Originally Posted by susansmith View Post
BlueRose If I can ask...4 weeks vacation...are these paid weeks ....and is it the same for sick, personal, bereavement and emergency days? I realize we can all put whatever we want in our contracts, but I will say...it's not easy to find clients that will pay for all that....my clients frown about paying for when they take vacation, let alone me!
While I don't take 4 weeks, I do have 10 days which are paid. I was one of the first to have paid days in my area and I admit that initially for new client's, it did raise some eyebrows. But yes, that would include any closures regardless of the reason.

How I brought it in was simple math. I had not increased fees for a few years and I had a stable group who had been in my care for some time. I proposed to them that since I hadn't increased fees, I would make the commitment to keep fees as they were for 2 years with 10 paid days or I would have to make a fee increase and set aside the extra for when I was off.

It was an easy sell but unlike Ontario and other provinces, child care is less expensive here. I'm the top end for my area at $38 a day and I do understand that for parents paying $50+ for their day home, paid closures aren't so easy to sell.

But for me, $38 x 10 paid days would cost each client $380 a year. Or a $2 a day increase x 5 days a week x 50 weeks a year would cost them $500 a year.

Once paid days were in the contract and accepted by the core group, then finding one client who accepted it each time there was a vacancy wasn't so bad. I see since I introduced them in my day care, more and more local providers also do the same. I do have in my contracts that any leave I was to take over 10 days would be unpaid but I've never taken more than 10 days.