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satxmb 09:35 AM 09-20-2008
OK here the deal. My wife and I are in the military, but my wife is being stationed in Korea in about two months. I currently work a job that requires me to be at work at least twelve hours a day. Due to the fact that this interferes with childcare seeing as my wife and I have the same job. I have been working at night so i can either keep him during the day or pick him up from day care and she can drop him off. As you can tell with her going to Korea for a year this is not going to work anymore now we do currently have day care but he is only allowed to be in daycare for 10hrs before there is a late fee and only a max of one hour late can happen or my commander is contacted. What my supervisors want me to do I s get him from base day care and take him to another off base daycare anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and yes that includes Saturdays and Sundays. So here are the hours 0400-1900 maybe longer possibly 2100 would be my work day he can only be dropped off at day care from 0600-1600 so that leaves him in another daycare from 1600 -till now I know this sounds unreasonable believe me I’m fighting this tooth and nails I have already gotten in trouble because they are trying to make this happen and I’m refusing to allow my son to be raised by daycare. So my main question after all this. what I want to know is the max amount of time a child can be in daycare per day in the state of Texas any help would be much appreciated
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daycaremom1998 09:42 AM 09-30-2008
Boy, this is a tough one, but maybe I can help. I don't live in Texas, but I do live in a military town. I hear it all the time where both parents are in the military and one gets deployed and the other has insanely long hours. Here where I live there isn't a state governed limit on how long a child can be in daycare, but most providers set a limit of 10 hours. Here is what I recommend. Find out if the on-post daycare has a listing of civilian providers who offer extended-time care. If they don't, look for a daycare referral agency in your area, maybe in the phone book, and ask them for a list of providers who offer exented-time care. If that doesn't work, you might consider placing an ad in the local paper for your need. And then lastly, you could find a family friend who would be willing to help you out.

I always feel so sorry for these families. I wish the military provided better solutions for the children. If you have any other questions, you can leave me a private message and I will do my best to help.
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Unregistered 06:18 AM 10-08-2008
I was in the military with a child that went to the CDC on base. They have regulations on the base that are not necessarily applied to outside. I had the same sort of situation, both my husband and I were actually workers at an area that was 25 miles from the base, and it meant our daughter would be in there for over the 10 hour max. My supervisors wrote up a waiver, that allowed for that extra time. Now on the flip side, there is a thing called a dependant care form, that they can make you use in a time like this. It sounds heartless, but that is what it is there for. I am no longer in because of things like this. If you have a neighbor that you can trust to pick your child up, and or stay with you, and then make the best of the situation while the wife does her duty in Korea. I know it will be difficult, but you can do it.

Talk to the chaplain, or talk to a person in a higher position, go to the family support on base, as I am sure they have many options with the high tempo of our military at this time. Good luck
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Unregistered 06:30 PM 12-15-2008
Hello People the point here is a daycare is raising this man's child!!! I wouldn't try to look for extended hour providers!!! You need to fight this till these people who obviously have childern that are full grown or are not a priority in their life realize what is happening to our military families!!! What is one of their motto's??? Taking care of families??? If they are going to advertise it they need to live by it!!! This problem needs to be addressed instead of just being pushed over like the rest and allowing strangers to raise their own child!!!
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bklsmum 05:54 AM 04-13-2014
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Hello People the point here is a daycare is raising this man's child!!! I wouldn't try to look for extended hour providers!!! You need to fight this till these people who obviously have childern that are full grown or are not a priority in their life realize what is happening to our military families!!! What is one of their motto's??? Taking care of families??? If they are going to advertise it they need to live by it!!! This problem needs to be addressed instead of just being pushed over like the rest and allowing strangers to raise their own child!!!
While I do agree to an extent, the military is a very hard thing to fight or change. He can fight the policy AND look for a solution at the same time and that is what he should do to avoid getting himself into very big trouble.
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KidGrind 06:18 AM 04-13-2014
Originally Posted by bklsmum:
While I do agree to an extent, the military is a very hard thing to fight or change. He can fight the policy AND look for a solution at the same time and that is what he should do to avoid getting himself into very big trouble.
The OP’s post isn’t an uncommon problem for military families or those working in certain fields.

Based off the schedule mentioned the OP should have additional days off. I deal with DCFs with those sorts of schedules.

A FCC Provider (there are tons in Texas) will able to provide care for your the child in question. All the service member has to do is run a chit up the chain and get approval for his child to be in care for more than 12 hours a day. Providers will usually give a parent depending on DCP’s job location 30 minutes to up to an hour before & after schedule work shift.

If the OP does this and finds a great provider to do this, they should not expect to drop off children on days off. Weekends (because providers have families too) should be a fee outside of a normal full-time rate. I also have dealt with this and provided the service. If DCP is late after 13+ hours then of course there will be late fees. In addition all active duty personnel should have an family care action plan because this is a part of military life. Most know the score with they join. If a draft was involved I’d have sympathy.

One of the reasons 24 hours military CDCs are being built is the situation shared in this post.
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pandamom 06:27 AM 04-13-2014
zombie post!

The original post was from 2008. Now the Air Force CDC's allow you to have your child attend from open to close. The one I worked at was open 12 hours a day.

We did have some single or dual military families that needed care longer than that because of work obligations. They would:

-pick their child up and bring them in to their work so they could finish. May not be feasible with most jobs

-hired a part-time nanny who would pick child up on days needed and care for child until parent comes home

-hire a CDC worker to take the child home with them until parent could pick up. I had coworkers who would even watch children for the week while parent was TDY.

-some were lucky enough to have family or close friends around to watch children

-I saw some people pull their child out of CDC care and hire an in-home nanny if they worked long/crazy hours.

Unfortunately there isn't a way out of long hours. That's why the military has you do a family care plan if you are single or dual military. That way you have a plan for all eventualities including both military members being deployed/gone at the same time.

I remember when DH and I were dating there was a married couple that would take turns deploying in the high tempo shop. So for 2 years they only saw each other as the other was either coming back or leaving for deployment. But this enabled at least one parent to be with their child at all times. That was the main factor in me separating from the Army- I did not want that to happen to us.
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Unregistered 12:34 AM 12-19-2008
Originally Posted by satxmb:
OK here the deal. My wife and I are in the military, but my wife is being stationed in Korea in about two months. I currently work a job that requires me to be at work at least twelve hours a day. Due to the fact that this interferes with childcare seeing as my wife and I have the same job. I have been working at night so i can either keep him during the day or pick him up from day care and she can drop him off. As you can tell with her going to Korea for a year this is not going to work anymore now we do currently have day care but he is only allowed to be in daycare for 10hrs before there is a late fee and only a max of one hour late can happen or my commander is contacted. What my supervisors want me to do I s get him from base day care and take him to another off base daycare anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and yes that includes Saturdays and Sundays. So here are the hours 0400-1900 maybe longer possibly 2100 would be my work day he can only be dropped off at day care from 0600-1600 so that leaves him in another daycare from 1600 -till now I know this sounds unreasonable believe me I’m fighting this tooth and nails I have already gotten in trouble because they are trying to make this happen and I’m refusing to allow my son to be raised by daycare. So my main question after all this. what I want to know is the max amount of time a child can be in daycare per day in the state of Texas any help would be much appreciated


Also post an ad on Craigslist. Be very careful who you choose. Get many references.
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MissLisa 10:38 PM 12-19-2008
I am from Pennsylvania... so I don't know Texas rules but I can only suggest that you try to find a nanny for home care. It would make so much more sense so that he can with his own surroundings...and bed at a normal hour...and you can pop in and out if you are able to go home for lunch... So what every you currently pay per day now... you can probably offer that or close to that for someone to come in your home. When he is of age for preschool just make sure that they have a car so they can take him to a preschool a few times per week for the interaction... or create play dates... so they socially develope to prepare for school.
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debbiedoeszip 05:16 AM 04-13-2014
Originally Posted by MissLisa:
I am from Pennsylvania... so I don't know Texas rules but I can only suggest that you try to find a nanny for home care. It would make so much more sense so that he can with his own surroundings...and bed at a normal hour...and you can pop in and out if you are able to go home for lunch... So what every you currently pay per day now... you can probably offer that or close to that for someone to come in your home. When he is of age for preschool just make sure that they have a car so they can take him to a preschool a few times per week for the interaction... or create play dates... so they socially develope to prepare for school.
I was going to suggest something like this as well. An au-pair, or a live-in nanny, situation would be more ideal than extended daycare or using more than one daycare, IMO. Better for the child (emotionally), and like you said, the parent can come home at lunch and spend that time with the child.

I really feel for the OP, though. My DH is military (Canadian) and I've provided childcare for military families. I had one situation where both parents (divorced, btw) were being deployed to Afghanistan at the same time and they asked me if I was willing to foster their child while they were away (I wasn't; not only am I not interested in fostering in general, their child was a handful and a half). DH says that the attitude of the military is often "If we wanted you to have a family, one would have been issued to you."
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Unregistered 07:36 PM 01-22-2009
Fist off the military dose help the family out they have their own thing and its called Family Child Care every base I have ever been on has one its. Just take you to check in to it. And yes it is hard trying to take care of a child while your other have gose TDY but its something every military parent gose through. Pluse with you both in the Military you have to have a plan for your child incase you both go TDY so I have no idea why you are haveing trouble finding someone or something maybe its because you are wanting more hours then they state will let you have the child in care. Because a child can only be in care for up to 10 hours a day at the most maybe its the cost that is troubling you. You can call Child Care Resource and Referal and they can help you also look at the CDC on base because they just might have a list of people that can help. If not Call the RED CROSS for teens that have taken the baby sitting class to help out. But what ever you do dont take your child to some one that is not with a state or base License because they are the ones that have been finger printed and have the back ground checks done on them. Good luck if you want to get back and tell me what base you are on maybe I can do some checking in to this for you. BEcause I have been doing home child care for over 20 years with the military and with out the military so good luck
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Unregistered 10:08 AM 12-08-2018
Similar to your situation in regards to the more than usual amount of hours needed per day for your child. I was a RN who needed care for 13-14 hrs/day--minimum. Oh and just forget about it when you had to stay over an hour or so. I hired a nanny!!! Now I lived in California, where financially it made more sense. Daycare with extended hours would cost $250/week. Nanny $1100/month. She lived with me 5 day a week. Just pure convenience! Less stress, Less worry. When I bought a house, I converted my garage into an apartment, moved her and her husband in there. They became part of my family and now my son is speaks fluent spanish
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Unregistered 02:10 PM 08-10-2020
I know this is old, but I'm pretty astonished by the poster... $1100 per is roughly $275 per week. If you needed 13-14 hours ("minimum") per day, at 5 days per week that's $3.93-$4.23 per hour. I understand she lived with you, which is a huge perk, but how is that a fair wage? Even if average rent in the area was as high as $1000 per month, that's still just $7.05-$8.07 an hour.

The minimum wage in CA in 2016 was $12/hour (and in 2008 it was $8/hour). Maybe she didn't work 13-14 hours every weekday?? I really hope so, because she would have been painfully (and shamefully) underpaid.
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Mariposa 09:50 PM 08-10-2020
Well, now I am curious..
12 years later...where are they now? Did she make it back from Korea? Did he quit the military and take a civilian job because his son was more important? Did he get raised by daycare? Wolves? Nanny?

Is he well-adjusted? Is he in middle school? high school? College? Did he become a daycare provider himself? Inquiring mind(s) wants to know. So many questions.


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Tags:2008, hours - max, hours per day, long hours in care, parent - its a verb, parental life choices
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