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jamesandlindz 01:48 AM 10-03-2011
Hello,

My wife and I have been putting some serious consideration into opening up our own nighshift/overnight daycare. We both currently work in the medical field and she has experience with respite care.

I wanted to get some peoples opinions about how realistically a business model that catered solely (initially at least) to overnight care. I have tried to search my local are (Seattle) and it's nearly impossible to find anything like this. It appears there may be an unmet need for some overnight childcare in our area (Seattle). We would cater to 6-12 year old primarily, and offer drop off and pickup times of 5 PM to 9 AM.

Does this sound like a reasonable goal or a pipe dream?

What should we reasonably expect in terms of payment for an overnight stay?

Anyone with any experience have any words of wisdom to the uninitiated?

Thank you,

James and Lindsey
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Michael 03:49 AM 10-03-2011
Welcome to the forum. Here are some related posts: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...overnight+care
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nannyde 07:21 AM 10-03-2011
It's a tough one.

There's not really a market for it where I live because the kids are sleeping during that time. It's not hard to find someone to watch their kid for cheap if the kid is sleeping.

I did 24 hour care for about 15 years and I never got a purely overnight kid. I got a few that were after school to early morning but only a handful.

Most people who want overnight care also want you to keep the kid till noon (nap time) so they can go home and sleep. Noon pick ups basically mean still giving a lot of hours of awake time. Noon pick ups also translate into a LOT of times they just don't come and get the kid and you can't get ahold of them. Once you do get ahold of them it's many hours later and they have the alarm clock overslept excuse ready for you.

You also get many requests to keep the kid up really late. Any time there is anything special like Friday, Saturday, or holiday, vacation etc. the parents and child want a really late bedtime. If the kid is not in school they want a really late bedtime a lot.

They want the kid to sleep in as late as possible in the morning.
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Growing1atime 07:34 AM 10-03-2011
I have one child that comes overnight. He is 5 years old now. He is dropped off at 7:30pm, His mom works till 2am, then goes home and sleeps. She picks him up at 10am the next day. This is only 2 nights a week. It is really easy care to provide. He comes right at bed time, I ask that he is already in pj's and feed. I put him to bed when my kids go to bed (8pm). He gets up, has breakfast and before I know it his mom is here to get him. She has never been late.

I think this service is very valuable for people that don't have family close by and have to work at night.

In fact, I would only do this kind of care if I could. But right now I don't have the sleeping space. I would think that it would take sometime to build a clientele, but once your name got out there to people that work graveyard shifts you would be full.
Good luck!
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Growing1atime 07:37 AM 10-03-2011
Originally Posted by Growing1atime:
I have one child that comes overnight. He is 5 years old now. He is dropped off at 7:30pm, His mom works till 2am, then goes home and sleeps. She picks him up at 10am the next day. This is only 2 nights a week. It is really easy care to provide. He comes right at bed time, I ask that he is already in pj's and feed. I put him to bed when my kids go to bed (8pm). He gets up, has breakfast and before I know it his mom is here to get him. She has never been late.

I think this service is very valuable for people that don't have family close by and have to work at night.

In fact, I would only do this kind of care if I could. But right now I don't have the sleeping space. I would think that it would take sometime to build a clientele, but once your name got out there to people that work graveyard shifts you would be full.
Good luck!
Oh, and I charge my normal daily rate. I would find out what daycare is costing in your area and charge that rate. Even though they are asleep you are still responsible for them.
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christinaskids 09:09 AM 10-03-2011
I have some overnight kids also. I charge my normal rate and i love it. I have all older kids and they are a part of my family while they are here.
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daycare 09:21 AM 10-03-2011
Originally Posted by Growing1atime:
Oh, and I charge my normal daily rate. I would find out what daycare is costing in your area and charge that rate. Even though they are asleep you are still responsible for them.
Just curious how do you offer overnight care? I thought about doing this as my husband works in the medical field and lots of friends ask me. BUT becuase I am in CA, that would mean that I would have to be awake the entire time the child is here.

Do you have a helper or an assistant?
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e.j. 10:49 AM 10-03-2011
Sounds like a good idea if there is a need in your community. I'd be curious, though, as to how it would work for the age group you're interested in since they'd all be school age. How does pick up time mesh with their need to be at school? Would you have to make sure they're dressed and ready for school? Would traportation to school be the parent's responsibility or would you offer that service if they can't get to your house on time after they leave work? Do you have a bus stop nearby and what would happen if they missed the bus? Does it mean you'd have to help with homework if needed?
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christinaskids 11:27 AM 10-03-2011
I shower my dc kids the night before then their mom picks them up by 7 and brings them to school. All they do is go home and eat breakfast. It depends on if you want to bring them to school or not. I would charge for before school services also if you did that.
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permanentvacation 12:21 PM 10-03-2011
I did 24/7 care for a while. In my area, there's not much of a need for evening/weekend/overnight care. People mainly just need daytime care Monday - Friday here. However, in your area,there might be more of a need for overnight care. In my opinion, you can research by finding out about how many overnight jobs are in your area - hospitals, police stations, fire departments, post offices, hotels, 24/7 restaurants, and 24/7 stores are the places that I can think of that people would work at that might need daycare overnight. You need to check on the rules in your area for overnight care. In my area, I can watch 3 overnight kids and still sleep myself. So I can do 24/7 care all by myself with no helper at all because I could get my sleep overnight. If you think there's a need in your area, then find out the rules of overnight care, set your place up for it, and advertise. In any business, even if there seems to be a need, you never know if you'll get clients till you offer the service.

In my area, I have seen prices that are a little less than the typical day rate - because the kids are asleep and don't need as much care. However I have also seen a higher than the typical day rate because the kids are there on odd hours which are typically paid a higher rate - if you work the overnight shift at Walmart or anywhere else - you typically are paid a bit higher than the dayshift employees. So, you would have to figure out what people would pay in your area.

I tried a couple of ways for the hours when I first started overnight care. At first, I let the parents bring the children in on their way to work and pick up on their way home from work. I quickly had parents keeping me up all night and waking me up as early as 2:30 am! So I decided that the children had to arrive at 9pm so they could go to bed and had to be picked up between 6am and 9am the next day - each parent decided on their exact time of pick up. They all had to be gone by 9am because my dayshift came in between 6am and 9am and I could not allow my overnight kids to make me out of ratio for the dayshift.

The 9pm - 6-9am worked beautifully! Parents brought their kids in already dressed for bed, the kids told their parents good night and went to bed. Some of the parents got off at 2am, but could then go home, get some rest, and be here by 9. The parents who worked 11-7 could drop their child off here at night, go home, get ready for work, then pick their child up on their way home from work. It happens that my 11-7 parents' kids were school age, so they went to school while the parents were home sleeping. But this schedule kept the kids on a regular sleeping schedule of 9pm - 6 am. So it was best for the kids.
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Growing1atime 08:49 PM 10-03-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
Just curious how do you offer overnight care? I thought about doing this as my husband works in the medical field and lots of friends ask me. BUT becuase I am in CA, that would mean that I would have to be awake the entire time the child is here.

Do you have a helper or an assistant?
I honestly didn't know that I had to be awake the entire time he is here. I looked over Title 22 very carefully and there isn't anything in there that says I would have to. Do you know what part of Title 22 says you have to be away the entire time?
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