Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Seriously, it baffles me that parents can be this silly. When your child goes to school (if private), you pay for the month. You don't ask for a prorated rate if your child is out for a week with the flu. The expenses of the school DO NOT CHANGE because your child isn't there. The only way a school OR daycare center (whether in a home or not) can operate is to have a minimum number of children they service/enroll and have them pay a specified number of days throughout the year. My staff gets paid for any days that we are closed that has nothing to do with them, as long as parents are paying in full. So, for the woman that worked in a center, be careful, you can only speak for yourself. Daycares are National and how staff is treated is going to vary. To hear someone say costs are "minimal" is almost like a slap in the face. Is your provider driving a Mercedes? Live in a mansion maybe? I bet not! LOL Seriously - only people that have NO IDEA about running a business and the work that goes into being a provider and the amount of money it actually costs get all bent out of shape! Only those that see us as "babysitters" instead of what we really are - preschool that are ALL DAY! Many months we're lucky to make $1,500 a month profit! I bet you make more than that! If your provider takes good care of your child (many for 9 and 10 and 11 hours a day!!) and your child is happy and healthy and learning...paying for a few snow days so that they can take the precaution of keeping everyone safe...well that's the least you can do. Otherwise, find a place that's open ALL the time - GOOD LUCK with that!
You might have a different attitude if you were the one that had to take a day off from work to stay home. Don't act like there aren't situations that aren't fair on both ends. My daycare provider just took three weeks off for maternity leave. A week before that she took her 2nd "paid vacation" of the year. We get two weeks "off" where we don't have to pay but who gets FOUR weeks of vacation every year!? So we have to take our week off when she takes hers.. there unfair advantages and disadvantages on both ends... but just because her town has a snow day doesn't mean someone's boss doesn't expect them to be at work