I only watch teachers kids due to my choice. My husband is a teacher, we have a busy active family and all my kids are in sports year round. I work 7:30 am to 4:30 pm at the latest and take summers and school vacation days off. I LOVE IT!! I started with friends kids who were all teachers too on purpose. I look at each teachers schedule and actually figure out how many days I will care for their child. I have 3 school districts to work with. I am now in my 3rd year. Learned something every year about how to do it better and smarter. The first year I did not charge for sick days/ snow days or "Grandmas's coming to visit" days. Bad idea, lost alot of money that year.
Then came maternity leave issues, ugh!! These teachers were not used to paying for sick days nor maternity leave so this has created a problem and even more so since I am friends with them too. Double edged Blessing and Sword :-) I did address the sick day and snow day etc... issues by actually giving every family 10 free days/ subtracted that from the total and asked for them to pay year round. I get a pay check in the summer and I am not working. 10 free is alot, I know and thinking of decreasing it. But since they all came from other daycares not charging at all for sick days I was worried I would loose them. It also includes if I have to close because my own kids or I am sick. I now have a maternity leave issue to deal with again and am worried about how to handle this with these families. UGH!! No one around here charges for Maternity Leave and I want to at least charge 1/2. I have bills too ! They get payed for their Maternity Leave, I should too. I wanted to keep everything informal, no written contract and just a verbal agreement, and for the most part has worked out well, thinking my friends won't screw me over....but feel I have to kind of justify my every move and request. Hmmmm.

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