I've been providing childcare for about 10 years. I'm in the process of redoing my contracts and have a few questions.

I do not take any paid vacation days (except the federal holidays) and I do not offer any "free"days off for my clients. So if I take days off I do not get paid and if my client takes days off for any reason they still have to pay. Over the years this has worked great for my daycare, I've never had a client complain and I always know exactly what I'm getting paid. I'm thinking of adding a few paid sick days for me to my contracts because it seems like when I get sick it is because of a daycare child but I'm wary of this. What's the norm?

I've also never asked for a two week notice. My clients pay me on Monday for that week of care so no one ever leaves owing me money. My thoughts have been that if I require a 2 week notice:
1. I will have people stay for those last 2 weeks and I will feel like I'm working for free because they prepaid those weeks years ago.
2. My good clients who are leaving because of a move, preschool, job change etc. usually give me a notice, its the people that I'm having problems with that don't. If the relationship has soured the last thing I want is for them to stay for 2 weeks because they paid for it ahead of time.
3. If the relationship has soured and they prepaid the would most likely make up a reason to call licensing on me or at least threaten it to try to get their deposit back. I have nothing to hide but I hate the thought of that.
4. Realistically (at least in my area) a two week notice is nothing because the spot will probably not fill in that short of time. So it's not like it will help me re-figure my finances.

So those are my reasons for not requiring a 2 week notice. Is there something I'm not seeing? I know that most providers do it so I feel like I must be missing some benefit. Is it that or is it just my way of looking at things?

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