Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Before I start another riot, I need to say this, I AM FINE PAYING VACATION TIME, AND HOLIDAYS. My wife and I get paid holidays off, so its not like I am "out money" plus it's free time with my kids which I love. However here are the things I have some frustrations with, and I am wondering if I am out of line being frustrated. I just don't know your business model, so maybe I am out of line with my frustrations:
1st- My provider takes 20 days paid off NOT INCLUDING HOLIDAYS, once again that doesn't frustrates me, what does is the fact they are so spread out. Will most providers take a week at a time? We unfortunately don't live near any family so it's really hard finding someone to watch them for a day or two at a time. If they took a week at a time it would justify driving my kids 6 hours to my parents and dropping them off for the week. So what happens is I use all my vacation and my wife's vacation to cover my providers days off, so when we want to take a vacation we have 2 choices, take it unpaid, or plan short vacations around our providers.
2nd- On top of the planned vacation on 4 separate occasions we got a text message the night before telling us they had an emergency and could not be open the next days, yet I still had to pay for that time even though they could not provide services. Considering she has 20 paid days off, shouldn't this come out of their days off? If you break the math down 20 days paid off would basically equal a month off a year, most people (including myself) will get 2 weeks (10 working days) and a week of sick (5 working days) off in a year. IF I have a sick child and my wife can't stay home with them, I have to use either a vacation day or sick day to cover me being home with my children. That is on me so if my provider is either sick or has to close for an emergency, shouldn't that have to come out of their paid time off in their contract?
3rd- (this one was what prompted my question here) Yesterday my provider told me at pick up she had a family issue next week, so I asked her if that would be in place of the 5 days she already has scheduled off for vacation in the month of August, she actually seemed insulted that I would ask her and told me no, YET I still have to pay for those extra 2 days.
4th- We pay a month in advance, so if we try and plan a day off and give my provider a month notice that we would be gone a day or two, we still have to pay or we lose our place in her daycare, so why is it ok that she can tell me a week or even day before she will be closed (outside of holidays and paid time off) and I have to pay, but if I give her plenty of lead time I can't pro-rate the month.
Finally- Since contracts are a hot topic here, in our contract it states that she will provide Breakfast, lunch, and 2 snacks during the day the child is there. Lately we have found out they are only getting one snack (no biggie), but since everyone is so contract sensitive and use that as an argument, then do I have a right to use that in return?
Look I know this sounds like I am bashing my provider, and I am not, she loves all the kids and treats them great, and I trust her and support her, but these things are hard to shake, so what do you think, and I being overly sensitive on this or do I have a reason to feel a little slighted?
Thanks so much!
I've started to respond to this post several times and each time, I've decided to delete my reply and walk away from it. It's really been bothering me for some reason, though, so here goes:
It may seem like a double standard for me to say this but rather than giving you leverage, bringing up the missing snack time just comes across as petty to me. I get the point you're trying to make and I agree the contract should be followed by both parties but...you said yourself that it's "no biggie" so why bring it up? She may start serving the second snack to appease you and to keep you from accusing her of not following her own contract but it won't resolve the real issue: the excessive amount of time she's taking off at your expense.
For the record, I would be extremely frustrated if I were in your shoes - although I would never have signed on with her in the first place. Those 20 paid days off in addition to holidays would have been a deal breaker for me.
What amounts to unlimited time off with pay would definitely not have worked for me when I had my child in day care. I didn't have friends or family who could watch my child at a moments notice (they all had jobs and kids, too!) so I would have lost my job trying to cover her time off.
I agree with the suggestion to discuss the issue with her to see if a compromise can be reached. (She's got a good thing going, though, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope that anything will change!) If a compromise isn't possible, I would start looking for another provider with policies more in sync with what works best for you.