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MarinaVanessa 07:52 AM 10-03-2011
I guess it depends on what you want to charge and how much money you want to make from it. You want to make some money for weekend care so you should charge more your regular rates but not so much that it would make it too expensive for clients. You won't want to scare them away .

For example, I offer weekend care on an ask-for basis, meaning if I'm not doing anything else already and if I feel like it. When you break it down I charge $3.20 an hour for full-time clients. Drop-ins pay $5 an hour or $40 a day for 10 hours. For weekends I charge $5 an hour period, no daily rate. I charge a low fee because I want to make money off of it. High-school kids in my area charge about $7-$10 an hour with the convenience of them coming to their homes but I charge a lot less so that they'll want to bring the kiddos here. They feel like they're getting the best bang for their buck and I'm making a little bit of extra money on the side (which is what I wanted).

Of course you may feel like your time is worth more than that and in that case you should deffinetely charge more. It also matters on the saturation of baby-sitters or other hourly child care providers in your area. You want to compete with them but still make a profit. Also, what kind of care will you provide? Is it structured? Laid-back? If you will have activities and such then you could charge more, if it'll be a normal family weekend (where the kids just do whatever you do and has more free-play) then you would probably charge less.
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