Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I like and appreciate the structure that Nan has!
For myself, however, I charge a flat monthly fee per child which is paid on the first of each service month. I am open from 6:30am until 5:30pm. As long as children are dropped off after 6:29am and picked up before 5:31pm I am totally fine with it... I couldn't care less if my parents are off work at 3pm and go grocery shopping or go get their hair done after work... just as long as they are picking up on time! The way I see it, this is my JOB, these are my hours, and to be upset about parents using those hours of operation to their full benefit is absurd... they have paid for my time!
I can't IMAGINE doing eleven hour days with kids. I know I couldn't manage it so I don't even try. I've known too many providers over the years who offer "business hours" instead of contracted hours for each family and ended up with most or all of the kids the maximum hours possible.
When I first started doing child care I saw the difference between kids who were here nine hours and those who were here longer. I knew inately that it was harder for me, I made less money per hour, and the "extra" hours were almost all awake hours.
I sat down and figured out the difference of just an hour a day more.
45 hours per week X 50 weeks per year is 2250 hours per year.
50 hours per week X 50 weeks per year is 2500 hours per year.
55 hours per week X 50 weeks per year is 2750 hours per year.
when I looked at the difference of the 45 hour week kid and the 55 hour per week kid I was stunned to realize that the difference was nearly over 11 WEEKS per year of time. An extra ten hours of week is the same as eleven weeks of total time the 45 hour a week kid was in my house.
FIVE HUNDRED hours more per year and in most kids cases that was AWAKE time.
I made a decision that I wasn't going to be a part of that. I wasn't going to be involved in a deal where a kid had so MUCH awake time every year here when I knew I could get kids on nine hour days. I've gone to nine hour days since.
Now I do make some exceptions daily but the TOTAL for the week doesn't exceed 45 hours per week per kid. I have had some kids that do four ten hour days and one full day off per week. As long as I'm getting a full week salary and the child is HOME on the day off then I will do that. I just won't participate in any kid being in day care more than 45 hours total per week.
The business model of open hours works for some providers. It just won't work for me. My policy is that the parent going into work last drops off the kid and the parent who gets off first picks up. I give a SIGNIFICANTLY lower rate to the early pick ups so my clients contract for the earliest possible departure time to save money. My average kid is here about 8.5 hours per day.
My kids have about five hours a day of FACE time with their parents. Five hours a day of AWAKE time with a parent seems to be the right mix for what works best for having engaged parents who can manage their kids. I don't want to do eleven hour days because my experience was that parents who have such a small amount of awake time a day with their kids were just more difficult clients to work for in general.
So for me the system works. I don't have kids beyond 45 hours a week and I make a good hourly wage per kid every day.