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familyschoolcare 08:28 AM 09-09-2011
Alright people how does this sound ...

I provide breakfast, morning snack lunch and an afternoon snack at no extra charge to you. I am on the 4c’s Child Care Food Program and they reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren). Food is offered to your child but they are not forced to eat it. I will notify you if your child is not eating.

Basically it is my job to offer food their job to eat it. While I will tell you if your child is not eating a meal, I may not mention if they eat little or nothing at snack as I do not find that to be alarming.

I had a parent ask me if I could ensure that their son eats his lunch. I responded with “NO I do not pick him up from school until 2:30. what I can do is at snack in addition to what I am offering offer him whatever may happen to be left in his lunch.
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Angelwings36 08:41 AM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by familyschoolcare:
Alright people how does this sound ...

I provide breakfast, morning snack lunch and an afternoon snack at no extra charge to you. I am on the 4c’s Child Care Food Program and they reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren). Food is offered to your child but they are not forced to eat it. I will notify you if your child is not eating.

Basically it is my job to offer food their job to eat it. While I will tell you if your child is not eating a meal, I may not mention if they eat little or nothing at snack as I do not find that to be alarming.

I had a parent ask me if I could ensure that their son eats his lunch. I responded with “NO I do not pick him up from school until 2:30. what I can do is at snack in addition to what I am offering offer him whatever may happen to be left in his lunch.
It should not be your job to ensure that her son has eaten his lunch if you are not picking him up from school until 2:30pm! That's just ridiculous! If he was there for lunchtime, even then you could not ensure that he ate his lunch. If he doesn't want to eat what does she expect you to do, force-feed him! UH NOO!!

Is this parent complaining about his lunch because the child is hunger when she first brings him home?

I have had families complain about this in the past. Seriously, children that get picked up at 5:00pm or later are suppose to be hunger...it's flipping supper time!

I had a mom once ask me to give her son a snack at 4:30pm; sorry I don't offer that service. I do not believe in children snacking right before meal times and then not eating a hearty meal because they snacked right before. It's not my 'type' of parenting; therefore, I don't offer it.

The first paragraph you have contracted sounds really good. I'm still back and forth on the second paragraph, not sure if it needs to be included or not.
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familyschoolcare 08:50 AM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by Angelwings36:
It should not be your job to ensure that her son has eaten his lunch if you are not picking him up from school until 2:30pm! That's just ridiculous! If he was there for lunchtime, even then you could not ensure that he ate his lunch. If he doesn't want to eat what does she expect you to do, force-feed him! UH NOO!!

Is this parent complaining about his lunch because the child is hunger when she first brings him home?

I have had families complain about this in the past. Seriously, children that get picked up at 5:00pm or later are suppose to be hunger...it's flipping supper time!

I had a mom once ask me to give her son a snack at 4:30pm; sorry I don't offer that service. I do not believe in children snacking right before meal times and then not eating a hearty meal because they snacked right before. It's not my 'type' of parenting; therefore, I don't offer it.

The first paragraph you have contracted sounds really good. I'm still back and forth on the second paragraph, not sure if it needs to be included or not.
I think the real problem is this child gets pick up at 5:30-6:00 and has at least an hour drive home. Parent has said he has such a long day. I do not respond to this because that is not my problem that parent has deiced to live one hour or more away from where they work. It was not my choice.
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wdmmom 10:27 AM 09-09-2011
I would tell DCM that because the child isn't in your care, you can't be sure if he ate or not. Now if she's packing him a lunch, you can see what was eaten and what was not.

If she is inconspicuously asking you to feed him lunch at 230pm, say no. Lunch time is (enter time here.) What you can do is offer him a snack at snack time.

If he's getting hungry on the car ride home, suggest to DCM that she leave some trail mix, cereal, granola bar, etc in the car for him to enjoy on the way home.
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daycare 10:43 AM 09-09-2011
The only thing that I see that caught my eye was you stated "the food program reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren)"

They do not reimburse you for the full cost of the meal, only a portion of the cost per meal.....
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TBird 11:27 AM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
The only thing that I see that caught my eye was you stated "the food program reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren)"

They do not reimburse you for the full cost of the meal, only a portion of the cost per meal.....
I agree...you don't get reimbursed for the full amount so please don't give your parents the idea that you are "making out" because you are on the food program. Once parents think you are making a little money (which you really aren't) they tend to start getting "in your business" and calculating/regulating how much you make, etc. I would just say that I'm on the food program and the nutritious meals I serve your children are REGULATED & INSPECTED for quality, etc.
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daycare 11:35 AM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by TBird:
I agree...you don't get reimbursed for the full amount so please don't give your parents the idea that you are "making out" because you are on the food program. Once parents think you are making a little money (which you really aren't) they tend to start getting "in your business" and calculating/regulating how much you make, etc. I would just say that I'm on the food program and the nutritious meals I serve your children are REGULATED & INSPECTED for quality, etc.
T-bird....thanks for finishing the rest...lol I got pulled away...

I had a parent ask me to lower my rates because she assumed that since I was on the food program I was raking in the cash and that all meals were covered.............Hahha I wish they were. My kids would be havin steak and lobster.....
Or better yet they would all be eating my expensive vegan food....lol
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TBird 11:40 AM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
T-bird....thanks for finishing the rest...lol I got pulled away...

I had a parent ask me to lower my rates because she assumed that since I was on the food program I was raking in the cash and that all meals were covered.............Hahha I wish they were. My kids would be havin steak and lobster.....
Or better yet they would all be eating my expensive vegan food....lol
Amen Girl....I knew just where you were going with that!!!
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mismatchedsocks 11:45 AM 09-09-2011
I have kids that are here 10 hours a day. They come early have breakfast, then snack then lunch then snack. Last snack is at about 300. Now if the parents pick up a 500 and takes them time to get home, cook dinner, etc. no wonder why kids are hungry.

I hate that I get questioned if the kids eat or not, only because they eat every couple hours and I do not feed them after 3. I feel they need to eat a good dinner.
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Abigail 09:57 PM 09-09-2011
Originally Posted by familyschoolcare:
Alright people how does this sound ...

I provide breakfast, morning snack lunch and an afternoon snack at no extra charge to you. I am on the 4c’s Child Care Food Program and they reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren). Food is offered to your child but they are not forced to eat it. I will notify you if your child is not eating.
You should also state the time frames you serve these meals. It's required here to say what times we serve them if we're on the food program so they know when to pop in on us to check things over.

You shouldn't mention "and they reimburse me for meals that are served to your child (ren)" at all. Don't involve any money because that doesn't matter to the parents. They may want to know what a food program is, so state what another poster recently said about being healthy and inspected etc. You also don't need to mention the last sentence because this is just one of many scenarios that could come up. You don't want to have to keep adding things like "I will notify you if your child is not eating, is scared of certain foods, doesn't care for certain foods, is allergic to something, etc" because you 'll have an on-going list. I would however put in a statement that the parent must notify you of any known food allergies.

You should mention if you have a menu and where parents can view it.
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Tags:contract - revisions, policy, policy - reminder, policy - revisions
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