I am hoping to earn some extra Christmas cash by offering a Date Night for parents of currently enrolled clients. I know I've seen a few threads about this in the past, but I have a few specific questions for those who have offered a Parents Night Out. How many hours do you offer and at what rate? Do people respond better to a Friday night or Saturday afternoon? If I do this, I'd make it first come, first serve, and pay when you sign up. Do you accept siblings? (I would make them fill out the same state required paperwork.) All of my clients are the younger sibling of a school aged child, so I'm thinking if I do not offer to take the sibling as well, I wouldn't get anybody to sign up. Thanks!

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I did PNO years ago, and it was a big hit. I did the last friday of every month. I did a set fee, per family, and it was great. Set end hours, I did 10pm. We did a craft/ activity, had pizza & a movie (I let the kids eat in front of the TV, they thought it was the.most.awesome.thing.ever). Switched into PJs, most everyone either zonked out on their cots mid-movie....about 8-9pm. Loved it.

Then our regs changed, and kids were no longer allowed to be in care more than 10 hours in a given day, 12hours only if both parents actually worked a 12hr shift. I tried it on Saturday a couple times...it really interrupted my weekend, and I didn't want to give up 1/4 of my weekends to daycare. Plus, only a few kids showed up. So I dropped it, thanks regulations! for screwing up a really fun night once/mo. It was a nice extra couple hundred dollars,too.

The biggest draw to the PNO was the ability for the parents to go home from work WITHOUT the kids, get ready for their night out -- or whatever---and not worry until 10pm. Lets face is, half the time dh and I don't go out is because getting the kids ready to go to grandma's, auntie's or even cleaning up the house for a babysitter is beyond our energy expenditure limits.

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call me crazy, I used to do it for free for all FT families.

I did it for about a year and then stopped. I loved it because I got to get to know the kids on a different level. It was not about having to transition and stay on a schedule and I just loved actually playing with them.

I got burnt out on it and stopped.

I would do it again for an occasion, but not monthly or on any kind of on-going basis.

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I did pno for 2 years. 1 Saturday a month 4-8 $20. Half the kids who come are regular families and 1/2 are wait list families. I have gotten good feed back and it's fun. I am switching to doing them quarterly. We call them pajama parties, kids come in jammies, I feed them dinner, do a craft, they get a goodie bag and we end with a movie. Pretty easy and great for marketing. I like the idea of doing it on Friday as it does sort of kill your whole Saturday. Maybe I will switch to 5-9 on a Friday. Thanks for this idea

Oh and I also have all regular licensing paperwork for any child at the party

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I would love to do this, but here is such a family area that grandparents or aunts and uncles or cousins will all watch kids for free.

It is hard to get full time slots here for that reason. Grandma wants one or two days a week!

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I would love to do a PNO no charge to thank the families I have. I had a sleepover twice with one families children but it was more for my kids because they had all become so close and wanted yo play outside daycare hours. I had a really rough last year with a dcm so i am very appreciative of those great ones now. Problem is, if i don't charge now I may not be able to charge in the future.

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Yep! I tell them I charge for supplies and donate my time I think a small fee per child is still soooo much cheaper than a sitter and more fun for the kids!

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