Hi ladies! Been awhile!

Central FL here. Hurricane Matthew is predicted to be about 30 ft off the coast and I am about 40 miles inland. Right now they are predicting we should expect 120 mph winds where I live.

School boards ALL over have decided to close Thurs & Friday as storm days. My policy states when schools close, I close. Besides, I do NOT want to be responsible for children during bad weather like that. It's bad enough I have anxiety about protecting my own son as it is! Our school board is having a meeting in about 30 mins to decide which days to close and which days to use for make up days, then I'll know which days I need to close. I tell my parents I legally have to close when schools do, I dont believe that to be true but I want them to take it seriously as I do.

I'm also off on Monday for Columbus Day. It's a federal holiday and I take it off every year. It's in the front page of my handbook. Low and behold the shock & crap I received when I put up the reminder.

I was already feeling awful that NONE of my parents have Columbus Day off - but I talked myself into taking the day off because 1) it has been in my handbook for 10+ months now 2) I have 5 personal days a year and I haven't taken ONE 3) Any time I have off, I have a substitute come in so parents aren't left with finding other arrangements. I am more than great with them and find it a little rude at the reaction I am getting for taking a holiday off. They all work in dr offices so they aren't closing but they had the opportunity to know about this all year long.

Now heres where my anxiety comes in real bad! What if the schools close Thurs and Fri? There's no WAY I'd feel good about myself having 5 days off in a row with 3 being days parents need to find. Should I work on Columbus Day if the 2 storm days? I kind of want to be a toddler myself on the situation and say, but it's not fair! I don't want storm days off, I want a pretty 85 degree FL monday off!

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The thing is the storm days are not technically in your control. I can tell you want the kids to be safe and the best way of ensuring that in an emergency is for them to be with their parents.

About the 5 days off, it is what it is. If you don't take your days no one else is going to give you permission to do so. You need to be the first person to follow your own policies.

It's an unfortunate situation, but I think you need to be ok with doing what's best for you and your business.

I hope that helped.

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Think of it this way. What if Monday was Christmas day? Would you consider working on christmas day because a NATURAL disaster chose to occur the Thursday/Fri beforehand? Parents need to have back up and they knew what days you are closed and they knew that bad weather days are a possibility. I know you feel bad, but it is not your fault and the weather is not something you can control.

Take your five day weekend and stay safe!

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Well, as one anxious person to another, do what will give you the least amount of anxiety

You can take the 5 days off and explain to parents that the weather is out of your control and it is simply not safe for you to have children during such a time.

Or

You can close Thursday and Friday and use Friday as your paid Columbus holiday.

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Take the 5 days! I imagine all of their employers will be cautious and understanding of the storms, so who knows, maybe they'll even get the day(s) off. I don't have much experience with hurricanes, but a big snowstorm here is known to close a lot of businesses if it's bad enough. And your day off, they've known about it should already have back up care ready. They've had plenty of notice and that's on them if they haven't figured it out.
Take the days and enjoy!

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My thoughts are::
If it's a hurricane, who wants their kids in care? Shouldn't they be w parents sheltering?
In our tornado this year we had 45 min between the EF4 (almost 5) and the explosion of eight other smaller ones in a three hour time frame.
The parents raced to get here between systems to have their kids in their arms when the next ones hit.
That's what parents do.
That's what your parents need to do.
You close. Be it three days or twelve. You close and don't feel one smidge guilty for it.
And stay safe.
All of you in This path.

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Close.

I can't imagine a parent even questioning your decision to close for the hurricane. I imagine they will be staying close to their child on those days, too.

Hope you weather the storm ok. We're waiting to see if it's going to make it as far as us this weekend.

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I would not give them Monday back.Once you do that all holidays in their eyes would be in question.Like other poster said if it was Christmas would you work.Stick to your contract.If the weather is that bad then a parent should stay home with their child to keep them safe.Not find someone to drive their child to for the day.I was like you in the beginning of my career. Felt guilty taking time,then I was blown away by how many parents used their personal and vacation days for themselves.Golf tournaments,spa days "me time"ect.That woke me up, my time counted.I did not birth these children and I deserved the time off.We run into that with snow days.

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I would stay with what I already had as a scheduled day off , you planned to take it because you need it .
As far as the storm , I take off any day that is a state of emergency .

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Don't worry about their tantrums! If it were up to them you would work 24/7/365. Take your day off that was planned well in advance and close for a hurricane.

Stay safe

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This exactly! You'd already planned Columbus Day, I don't care if it's a holiday or Timbuktu Day, you had it in your contract, end of story. Then along comes Hurricane Matthew....it's not like you ordered the storm to coincide with your Monday off so you could get 5 days instead of 3(but just in case you did, could you please pick the winning lotto numbers for this next Saturday? I'd really love to retire). And if those dcps were worried enough about their kids, they'd want to be there protecting them during this storm because one never knows for sure what a storm is going to do.

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No, take the days off! You deserve them. Especially that you haven't taken not even 1 personal day off. It's their fault for not having back up care. You had it in your handbook for over 10 months. They should have figured it out by now. When I close on Memorial and Labor day, some of my parents still work but they figure it out. Shame on those parents for making you feel guilty. If you decide to close Thursday and Friday, good for you. I can't imagine having my 6 littles with me in the event of a hurricane. It's best for them to be with their parents.

As for you, I hope you stay safe during this time. Take it easy and schedule more days off throughout the year next year. That way, when you do take a day off, parents are used to it. I can't word it properly, but a poster on this forum mentioned that when we take occasional days off throughout the year it teaches the parents that although you are reliable, sometimes you do need days off and they have to use their back up provider that they were told they needed to have when enrolling. If you never take a day off, they're not used to having to use them. Either way, it shouldn't matter. Take care of yourself first. Hope this helps.

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And its not 5 days off in the sense that you are closed 5 days you would be open. 2 days are the weekend. So you are closing 3 days. 2 natural disaster days that you have NO control over and 1 holiday you told them about MONTHS ago. Enjoy your break and stay safe

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