Allowed Or Not Allowed, Employee Question. Your Thoughts And Advice Wanted

[daycare]

So I am currently interviewing for a new employee. My question is to all of you if you have experience hiring or working with an assist or not, would you allow for them to bring their own child with them to work? This child would have to be under the age of 5 no enrolled in school, so they would be here full day when the employee is here.;

If you did, would you still charge them daycare fees and if so would you discount them?

If you would not allow them to bring child, why not. What would your reasoning be?


Thanks so much in advance.

[Crystal]

I would, if I had a space available, and would not try to fill the spot once I did allow it.

I think it is a great employee perk, which are hard to offer given our limited income. If I needed the money, I might charge her a small fee and take it out of her pay, but if I could afford it I would offer it for free. I think offering this perk would help ensure a dedicated employee who WANTS to come to work everyday....most programs do not offer it and I think any employee would KNOW that it is a GREAT perk and it would give them incentive to work.

There would, of course, be all of the regular policies for her to follow, just like any other parent.

[daycare]

Originally Posted by Crystal

I would, if I had a space available, and would not try to fill the spot once I did allow it.

I think it is a great employee perk, which are hard to offer given our limited income. If I needed the money, I might charge her a small fee and take it out of her pay, but if I could afford it I would offer it for free. I think offering this perk would help ensure a dedicated employee who WANTS to come to work everyday....most programs do not offer it and I think any employee would KNOW that it is a GREAT perk and it would give them incentive to work.

There would, of course, be all of the regular policies for her to follow, just like any other parent.

Very good point. Do you think that if I did allow a child to come, that I should then only offer a minimum wage pay?

[grandmom]

I wouldn't allow it, now that I've survived doing just that. It wasn't the best scenario for me, her, or the kid. When he went through the biting stage it was very uncomfortable because I couldn't deal with it as I wanted. She didn't deal with it enough, and the other parents were frustrated. Biting went on forever.

Kids are worse for their parents than for us. We all know that. Now put that kid in your daycare with their parent all day long. Nope.

[Crystal]

Originally Posted by daycare

Very good point. Do you think that if I did allow a child to come, that I should then only offer a minimum wage pay?

Personally, I would offer no less than $10 per hour and then, if you need to, take a small portion of that to cover child care expenses. That way she will still feel like she is getting paid a decent wage AND still getting a VERY significant discount on child care. It might still work out to minumum wage for her, but it LOOKS better to her, KWIM?

[Crystal]

Originally Posted by grandmom

I wouldn't allow it, now that I've survived doing just that. It wasn't the best scenario for me, her, or the kid. When he went through the biting stage it was very uncomfortable because I couldn't deal with it as I wanted. She didn't deal with it enough, and the other parents were frustrated. Biting went on forever.

Kids are worse for their parents than for us. We all know that. Now put that kid in your daycare with their parent all day long. Nope.

I see your point, but we could all say that about our OWN children (as could the parents who come to our programs) I would just have very firm guidelines, enforce all policies just as would with any other parent and/or employee.

[daycare]

Originally Posted by Crystal

I see your point, but we could all say that about our OWN children (as could the parents who come to our programs) I would just have very firm guidelines, enforce all policies just as would with any other parent and/or employee.

I did think about that too and I thought that the best way to resolve that was since I have two huge classrooms that I could take their child and they could take mine. Then when we do full group stuff we do it all together.

I had one lady tell me she brings her daughter and 2 of her nieces to her current job. that would be 3 kids and I said no way jose....

[Sprouts]

Its hard enough having to deal with favoritism and making sure my children get enough attention that having an employee being their own can make it very stressful. It also depends on the age as well and how attached ghe child is to the parent. I would try to avoid it if you can. If the child will be with a seperate room and another provider like in a center I could see it working, but not in a small home daycare.

On nannydees blog she mentions this

[countrymom]

I don't have an employee but my back up provider does. She does not allow the employees child to come and the employee is not responsible to was my back up providers children either. She said its easier this way.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I would not do it. Just doesn't sit right. Why give out a discounted spot? There are probably qualified applicants without kids.

[Crystal]

Out of curiosity, would those of you who would not allow it offer a higher wage so that the provider could afford child care?

[momofsix]

I know GBCC had a bunch of problems with an assistant that brought her child. I tried looking up the old threads and only found one, but it will give you an idea of the things that she was going through with her assistants child.
https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11487

[earlystart]

I would give her a little tuition discount ($5 off/week), but not pay her any more than any other employee I would hire. My reasoning being that I would be setting a fair wage based on what my business can afford, and giving free or greatly reduced child care doesn't benefit you when you could hire someone without a kid, and get full tuition for that spot.

[rhymia1]

I currently have two assistants. They are both wonderful, one has no children and the other has one in school. When I first started out I had an assistant who would occasionally bring her kids. What a difference from when she had them and when they were in school! Honestly, she had to be on them the whole time, which left me to manage the dc kids. I find this to be a common theme when assistants bring children. It's not even that the children are behaving horribly, but they are thrust in a situation where they are competing for mom's attention with multiple children.

It came down to what type of environment I want to offer for my kids/families. I felt that when she brought her kids, she treated the job like it was a "play date" she was supervising rather than the professional approach I prefer (both for myself and assistants). Eventually I had to let her go (for other reasons) and once I hired people who didn't have to bring their children it became clear I could not go back.

I would rather pay more and get good quality assistants who treat this like the professional job it is, than give a "discount" on child care for a child who may/probably need more care and attention that the dc kids.

[countrymom]

Originally Posted by Crystal

Out of curiosity, would those of you who would not allow it offer a higher wage so that the provider could afford child care?

nope because its just like any other job. \You don't get a higher wage because you need childcare.

[daycare]

So I decided that I will try to find an employee without out a child, but know that I cannot discriminate against anyone who does.

I see what a lot of your are saying. I personally have the hardest time sometimes with my own child, not always, but often. But my child was born into daycare and is used to it. Their child may not be and it could go horribly wrong.

thank you all so much for your thoughts on this...lots of great points all the way around

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Originally Posted by grandmom

I wouldn't allow it, now that I've survived doing just that. It wasn't the best scenario for me, her, or the kid. When he went through the biting stage it was very uncomfortable because I couldn't deal with it as I wanted. She didn't deal with it enough, and the other parents were frustrated. Biting went on forever.

Kids are worse for their parents than for us. We all know that. Now put that kid in your daycare with their parent all day long. Nope.

I agree. Absolutely not. I would not do it. You don't know how this person parents. If they aren't in charge of their child, you won't know it until they're under your radar and then you're in a pickle.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Originally Posted by countrymom

nope because its just like any other job. \You don't get a higher wage because you need childcare.

I agree with this as well. I wouldn't either.