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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Potential Client, Not Sure if I am Happy or Not. . .
momofboys 10:31 AM 05-28-2010
I'm really looking forward to the summer with my kids. Next week is to be the last week I babysit. I'm excited but nervous. Financially it will be tough to not get a paycheck from childcare. We have saved up quite a bit but I don't want that amount down to nothing by the fall. That savings is supposed to be for emergencies. Anyway, I have not been advertising for childcare but it seems like I keep getting calls from people I know who know I do childcare. I guess it is a good sign when you don't advertise & people call you but I am not sure what to do. This afternoon an aquaintance who we used to go to church with (we switched churches 4-5 years ago) called & left a message about seeing if I was avaialble for childcare for about 2 - 2 1/2 months. If I remember right they have 2 children but I am not sure how old they are. If they just want summer care that would be great b/c I won't have my teacher's family then. So good for financial reasons but not so good for a long & fun summer with my boys. I don't know what to do. I will call them back & set something up but I wish I could have a magic wand that could tell me the right thing to do. I'm going to pray about it & see what happens.
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My4SunshineGirlsNY 11:18 AM 05-28-2010
I don't blame you for being undecided..if I could financially afford it, I would have the summer with my family only....but all my daycare families need summer care too, then I would be left with no clients for the fall.

I am really upset that I miss out on doing the things my kids like to do because I have a handful of daycare kids in the summer. This is my first summer being registered and my kids can't use our swimming pool and they are devistated as well am I.

I so wish I had no daycare kids in the summer..if you can swing it, I would take the summer for your own kids..I thought home daycare would be a great way to be with my kids, but at times I feel it makes things worse. But financially if I wasn't doing daycare, I would be gone at a job and wouldn't be home with my kids.

My husband used to make enough for the bills and if he still did, I would run a smaller daycare or just give my undivided attention to my own kids.
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boysx5 11:47 AM 05-28-2010
IF you can afford to take the summer off I say go for it I wish I could but this summer will be the first time I will be making good money and that is hard to give up. I plan on using it to enjoy our vacations and do extra fun things on the weekends so all in all its well worth it but still at times wish I was able to enjoy my kids more in the summer
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AfterSchoolMom 11:52 AM 05-28-2010
I'm taking the summer off to enjoy my family. My kids won't be kids forever! If you can do it, I say go for it...not to say anything bad about those who can't.
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momofboys 06:08 PM 05-28-2010
Well the dad e-mailed me with their schedule & I am pretty sure that I do not want to do it but I am open to discuss it with them. We have a major plumbing situation happening at our house right now & I am afraid we are going to pay out tons of $$ to get it fixed so I am considering it.

Would you charge a full-time rate for this? One day is only for a few hours but some days are 9 1/2 or 11 hours which are LONG days IMO. It's for 2 children a 5 year old & a 2 year old

Monday: 7:00 AM to 3:00 Pm
Tuesday: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Thursday: 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Friday: 6:15 AM to 5:30 PM
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fctjc1979 06:11 PM 05-28-2010
I would definately charge full-time.
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momofboys 06:15 PM 05-28-2010
Originally Posted by fctjc1979:
I would definately charge full-time.
I guess what I should have asked was would you charge 1/2 rate for the lower hour day or take into consideration that some days are much longer & just consider each day a full pay day?
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fctjc1979 06:16 PM 05-28-2010
I would charge for five full days.
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fctjc1979 06:34 PM 05-28-2010
I probably should have been more clear. I offer parents three ways of figuring rates. By doing it this way, it pretty much covers all situations. I only have one family right now (three little girls) and they are only here on Wednesdays for about 5 hours so they pay the hourly rate. Here are my rates.

Hourly – 4.00/hr

Daily – 30.00/day – 9 hour max – anything over will be charged hourly

Full time – 135.00/week - up to 45 hours per week – anything over will be charged hourly
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misol 06:54 PM 05-28-2010
Originally Posted by fctjc1979:
I probably should have been more clear. I offer parents three ways of figuring rates. By doing it this way, it pretty much covers all situations. I only have one family right now (three little girls) and they are only here on Wednesdays for about 5 hours so they pay the hourly rate. Here are my rates.

Hourly – 4.00/hr

Daily – 30.00/day – 9 hour max – anything over will be charged hourly

Full time – 135.00/week - up to 45 hours per week – anything over will be charged hourly
Definitely charge them your full time weekly rate plus any corresponding overtime at the hourly rate. Is this the work schedule only or does it already include commute times?
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Former Teacher 04:28 AM 05-29-2010
Originally Posted by janarae:
Well the dad e-mailed me with their schedule & I am pretty sure that I do not want to do it but I am open to discuss it with them. We have a major plumbing situation happening at our house right now & I am afraid we are going to pay out tons of $$ to get it fixed so I am considering it.

Would you charge a full-time rate for this? One day is only for a few hours but some days are 9 1/2 or 11 hours which are LONG days IMO. It's for 2 children a 5 year old & a 2 year old

Monday: 7:00 AM to 3:00 Pm
Tuesday: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Thursday: 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Friday: 6:15 AM to 5:30 PM
I'd charge FT rate. Even though they say they will p.u. at 12:00 on Tues...can you really believe them? This way with it being a flat full time rate..they and you dont have to worry.
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momma2girls 04:31 AM 05-29-2010
Originally Posted by Former Teacher:
I'd charge FT rate. Even though they say they will p.u. at 12:00 on Tues...can you really believe them? This way with it being a flat full time rate..they and you dont have to worry.
I would do the same thing!!
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melskids 04:51 AM 05-29-2010
i would definetly charge full time....you watch.....they'll NEVER get there by 12:00...lol

and as far as spending time with my kids this summer.....we have a lot of Saturday and whole weekend trips planned, which i think are more fun anyway. (diamond digging, museums, indoor rock climbing, water park, art studio to make pottery, camping, etc) i'd rather have lots of weekend day trips all summer long then spend alot of $$ on a fancy vacation that only lasts a week.

my kids do sacrifice a bit, giving up the weekdays to a ton of kids here all summer....but thats when i make the $$$. they understand, and i try to make the weekends and all the time i can with them special.
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momofboys 06:00 AM 05-29-2010
Thanks everyone for your input. DH & I discussed it & decided that we were not willing to give our whole summer up. That being said we did decide that if they (the parents) could make a part-time situation work (3 days or less) each week I would consider it. I am thinking they only need care for such a short time ( 2 - 2 1/2 months) that they may have a hard time finding someone on such short notice or possibly they could have a family member or friend fill in for 1 or 2 days (likely the short day & one other day) a week. So I let them know that so we'll see. If it's meant to happen it will, if not it's no big deal. I would definitely charge them my full-time fee for each day though & maybe a little bit higher if I work the 11 hr day.
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momofboys 06:44 AM 05-29-2010
Originally Posted by misol:
Definitely charge them your full time weekly rate plus any corresponding overtime at the hourly rate. Is this the work schedule only or does it already include commute times?
Yes, those times include commute times. The mom is in nursing school & also working & dad gets off work at 5:00 so on the earlier days it's b/c mom's out of class & the 5:30 pick-ups are from dad getting off work at 5:00; I think when the mom works it's a 12 hr shift so on those days dad picks up at 5:30.
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momofboys 10:30 AM 05-31-2010
Yeah! Potential client called me back & wants to come to our home for a visit. They also think they can make it work with a family member so I would only be watching the kids 3 days a week. I'm glad because the $$$ will be helpful & I will still have 4 day weekends with my kids! Now to win my kids over. If they choose to have me care for them I'd be watching them Wed-Friday.
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