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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Proper Way to Dismiss. . . How to Help Needed
momofboys 08:02 AM 02-21-2010
I care for two families, although one is just one child who is only part-time (comes 3-4 days week). And I have only been caring for family #2 for about one month. I think you all recall the homeschool saga I went through, well now I only care for one of this family's daughters. I had originally had doubts about caring for two families & my own feelings about it possibly being too much for me to handle. Not that I could not handle it but that I felt as if I had little left over to give my own family at the end of the day. A quite lucrative opportunity has come along for me where I will be able to work from home part-time for a company who I had done work for in the past. I still feel like I can manage my first family & do this extra work during naptimes/weekends (work can be done Sun-Sat from 8 am - 11pm so I could easily put in time when my husband is home & not take away from the kids I watch). However, I feel led to drop family #2. I'd like less stress during the day & dropping back would help a lot with this. When you tell a family you are dropping them how do you do it & how much notice do you give & do I need to tell her all of me reasons why? I was planning on giving her 2 week's notice & telling her after she'd paid me (she pays in advance). I'm not sure what to tell her in regards to reasons. I don't want to lie but I don't think she needs to know that I will be working from home doing other things. Thank you for your input.
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gbcc 08:51 AM 02-21-2010
I give 2 wks notice to terminate care. I would just be honest and let them know that an opportunity to work out of your home as come along in which you feel is the right move for your family. Explain that you will not be able to give her child the care and attention she deserves and therefore regrettfully are giving her two wks notice to find alternate care.
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Persephone 09:16 AM 02-21-2010
Originally Posted by gbcc:
I give 2 wks notice to terminate care. I would just be honest and let them know that an opportunity to work out of your home as come along in which you feel is the right move for your family. Explain that you will not be able to give her child the care and attention she deserves and therefore regrettfully are giving her two wks notice to find alternate care.
I agree. Just tell her something else came up and it wasn't going to work out.
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tymaboy 11:04 AM 02-21-2010
Give 2 weeks notice but you do not have to tell her why. If you tell her that you will work from home then they may think that you should still be able to watch her kids. Tell her that providing care will no longer work for you. You could also tell her that it has nothing to do with her kids or their behavor (soften the blow to her)
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alyssyn 06:48 PM 02-21-2010
I would give her a couple of weeks notice so she can look for alternate care, but I don't think you should have to give her a reason. Just let her know it's not because of her children being unruly or anything. Everything will work out!
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momofboys 10:14 AM 02-22-2010
Thanks for your input. I think I will talk to her about it & just put in writing when the last day will be. I'm hoping she doesn't scramble the minute I tell her I no longer can provide care for her family. One annoying aspect of this family is that the one daughter no longer comes but she seems to think she can just bring her along with no notice part of the time. Uh, no! In fact mom just called me to ask if 2nd daughter could also come tomorrow. Quite frankly I'd like to say NO b/c tomorrow is a scheduled early release day so I'll have school-age kids off the bus 2 hrs early. She is now homeschooled with another family member but sometimes the other family member doesn't want to care for her. So annoying, hoping this all works out.
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MarinaVanessa 10:34 AM 02-22-2010
I would go by what you have in your contract. Two week's is usually what is given to allow the other parent time to find a replacement. Whether you want to tell her why is up to you. If you don't feel it necessary to explain to her why then don't. It's all up to you. As to working from home I am assuming that you are licensed since you watch two families children. If that is the case you should contact your licensing office and make sure you are allowed to work from home. I believe that it shouldn't be a problem as long as you work during the times that you don't have children in your home but you should ask just to be sure. Some states and counties can be different and have stricter policies. If you are not licensed then you won't have a problem but I would be wary of taking care of any more than just one families children as it is not allowed.
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momofboys 10:45 AM 02-22-2010
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa:
I would go by what you have in your contract. Two week's is usually what is given to allow the other parent time to find a replacement. Whether you want to tell her why is up to you. If you don't feel it necessary to explain to her why then don't. It's all up to you. As to working from home I am assuming that you are licensed since you watch two families children. If that is the case you should contact your licensing office and make sure you are allowed to work from home. I believe that it shouldn't be a problem as long as you work during the times that you don't have children in your home but you should ask just to be sure. Some states and counties can be different and have stricter policies. If you are not licensed then you won't have a problem but I would be wary of taking care of any more than just one families children as it is not allowed.
In my state we are not required to be licensed. I didn;t plan to work while I had other kids in my care (no time as I am sure you can understand! I'll be scoring high school & elementary standardized exams online). Why would you say I am not allowed to care for more than one family's children? I have 4 children I care for & one is my own, so only 3 that are outside of my family. I also have my own school-age children but they do not count in the numbers as they are age 6 or older. I don't think I am going above any numbers. In my state you don't have to be licensed but you can't care for more than 6 children so I'm fairly certain I am well within the law. This information was provided to me by my county's childcare network person so I'm not breaking any laws.
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misol 10:56 AM 02-22-2010
Personally, I would not contact the licensing office. It seems to me that would invite an investigation. If you cannot find anything already in writing in your state regs that expressly prohibit other forms of work from home, I wouldn't say anything. What you do in your home after daycare hours is your business. I would not bring it up to the licensing officials. As long as you are following all other state regs, you should be fine.
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TGT09 11:02 AM 02-22-2010
Janarae, You are very well within the Ohio law. Almost every other state has to be licensed and so people don't understand that we have "free reign" basically. I agree with not working while you have any but your own children (but like you said, how would you possibly have time anyway). There is no law against having 2 jobs at a time i.e. daycare and grading tests. You're right on the number of children, can't have more than 6 at a time including your own UNLESS you have an assistant in which case you can have 7-12 children at a time!

As for the issue at hand...if it were me (totally my opinion) I know that even if I had decided in my head that I wouldn't give them any reason...I know I would end up giving reason...that's just me. I wouldn't go into detail about the job but just say that you are going to be getting a part time job and that you weren't planning on it until the opportunity presented itself.
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momofboys 11:02 AM 02-22-2010
Originally Posted by misol:
Personally, I would not contact the licensing office. It seems to me that would invite an investigation. If you cannot find anything already in writing in your state regs that expressly prohibit other forms of work from home, I wouldn't say anything. What you do in your home after daycare hours is your business. I would not bring it up to the licensing officials. As long as you are following all other state regs, you should be fine.
I contacted them prior to becoming a home daycare provider (over a year ago). It was when I was considering becoming licensed or registered. The woman was very helpful & gave me info then about what was permitted.
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MarinaVanessa 05:39 PM 02-24-2010
Originally Posted by janarae:
Why would you say I am not allowed to care for more than one family's children?
I didn't mean like that, I'm sorry if that's how it came off. I simple meant that you should check your regulations, that's what I meant by saying that every state is different. In California you are required to be licensed or you can't care for more than one family's children otherwise you're breaking the law. When you're licensed here your children count unless their over 12 or 13. Here you also can't have a second job during daycare hours that's why I was saying to check. We have harsher rules here. Since you've already checked then you're good to go.
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momofboys 08:36 PM 02-24-2010
Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa:
I didn't mean like that, I'm sorry if that's how it came off. I simple meant that you should check your regulations, that's what I meant by saying that every state is different. In California you are required to be licensed or you can't care for more than one family's children otherwise you're breaking the law. When you're licensed here your children count unless their over 12 or 13. Here you also can't have a second job during daycare hours that's why I was saying to check. We have harsher rules here. Since you've already checked then you're good to go.
Sorry if I took your post the wrong way. Sometimes I feel on this board that people who aren't licensed are looked down upon as if we are doing something wrong. I apologize if I was too quick to judge your attempt to help.
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MarinaVanessa 07:34 AM 03-02-2010
lol it's ok, I just forget to add "If you are required to be licensed". I agree that some people are too quick to jump on unlicensed providers and forget that some aren't required to be licensed or even registered. Each state (and county for that matter) is different and has their own regulations and we should all remember to keep that in mind.
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