Hello! I have many years of experience in providing child care, in my own home and in centers. I have been providing care for 1 dcf for a little over a year. I left a position at a center to provide for this family and to be able to be at home with my own preschooler. At the time there were 2 dck and after watching them for a few months, dcm announced she was pregnant. We did not have a contract between us, leaving things casual, as while I was not technically friends with her, I was more than an acquaintance. In the past, I have had contracts with other dcf, with a couple of exceptions when I was just providing care for one family at a time and whether or not I knew them very well. Dcm is a teacher and I have not charged her for any days off... no holidays, school breaks, sick days, snow days, summer break... and not her maternity leave (she took more than 6 weeks.) She is great with pick up times, she wants to be with her kids as much as possible and wishes she was in a position to be a sahm.

Unfortunately, I am in a position where I can no longer do this. I need a regular income and the amount of sick days she takes for 3 dck and the snow days this year has been overwhelming to me financially, especially adding in the maternity leave. The snow days that have been made up, they did not attend, grandparents watched them, as they have older school age kids in a different school district that did not use the same days for make up days. I am trying to figure out the best way to approach her with my issues.

I have been working on a handbook and contract, ironing out all the details... moving to a enrollment deposit that can be carried on from school year to school year, but not refundable, as well as paid holidays (according to the school calendar) and snow days, paid sick days (when it is initiated by them) and not charging for fall, winter, spring, or summer breaks and also any days that are initiated by me for closing (my own/my kids' illness, power outages, appointments, etc.) Also, my husband is also a teacher, which is why I love having the same breaks as him... I have no desire to be open for the school breaks... therefore have no problem not charging for them.

Beginning next school year, I also want to change my rates... currently, I have it broken down by age, but I want to start a flat rate per dck... so one of her dck would actually go up in rate, but one dck would go down, she would be paying about the same. And right now, I give a discount, flat rate per second and third dck, but I want to just move to a flat percentage if there is more than one dck enrolled full-time.

My question is this... should I finish out the school year as is, without a contract, and hope that their absences are little to none for the rest of the year or should I tell her (with notice) that I cannot continue to watch her children unless I charge for the whole week (excluding spring break) the rest of the school year and give her a contract? I am nervous about rocking the boat, since we've not had a contract for this long.

If I don't do it for this year, I will be definitely giving her the handbook and contract a month before school ends, telling her what will be in effect for the 2014-15 school year and requiring a deposit if she plans to keep her kids with me. She would need to tell me her plans/give deposit 2 weeks after school ends or I would start advertising open spots.

Thanks for reading this very long post!!! I appreciate any advice you give

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Personally, I think if it isn't working for you then you shouldn't wait. It probably hasn't been working for a while and you've been considering this for some time before making this decision.

I would do it now, but make it effective in say 2-3 weeks, to give enough time to make new arrangements if necessary since it will be a shock. This will give you time to look for new clients as well.

Hope it works out well

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Thank you for your input. It really was the maternity leave that was the financial disruption. I haven't worked a full week since it ended, but if I hadn't missed out on 8 weeks before, I could handle 4 day weeks when I agreed to watch the 2, I never thought about them adding more to their family.... And I'm not positive there won't be more babies in the future for this dcf! I need to make sure I don't lose any more weeks. I'm going to finalize my handbook this week and let her know on Friday. I know she won't be thrilled, but hoping she is understanding and willing to keep her kids with me. I think if she looks at other dc, she will realize she is still saving $ with me not charging for 13 weeks of school breaks. Thanks again!

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I run a school year only daycare so have mostly teacher kids. This is exactly how I would/and do handle the situation.

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thanks for sharing that! glad to know I'm headed in the right direction

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