I have two DCGs I've been watching for the last year and a half. They are both pretty good kids. When they started coming to childcare the DCM worked 5 days a week 8 hours a day. Six months in her schedule got changed to 4 days a week 10 hour days. My contract states that I will not watch a child over 10 hours a day but I went ahead and told her I would work with her if she would keep them home on Fridays.There are days still she only works 8 hours but then sometimes she works up to 12 hours. Well more recently her work has picked up their pace. Today she dropped them off at 6am. She then called me at 5:30pm to say that her work wanted her to stay at least another hour. By the time she got to my home to pick up the girls it was 7pm. She is a single mom and doesn't have a whole lot of family around to help her out. I feel bad for her but at the same time I'm completely exhausted by the end of the night and feel completely robbed of time with my own family.

I'm sure it doesn't help that I feel a little under appreciated. When I go out of my way for the other DCMs they always show a lot of thanks. For example, a small bonus on pay day or even just a text that says how much they appreciate the work I do with their kids. But this mom who I go out of the way for the most...NOTHING. Sometimes I might get a thanks but its pretty rare.

We've discussed her work schedule getting in the way and she mentioned taking them to another daycare. I told her I would work with her schedule because at the time I was about to go on a month's maternity leave and I couldn't handle the stress of having to find two new DCK on top of having a baby. Now I'm wishing I would have told her to go ahead. I just really don't want to loose the girls.

ugh! such a tough spot to be in

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I think you might want to think about adding a change in your policies for late fees. I would let DCM know that effective immediately you will be charging late fees. After her scheduled time I would charge her. You can talk to her Fri. and let her know that you are making a amendment to your contact and starting Mon. if she stay late to work you will be charging her for any extra hrs you have to work. She gets paid for working late...why shouldn't you. If she finds this unexceptionable then you can decide if you'd like to term. It will prob. be something she doesn't like bc who likes to pay extra fees. But honestly, this is your business as well. You should be compensated for your time.

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Are you charging her for over ten hours?

Are you charging her ADDITIONAL fees for unscheduled over ten hours?

I would have a base rate for the ten hours plus
an hourly rate per kid for anything scheduled over ten hours
and then an additional rate for anything extra that is unscheduled.

Unscheduled would mean any extra time that wasn't agreed upon twenty four hours in advance.

If you are doing it for free she's just going to call you and say the words that she has to work late. She can have extra time in the evening for free with just a couple of words to you.

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I have not charged her extra and I know that her job makes her stay late with little notice because my husband used to work there and it happened to him all the time. There is another DC in town that offered to keep her kids for an unlimited amount of hours for my same weekly price. So I know she will just terminate in the event I say anything to change our original agreement. I will probably have to just tough it out through summer for financial reasons and then when fall rolls and her oldest is in school full time follow through with some sort of change and see what happens.

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do you know that for a fact, or is that a guilt trip she's laying on you to see if you'll fall for it?

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I know it for a fact! We live in a small town (population: 2600) so it's not hard to find out what the competition is offering. This lady just opened her DC in town and has no kids and isn't married. She not only offered unlimited amount of hours for the same weekly price but also offers transportation to and from for school aged kids. I don't because I live 2 blocks from the school. But this particular DCM doesn't want her daughter to walk by herself to school so she also complains about having to find someone to transport her.

I remember being a new DC and offering whatever I needed to get DCKs. I'm sure its just a matter of time before this new DC gets burnt out and smart and starts charging for all the extras.

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