Hi everyone! Hope you remember me! Sorry I haven't been around for awhile, things have been insanely busy here. I was wondering how many of you charge a flat daily full-time rate and a flat daily part-time rate? How does your part-time rate compare to your full-time? I have been fortunate enough to only need to do as needed care, but that may change when I have to start repaying those awful student loans. I have two toddlers that I watch as needed and they are both here full days when I have them. I just got a call about watching 2 siblings, 2days/week, 4 hrs/day. The schedule works out nicely for me, but they time they would come is during my daughter's (and other toddlers if they are here) nap time, so that makes me want to raise the rate a little just for inconvenience. So, if you offer part-time care, how does your part-time rate compare to full-time?

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I have went up on my part-time rates this yr. from $30.00 to $35.00 per day. My fulltime rate is $140.00 per week per child. I also have a 3 scheduled day minimum.

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my PT rate is $5.00 more per day than my full time rate. I take the flat daily rate and multiply it by the number of days that they attend. so if its $50.00 per day part time, then it would be $50.00x (number of days, lets say 3) then it would be $150.00 a week...

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Ok, so basically you charge more for part-time than full-time. There are 3 larger day cares in my area. They charge $22-$23/per child/per day. I think two of them offer part-time care I think it's around $17 day, and before and after school programs are $7 for one or $14 for both before and after school. I'm not sure where to put my part-time rate at. Do you offer sibling discounts? It seems as though many of you don't. I am thinking that I will discontinue the discounts and just do a full day or half day rate and make it a lot easier for myself to figure out! lol What would you charge if your area had prices like mine?

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I work mine a little different. Full-time for me is 50 hours per week (10 hours per day) at $160 per week flat rate. That comes out to be about $3.20 per hour. Part-time is up to 29 hours per week at $109 flat rate and that comes out to be $3.75 per hour ($.50 more). I also have a daily drop in rate of $40 per day for 10 hours which is $4 per hour ($.80 more per hour than FT) and an hourly rate for less than 8 hours per day of $5 per hour. The more time they soend here, the less they pay (hourly).

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I don't offer my rates up as daily - they are weekly but yes when you divide them up my part time daily rate is higher. PT is $40-45 and FT comes out to $35-37/day. Depends on hours too.

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If I were you I would charge $1 less per day as the big centers until I get a little established and then charge the same. You might also want to consider doing contracts with parents instead of drop in care, so even if a kid doesn't come on a day that they are suppose to, you still get paid.
I do offer a sibling discount. I have a full time infant with a SA sibling. They get $15 off their final bill, BUT rates here are high. Their bill is $250 instead of $265.

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I do have a contract and handbook that I've been working on. Seems like they are a never ending work in progress! The toddler that comes every week pays on the day she is here and the other toddler pays for the spaces that they reserve regardless if they use them or not. With both families, I started out as more of a babysitter and am not trying to make myself more professional and have more of a business going. I honestly don't mind doing drop in care, and have been lucky to be able to afford doing it. I may change that in time, but for right now it works out well for me. I like being able to work a few days and have a few days off to run errands or do school work. Once I am done with school I will have more time and may want to take on more full time clients. Having an interested family has prompted me to finish my contract and handbook and settle on my rates. (FINALLY!) I'm going to have both of my current families sign the contracts, just so everything is in writing. I'm still trying to figure out what's best...to offer a sibling discount or not, to charge a flat daily rate or to give a discount according to how many days they are here. I don't want to be too expensive, but I want to be sure that the money makes it worth all the effort and time that I put into the kids, kwim?

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Hi MamaNik, I'm in PA too and it really depends on the area you are in. What I did was find out what other providers were charging and what discounts (if any) they offered. Then I did a work up of what I wanted to charge. Most places will offer a 5% sibling discount and there are folks here on the forums with differing opinions lol But very helpful information if you pull up the tags on posts. I have found that it works best for me to charge a flat daily rate. I explain to the parents that they are paying for reserving their child's spot and for me not to fill it. They all understand and are fine with it. I actually have helped my daughter's previous in-home provider because she did not and some people would pick their child up early and try to pay her less, etc. Different things work for different situations!

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I charge a flat rate of $20/day, thats low enough already and I don't want to deal with someone trying to nickel and dime me - I'd be resentful lol. In my area there are several drop in centers who charge $3-5 per hour so the "convenience" market is saturated here.

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