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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Another part time question
anya 06:52 PM 08-04-2011
I know there's already been recent discussion on hours/rates and such, but I didn't find quite what I was looking for.. Apologies if I overlooked a similar thread elsewhere!

I had two full time families move (the SAME WEEK) over the summer, and while I had time to look for other families, I didn't find many people looking. After a while of searching and only really running into mostly families interested in part time, I finally decided to split those two full times spots up amongst part time families. I was almost full again (I only do 3 outside my own as per regulations here until I get licensed) and then a new dcb's family and I decided this Monday to term after his trial - they knew he wouldn't nap here, and he didn't, so that was that. However, I feel like I should have learned from that - they were taking up 3 full days but only with 5 hours a day, and only paying hourly, which is what I've typically done for part time folks, but what they ended up paying was soo low compared to what I would have gotten for 3 full days. I do charge more per hour for part time people but that just wasn't enough hours to make up for anything..

Now I have another part time family interested, and again, are only interested in 5 hours a day, for 2 definite days, and maybe a few hours on a third day.. I'm really eager to fill this M-W spot, and those are days it sounds like they would like.. I interview with them Saturday and haven't quoted a rate yet. I have been stuck with trying to decide whether to charge them a flat 3 day rate, which gets kind of expensive considering the low number of hours they'd likely use,,, or buckling back into just charging per hour, then regretting it when a family interested in 3 full days rolls along.. How do yall handle this??? The mom told me she is in grad school, which tells me they most likely don't have a ton of money to spare right now, so in some ways I'm scared to demand 3 full days worth of pay and risk them completely turning away due to finances, but at the same time, I dont want to be stuck making much less money than I could be and having other families come along interested in paying full for that spot but it already being filled.. Bah! Please advise!!

Thank you all, it is soo helpful to be able to come here and read about how people handle different things!!
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familyschoolcare 07:03 PM 08-04-2011
my part time rate is my daily rate for that age/grade divided my 3.5 rounded to the nearest $. When people call about part time I tell them the part time rate is $X an hour or X days regardless to # of hours would be $X per week. However, Nobody that has asked about part time has set up an interview yet. I know their is a lady about 1 min. from me that does child care for $2 hour with drop off as early as the parent wants as long as the pick up is before 2:00PM.
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Cat Herder 07:21 PM 08-04-2011
When I did part time I opened up 2 full-time slots to accommodate 4 part-time kids.

The other 4 slots were Full-Time only.

Part-timers had a choice of two options:

Monday - Wednesday - Friday = $75wk
Tuesday - Thursday = $50wk

They could come from open to close on their scheduled days as they pleased. Mine are set rates and are not dependent on attendance.

The rate is due whether they attend, or not. Switching days is not an option unless another slot opens.

Drop in days were $25 and were available if someone was on a scheduled unpaid vacation.
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cheerfuldom 07:59 PM 08-04-2011
I charge a full day no matter how long they are here. Or you could take them for now and then let them go later should a full time opportunity present itself. I know a lot of providers feel comfortable doing that although I personally wouldn't
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Tags:part time care, part time family, part time rate
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