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View Poll Results: What is the maximum amount of contract hours you offer?
9 hours 8 38.10%
10 hours 13 61.90%
other 0 0%
Voters: 21. You may not vote on this poll
Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Contract Times? 9 or 10 hours?
thatdivalady 05:50 PM 05-17-2012
For those of you who go by contract times, do you offer 9 hours or 10?
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daycare 05:51 PM 05-17-2012
9.5 I dont care what times you use as long as they are between 745am and 600 pm
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thatdivalady 05:53 PM 05-17-2012
Yeah, I think I'm trying to reconfigure mine because I offer evenings too. I'm thinking of going back to 9 hours instead of 10 though.
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Christian Mother 05:56 PM 05-17-2012
I switch to 10 hrs to accommodate one family but all the others are 8-9 hrs.
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Mary Poppins 06:02 PM 05-17-2012
I leave it up to them but I don't allow children here for more than 10 hours and really try to discourage them from using more than 9 by citing research that shows it isn't healthy for some (IMO any) kids to be in daycare more than that.

Right now all of my dck's are here no more than 9 hours per day.
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SunnyDay 07:05 PM 05-17-2012
Originally Posted by Mary Poppins:
I leave it up to them but I don't allow children here for more than 10 hours and really try to discourage them from using more than 9 by citing research that shows it isn't healthy for some (IMO any) kids to be in daycare more than that.

Right now all of my dck's are here no more than 9 hours per day.
Do you happen to have any links to research? I am trying to decide what my max will be.
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Lucy 07:27 PM 05-17-2012
10 because I'm open 10 hours. Times are contracted though. I only have one family that uses 10 hours. The rest are 9 to 9 1/2... contracted times.
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nothingwithoutjoy 08:13 PM 05-17-2012
I ran for 5 years at 9 hours. Now in my sixth year, I switched to 8.5 hours, because most people weren't arriving promptly, and it just made more sense for my family to get a little bit more sleep. Of course, that's hours with kids...I work many more hours than that! But that's more than enough for me, my daughter, and the other kids.

Most of the parents in my program are married, so can have one drop off and one pick up, and most are self-employed, and can set their own hours. Doesn't mean they pick up on time. :-)
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Mary Poppins 08:15 PM 05-17-2012
Originally Posted by SunnyDay:
Do you happen to have any links to research? I am trying to decide what my max will be.
From http://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...uble-day-care:

Originally Posted by :
But the latest findings, from a huge, long-term government study, are worrisome. They show that kids who spend long hours in day care have behavior problems that persist well into elementary school. About 26 percent of children who spend more than 45 hours per week in day care go on to have serious behavior problems at kindergarten age. In contrast, only 10 percent of kids who spend less than 10 hours per week have equivalent problems.
(9 hours a day x 5 days a week = 45 hours per week)

Of course this is a very debatable topic but I've personally noticed in my own dc that the children who are here the longest and get the least amount of face time with their parents per day are the worst behaved. Hands down.

It may just be a coincidence but either way, I really don't want children to be here more than 9 hours a day, but I do max out at 10 because some people's schedules are wonky and they may need 7 one day and 10 another. I just really discourage it to be an every day thing.
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3girls 10:27 PM 05-17-2012
Its common here to work 4 10s. All my families have different schedules. Even the ones with "regular" schedules are 8-5 with travel time thats 10 hours easy. I'm always confused when people talk about 9 hour limits...must live in a different area than me!
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Childminder 06:51 AM 05-18-2012
Parents traditionally are at work 9 hours (8 work, 1 lunch) plus 1/2 hour drive time each way at least. So minimum contracted 10 hours.
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Country Kids 06:56 AM 05-18-2012
My families all have 9 hour work schedules so there would be no other way for me to do this. So to be save I would do the 10 hour days I guess.
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wdmmom 06:57 AM 05-18-2012
I am open 10 hours per day. Since revamping my contract, I now limit kids to being here a maimum of 9.5 hours per day. I have 1 family that is here 4 10 days and pays for a full time spot.
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Lilbutterflie 07:14 AM 05-18-2012
I have a max of 10 hours; and they can pick their contracted hours anytime from 7am - 6pm.
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Blackcat31 07:35 AM 05-18-2012
ALL my parents are on contracted times and pay according to their contracted "needs". I have a daily rate based on pick up times that gets more expensive the later in the day you pick up.

I am NOT willing to work beyond 5:30 and open at 7:30 so the max any one family can use is 10 hours in a day and if they do use the 10 hours, they pay dearly for it.
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thatdivalady 08:17 AM 05-18-2012
@ Blackcat, could you share with me or PM with your scheduled pick up rates? I'm trying to see what will work for us considering that we have kids until midnight and possibly an overnight. (I also have 3 people helping out as we work to get our center up and running so it's not as stressful) We actually did not plan to get as many daytime children as we have...

My issue is that since I am operating with ratios in mind, I need the daytime parents to pick their children up as soon as they travel from work. If they don't, they mess up my ratios for the next shift. So I am trying to work around this. Where I live, you can get most places within 30 minutes with no problem. So that is why I was considering changing my times to a maximum of 9 hours while taking special situations under consideration.
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Blackcat31 08:36 AM 05-18-2012
Originally Posted by thatdivalady:
@ Blackcat, could you share with me or PM with your scheduled pick up rates? I'm trying to see what will work for us considering that we have kids until midnight and possibly an overnight. (I also have 3 people helping out as we work to get our center up and running so it's not as stressful) We actually did not plan to get as many daytime children as we have...

My issue is that since I am operating with ratios in mind, I need the daytime parents to pick their children up as soon as they travel from work. If they don't, they mess up my ratios for the next shift. So I am trying to work around this. Where I live, you can get most places within 30 minutes with no problem. So that is why I was considering changing my times to a maximum of 9 hours while taking special situations under consideration.
Where I live you can drive to the next town in 30 minutes and none of my parents work there so I have a very small window of time too for expected pick up times.

If you PM me your e-mail address I will send you a copy of my rate sheet that shows costs rates for parents and see if it is something that will work for you.
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