I am seriously considering doing child care for part time only and was wondering if anyone else does the same? I get quite a few calls for part time and would honestly rather work less days so I don't feel stuck at home during the week alllllll of the time . Yes I know that comes with the territory but why not try some flexibility?

ANY ways I was thinking of having set days open like Monday Wednesday and Friday or just Tuesday wednesday Thursday (to have extended weekends, and not space out the days)

So does anyone else do this? How do you time it or price it? Did you advertise anywhere special to get certain part time clients?

Any info will help thanks

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I use to do part-time and taught a preschool program in the mornings. Everyone was gone by 12:00-1:00 and it left the rest of the afternoon for stuff.

The only drawback was alot less money but the stress was so far less. If I could I would do that only and then I could work in the afternoons in my childrens schools.

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I think if you're going to advertise as part-time only, it may help if you advertise as a mom's day out program or are a preschool program. It could be difficult to find families that only need care Tues, Wed and Thurs., but it could happen.

I started off as a mom's day out/preschool (accepted children at age 2, though, so really young) from 9-noon 4 days/week. Parents could choose either MW or TTH. I've evolved over the last couple of years and this fall all of my kiddos are prekinders, so I'm running a MWF class 9-2 and a TTH class 9-2. I have a couple of children that stay until 3 because their parents work, but it's fine.

I love the flexibility that it's given me, and thusfar I have not had a problem finding children (mostly word of mouth, but some have found my website), but I worry about next year when all my kiddos go to kinder!

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if you are running a preschool program it may work or if part time is high demand. Over the years I've often had mostly part timers with just 1 full timer so never a break. If I could find more part timers I would absolutely switch to part time only - even just one day a week off would be perfect for me!

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Right now most of my dck's are part time. I have one full time infant and one school age. The rest are part time. I have 10 kids but only can have 6 per day. I didn't think I was going to like it but it works well.

Everyone's schedule just happened to work out. During the school year I have school age kids only, so I have the day to myself.

I charge by the day and the hours have to be between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00p.m. You could advertise that you are doing part time and when you get calls take the ones that work for you.

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I switched to part time this year. I'd started at 5 days a week and hoped to enroll all full-time children, but ended up only getting part-timers! (Most of my parents are self-employed.) But it turned out to be a good thing, because I eventually wanted more time for my family. Last year, I decided to close on Fridays, and worked it out so that when one kid went off to kindergarten, the other kids could take his days in lieu of Friday. So no one lost any days/week, they just had to shift around some. Now, when people call, I just tell them I'm open from Monday through Thursday. It works well for me. Now, almost all of my kids are "full-time" (considering M-Th full-time), which I prefer, and I have more time for my family (and more sanity).

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Did you end up doing this? PROS / CONS?

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The poster you quoted hasn't logged on since August of 2015

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Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

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I went from FT to PT - only open T,W and TH and it's been THE best decision I've ever made in this business - I am much happier ! I charge a flat daily rate. Surprisingly the demand for PT seems almost comparable to those needing FT

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My current plan is to open my program part-time, M-F 8am-2:30pm with lunch and a nap. Most preschools only offer 3-hour morning sessions, so I'm hoping there will be a demand for longer hours, but still short of full-time.

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