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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Do Any of You Not Offer Any PT Care?
tbutler 12:46 PM 08-16-2011
I am just starting my home child care. I have a parent with four kids (8,6,4, 18 months) asking do I provide after school care and what would I charge for 3 days a week for her 18 month old. I do not provide before or after school care so that's easy, the answer is NO! I would like to have full time kids only but I'm having a hard time getting kids enrolled. My hesitation with offering part time care is that I don't want to have to juggle days and times everyday to make sure that I'm staying in ratio along with all the duties of teaching, cooking, cleaning, etc. I'm even stressing out thinking about what I should charge for part time care. What's your thoughts?
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daycare 12:52 PM 08-16-2011
ok so normally I would say NO, however, being that the economy is bad right now I am having to bend with the changes.

In my area, it seems that P/T care is in higher demand than full time care. I never used to be open to it, but have changed my tune.

Now i offer two scheudles M-w-F and Tu-Th only! No other days offered...

I also charge a higher daily rate for P/T care than I do for Full time. Sometimes it can be months before I find an opposite, so I decided to charge a slightly higher fee. The parents understand this.

If you think that you can turn people away that want PT and have enough people who want FT then I would turn them away. But if you are having probelms getting kids, you just might have to change your ways for awhile...

Hope this helped some and good luck to you....

Also my advice....never take a family with more that 2 kids. Once you have a family that makes up a very large % of your income, you will take a very hard finical hit once this family leaves. Also in my experience, when a parent knows that they control a large portion of your income they tend to be a pain in the you know what... they think they own you... NOt all, just some....
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cheerfuldom 01:00 PM 08-16-2011
i didn't take PT kids until lately. It's hard to find full time but I do charge part time kids by the full day, no matter what hours they are here. I would even take after school kids if I was asked by the right families.
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daycare 01:10 PM 08-16-2011
Originally Posted by cheerfuldom:
i didn't take PT kids until lately. It's hard to find full time but I do charge part time kids by the full day, no matter what hours they are here. I would even take after school kids if I was asked by the right families.
oh cheer great point too... DOn't offer part time days... I have a lot of request for that too. they want to pay me only for the time that thier child is here... like half day rate and only when present...

Just like cherrfuldom, I charge full day rate x # of days... So if it is 2 days a week my rate is $50.00 per day per child which becomes their weekly rate. $100.00 each week if there child is there or not. no credits for sick, holiday or absences for any reason.
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tbutler 01:11 PM 08-16-2011
Thanks @ daycare for the advice on not having one family to make the majority of the income. I'm sure you just saved me alot of future stress! I hadn't thought about part time care either until the parent just asked me. While i was waiting on someone to respond. I went ahead and calculated what I will charge for PT carre:
my full time prices/5 days, then multiplied that number by 3 for what I will charge for M-W-F and then by 2 for what I will charge for T-TH.

That way, getting 1 m-w-f child and 1 t-th will total one full time pay per week. I hope that makes sense and that I'm not underpaying myself for the hassle. Thanks ladies.
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tbutler 01:14 PM 08-16-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
oh cheer great point too... DOn't offer part time days... I have a lot of request for that too. they want to pay me only for the time that thier child is here... like half day rate and only when present...

Just like cherrfuldom, I charge full day rate x # of days... So if it is 2 days a week my rate is $50.00 per day per child which becomes their weekly rate. $100.00 each week if there child is there or not. no credits for sick, holiday or absences for any reason.
Yes ladies, I will be m-w-f all day and t-th all day, no 8a-12 on those days. My brain would definitely be fried trying to keep up with those kids and prices, lol!
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mac60 01:36 PM 08-16-2011
Make sure you charge a little more for the 2 day or 3 day weeks (per day) than you would a full 5 day schedule.
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Meeko 01:38 PM 08-16-2011
I am licensed for 16. I have 16 full time/full pay kids. Some of them are school age, but their parents still pay full price.

During the school year, I also take kids that fill the schoolies spots while they are gone. They must arrive after 8AM and be gone before 3:30 PM. I charge a little less for those spots as they cannot be here when the schoolies are which means they are gone over the summer etc. So right now I have 22 kids enrolled starting next week.
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Cat Herder 01:43 PM 08-16-2011
I added some tags to the bottom to show you other threads on this, too.

Just click on them.
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MommyMuffin 02:36 PM 08-16-2011
Originally Posted by daycare:
oh cheer great point too... DOn't offer part time days... I have a lot of request for that too. they want to pay me only for the time that thier child is here... like half day rate and only when present...

Just like cherrfuldom, I charge full day rate x # of days... So if it is 2 days a week my rate is $50.00 per day per child which becomes their weekly rate. $100.00 each week if there child is there or not. no credits for sick, holiday or absences for any reason.
I do only afternoons for 1 family. It works out okay because I charge them by the hour and its contracted so always the same # of hours and the same time even if they dont come. $5.50 an hour.
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wdmmom 03:33 PM 08-16-2011
Right now I only have 2 part timers and they come opposite of one another. One comes in the morning and leaves at lunchtime while the other comes right before lunch until 5pm.

I get $900 between the 2 part timers. If it were a full time only slot, I'd only be getting $600!

BTW...

2 of my very first clients were part time and they stayed for over 2 years!
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littlemissmuffet 03:40 PM 08-16-2011
I will take part time, but they pay the full time price. This is the norm in my area.
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daycare 05:51 PM 08-16-2011
Originally Posted by MommyMuffin:
I do only afternoons for 1 family. It works out okay because I charge them by the hour and its contracted so always the same # of hours and the same time even if they dont come. $5.50 an hour.
if you can afford to charge this way, that is great... I could not afford to do that, as I know I would never find someone else to fill the rest of the day.

I try to leave it simple and easy to fill my spots when needed....
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Tags:part time, part time - curriculum, part time care, part time care - not, part time rate, parttime
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