I'm hoping to get some insight from you other providers.

I have been providing legally, unlicensed care for the past year for one family with one, little boy. I haven't really had to worry about hours because the mom drops off at 7:00, works from 7:15-4:15 and is always here by 4:35/4:40 at the latest. They are great, good communicators, give me birthday/Christmas gifts, always pay on time and have even given me paid days off that I didn't ask for.

I am currently in the process of getting licensed, but ideally want my hours to be 7:00-5:00. I'm not willing to lose the family I have, so I have to start at 7:00. I am a little worried though that I will be limiting the families I can take (those who might work until 5) and if I were to stay open until 5:30, I could be a little more picky in deciding what families to take. However, I don't want to do care for any one child longer than 10 hours a day.

I've seen that people do contracted hours, but I feel like that would be too much work. Like, "hey I'm open at 7 for this family, but you there standing outside at 7:11, you can't come in yet because your care doesn't start for 4 more minutes, even though I'm already open." I just feel like I would constantly have to be looking at the clock and figuring out how long this kid has left versus this kid and checking to see that one family didn't come in the door earlier than they should in the morning. If it's a flat 10 hour day, then I have 2 times to watch: 7am and 5pm. And there's fees if you come early or late, bottom line.

I don't care as much as it seems other providers might if parents have appointments or stop to grab milk on the way to daycare or a prescription or even take a "me" day once in a while. I'm getting paid to watch their child regardless of what they do, and is long as it they're not working 20 hours a week and leaving their kid for 50, I'm fine.

The other concern I see though, is if you do contract hours and say, you figure out one family needs care for 7 hours a day, and one needs 8.5 hours, and the other needs 10, do you still charge them all the same weekly rate? This seems unfair to me, but having a different rate for all hours again seems like a lot of work to keep track of (timing wise). Plus, if I'm open for 10 hours a day and one family only needs 7 hours of care, I can't really fill that other 3 hours with a kid, so I'm losing money. Yet it doesn't seem fair to charge them what I'd charge a family coming for 10 hours just because they work maybe an hour less per day and live closer to me.

Obviously, I'm pretty confused! I would just like a flat open from this to this time, but more than 10 hours for a kid is too much, but I don't want to not be able to find families because my hours are limiting.

Help! What do you do? How does it work for you? Negative/positive aspects of it?

If you do contracted hours, aren't you always looking at the clock in the morning or at night to make sure each kid doesn't get dropped off 2 minutes early, or a parent walks in 4 minutes late while your talking with a parent who just got there, etc. I think this would be hard to keep track of when you're already open for business for other families.

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