This is my first year of home daycare. I am having some turnover this summer/fall and basically have 2 new families to choose from with different hours. The first family has to drop off at 6:45am but picks up at 4pm. The second family has more traditional hours of 8am- 5:30pm.

I am not crazy about doing either, truth be told. I am very small (3 extra kids max) and since I have 4 young children of my own, I'd like my hours to be 7:30am to 5pm but I know that it is isn't always possible to find families within those hours.

So, if it were you, would you rather set your hours early or stay open later? Is it realistic to have a closing time of 5pm? In the future will I find that most working families need a 5:30 pick up? Thanks for any advice.

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I'd do the earlier drop off and pick up as I'm up early anyway.

My operating hours are 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and have been for 19 years, so yes it's possible to find families with those hours.

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Even though I hate early I would take early over late anyday. But then I have 2 SA kids of my own & we frequently have evening activities (baseball practice, soccer, etc). You also need to consider how close you live to where people work. Are you in a big city or do you live in a small town where most people have to drive 30 min or so to get to work? I very rarely have had clients need care past 5:00 pm (most of my parents are off work at 4:00 or 4:30) but then most of my arrivals are by 7:30 am or earlier.

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I would do the earlier hours. I'm up anyways for my dd that gets up at 6. So I might as well be watching kiddos and have them gone earlier in the afternoon!

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I'll take opening early versus staying open later.

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For me having a 5pm pick up wouldn't work very well considering that most parents get off at 5pm. But that's just me. I also wouldn't have a problem taking on either one of those families considering that my daycare hours are 6am-6pm . I'm up anyway though getting my DD ready for school and out the door by 7:30am so I don't mind it so much but I must say that for a while now my earliest client doesn't arrive until 7am until this week (DCM is out of town on business and DCD is in the military so for this week DCB is getting dropped off at 6:15 every morning) and I kind of needed to get used to having an extra little person here that early in the AM lol.

It all just depends on you and what you want to do. Do you want a later start in your day or an earlier end to your day?

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It's possible to find families that are fine with a 5:00PM closing time.
If you'd like to close earlier, definitely choose the family with the earlier start time.

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My oldest are 7 and 9 and they do have sports after school, and will continue to in the future so I DO like the idea of ending at 5. The wait from 5 to 5:30 is pretty brutal. My 2 and 4 year old are basically spent and everyone is hungry. Even though I LOVE to sleep in, I guess I would rather start early and end early.

We do live in a small town. Some people are lucky to have local jobs as we live right next to a city of 200,000 but about half commute up to an hour away where more jobs are. But, since I only take 3 kids, if I am patient they will come My other 2 kids are dropped off at 7:45 and 8 and picked up at 3:30 and 4:45 so ending at 5 would be great!

What about having open hours 7:30 to 5, and could I get away with charging extra for the 6:45 drop off? If so, what would be a reasonable amount? Currently, I charge that family $40/day

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That's a tough choice. I work contracted hours (no more than 9 hrs between 7:15 and 5 PM). All of my families are gone by 4:15 right now, but that will probably change. And yes, it's hard with my own girls (10 and 7) being in soccer, gymnastics and theater at the local high school. So I might go for the earlier set of hours. Cannot one parent drop off and the other pick up so it's not so early? That's what some of my families do.

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I charge a family a little more than double my hourly rate (for each of their children) for an earlier drop off and later pick up time.

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I would take the earlier drop-off instead of 5:30. If most of my parents didn't get off until 5, I'd change my hours. I'm currently 7am-6pm. Most of the kids are picked up by 5:30. In my city, I'd have to have teachers only to have all parents off before 5 because the businesses here are 8-5. I have one though who works for a bank, and it can be 5:45-5:50 before dcb gets picked up. It's aggravating bc he always gets picked up late on the times we have plans and people waiting on us because we expected him to be gone by 5:30.

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Id personally take the earlier drop off too Daycares around my neck of the woods are open until 5:30 - most people get off work at 5 and have at least a 15 minute commute if they work in one of the closer towns nearby. I'm another one where I would be up getting my kiddos ready for school so since I'd already be awake and able to provide care I'd rather be done earlier

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I'm an early bird, plus my kids have LOTS of evening activities. I set my hours by my location.....most people in my area work locally or 30 to 40 minutes away. My hours (7:30 to 5:30...6:00 if my assistant is here), afford for parents to work about 40 to 45 minutes away. I think that's fair and it's about all I'm willing to do.

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I was doing 8 am until 6 pm and hated it. I never had time for my own son who is in school all day.

As my children aged out and left for school over the past few years I started only accepting children who could come between the hours from 5 30 am until 4 pm so now all are out of here by 4. This way they are gone and my son comes home we have time together, have dinner as a family now and its great!

I have 4 previous families who will be returning within the next year/year and a half who were later pickups in the past with their first children but all have made arrangements to have their children picked up by 4 30. I can live with that.

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I personally find it hard to have early drop offs when I have to get my own kids up and ready for school. My hours tend to be 8/8:30-5:30/6 and they aren't even ideal for me, but most people around here do work from 9-5, so it turned out that the 3 families I got needed those times.

But if you only need to choose one family go with what you and your family are comfortable with.

It's not a bad idea to charge more for the early hour or for the late hour.
You can also go by which family you like more, or which one is willing to pay more.

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In some areas around Maryland area where traffic is really bad some of the day cares stay late till 6:30PM. It really helps some of the parents but at the end of the day you will have a longer day. All the best.

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This is why I only take families who can fit within the hours I want to work. I tell them that my girls get mommy all to themselves until 7:15 every morning. Sorry. I don't do earlier than that. My DH wanted me to take back my neighbors (I had had older boy before maternity leave of a year), but they wanted to change to a 6 AM drop off. That's when I get up! I asked DH, do you want students in your room 1 1/4 hours before your school day starts? Sometimes they only see $$$ signs.

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I have a single dcm works til 6:30pm 3x a week. Retail is tough, because they have to be open later. The plus side is her boys are here later, 9:30 for the preschooler, after school only for the older. Starting in the fall, I will have both of them after school and on holidays. Dh doesn't get home from work until 6:30-7:00 anyway, so I figured, why not?
I get the early morning hours to spend with my own children. We have evening activities only on the days that I don't have dcb's late. It's been like this for over a year, so we all have gotten used to it.
You will have to decide which is better for you and your family.

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I'd definitely take the early hours over the later. I have a few different pick-up times and when I only care for the child with the 4:30 pick-up, my day is Heaven. I don't have to rush and I get to spend some nice time with my family before rushing into dinner and bed routine.

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I've done..and do both. I started doing odd hours care, and so I try to be fairly flexible. I much prefer early arrival/early pickup for a couple of reasons.

One, I'm always up early-no kids this morning and I was up at 5. I like to finish early. I don't have any kids at home, but I like to have time to check my email, watch the news, etc before I start dinner.

Two, I think the kids are easier to deal with in the early morning than they are in the late afternoon. Sometimes they go back to sleep for a couple of hours, sometimes they don't, but they are universally cheerful and happy in the morning. I sometimes have one that doesn't get here until 2 pm and stays until either 7 or 10 pm-still just an 8.5 hour day total. But, the hours after dinner are miserable. She gets cranky and restless. Even though she takes 2 naps here most days, she doesn't like sleeping here when it's dark, so she resists bedtime. (She used to stay until 1 am now and then.)

When her mom changed jobs, she begged for the 6 am to 2 pm shift, but I don't think she's going to get it-which is why we have the 7 or 10 pm days.

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Are all other things equal about these families? Since you aren't crazy about changing either way, I'd pick the one who has been at their job longest and seems like they would pay on time.

My hours are 7:30-5:30 but have one family that needs to come earlier and they pay more for that

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Early drop off and stick the kiddos right down for nap.

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