I'm making changes to my policies. I'm going to a set up to 9.5 hrs of care a day. One set rate for contracted hours between 7-430 because I want to know exactly when they are coming and going. If you need before 7 or after 430 it is more $ per 30min portion. Right now I work 13hrs a day and am burning out really fast. I've done daycare for 12yrs and the last 2 yrs I have been working long days. I am worried about raising my current clients though because they would all fall under the extra charge category. One dcf more so than the rest. I have the dck 12 hours everyday.
I'm also changing my vacation days I previously have in my policies that I can take 7 days paid throughout the year as well as all major holidays paid, but I find myself feeling guilty about making them pay. So I either try really hard not to take a day off or sometimes I'll tell them I'm not countng it as my vacation day so it will be unpaid. For the new year I was thinking about keeping the holidays because that doesn't bother so much and then taking 14 days through the year around my kids school breaks because they are all in school now. For current clients I would calculate the yearly rate then subtract the $ for all those days and then divide it by 52 for the weekly rate which will actually lower my current families about $5 week and then just have a set rate for new clients which is well below the average for my area. What do you think.