Contracted vs Open Hours

[wdmmom]

here's what I'm thinking. (opinions are welcomed)

I think I would be too unorganized (unassertive) to deal with individual contracted hours.

I'm thinking of saying it like so: No rate increase BUT I now close at 4:30. There is an optional 430-530 pick up weekly rate at 40/week or something.

I really think all of my current families can work out the 430 thing though I'm sure they will be irritated about it.

Do you think the $40 is too steep?

I doubt this will put more money in my pocket but it will take a lot of the building resentment away. I can't carry on like this if I want to do this for long term, ya know?

It's your business! Charge what you want! The difference here between a 430pm pick up and a 530pm pick up is a matter of $20 a week but I'm only open til 3pm on Fridays.

[countrymom]

I use to be open at 7am to 530pm and I had families who would use the whole day while they sat at home, I started finding that I didn't understand why I had to work long hours while the parents didn't and I would become more stressed out.

so I now do contracted hours, its not hard trust me, I'm open from 7am to 5pm but you need to give me your hours, I only charge extra after 5pm but now that I've become a bit meaner about pu and drop off times, I haven't had to charge anyone. I know some of you don't agree, but I'm not a babysitter, if they want to do errands than hire the teenager for 5 dollars and hour, but I stress the fact that I help the parents out when they are at work.

[Meeko]

I am open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and parents can use the entire day or part of the day. It's up to them because they are paying for the day, regardless of how many hours they use. It all works out in the end because some use the entire day, some arrive at 10:00 a.m., and some leave at 3:15 p.m.

I think if I were to do "contracted hours" I would have a nervous breakdown trying to keep track of who came at what time and trying to figure what each family pays. Ugh. Not worth the hassle.

As far as advice... I would open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 5:30 a.m. Your day is sooooo long as it is. I would tell the parents they are welcome to come and go at whatever time they'd like during those hours. It will take the resentment away when you offer it to them.

Me too! I think of myself like a store. Open from this time to that time. Who comes and goes during that time is up to them. Most of my clients use about 9 hours on average. Some more, but some a lot less, so it all evens out as far as I'm concerned,

[Country Kids]

My hours are 7:00-5:00. When I sign a parent on they give me their work, school schedule. They can be here all day long if they want but they quickly learn that can get expensive. I charge an hourly rate but make more money than most of the providers in my area. Why, because if the hourly rate. Without a set rate the longer the child is hear the more they are paying. They learn quickly that it adds up when the clock is ticking away!

[Crazy8]

I do contracted hours. I don't give my "open" hours, first question I ask when people call is what hours they need and then we go from there. I only have up to 5 families so its not a lot to keep track of and their rate is weekly so its really nothing extra for me to keep track of.

[CheekyChick]

here's what I'm thinking. (opinions are welcomed)

I think I would be too unorganized (unassertive) to deal with individual contracted hours.

I'm thinking of saying it like so: No rate increase BUT I now close at 4:30. There is an optional 430-530 pick up weekly rate at 40/week or something.

I really think all of my current families can work out the 430 thing though I'm sure they will be irritated about it.

Do you think the $40 is too steep?

I doubt this will put more money in my pocket but it will take a lot of the building resentment away. I can't carry on like this if I want to do this for long term, ya know?

I think it would depend on the family. If one family drops at 6:30 a.m. and picks up at 4:00 p.m. - that would work. What about the families that work "standard" hours and they drop at 8:00 a.m. and pick up at 5:30 p.m.? I don't think they would be thrilled to have to pay an additional $40.00 per week when their child is only in care 9 1/2 hours. YKWIM?

[CheekyChick]

Me too! I think of myself like a store. Open from this time to that time. Who comes and goes during that time is up to them. Most of my clients use about 9 hours on average. Some more, but some a lot less, so it all evens out as far as I'm concerned,

Exactly!!!

I have had few parents take advantage of using the entire day. My children start going home around 3:00'ish and by 5:30 p.m. most of my kiddos are long gone.

[hoopinglady]

I think it would depend on the family. If one family drops at 6:30 a.m. and picks up at 4:00 p.m. - that would work. What about the families that work "standard" hours and they drop at 8:00 a.m. and pick up at 5:30 p.m.? I don't think they would be thrilled to have to pay an additional $40.00 per week when their child is only in care 9 1/2 hours. YKWIM?

I know. I have a family that drops off 630, 2 at 730 and 1 after 8. I have one mama who works over time in the morning at 430am!!

everyone could be picked up by 500 but when gma picks up for dad she is always 6 on the dot, or late. The others pick up anywhere between 430 and 6...no rhyme or reason.

I'm losing it...there's no way to make everyone happy with this one.

Unless I just raise my prices for everyone to compensate for long days, then they'd all be po'ed

[Sunchimes]

I started out expecting to have normal hours, but it didn't work. After a few months of no calls, I changed my ads to say I offered odd hour care. And that's what I do. It actually works pretty well, although now and then, the bad stars align and I have a 15 hour day. That's pretty rare though.
One dcd has an hour commute in a retail setting, so he never does drop off or pick up. Mom is a sub, and I am on call until 9 am. Usually, she knows the day before though. I have the dcg anywhere from 4-10 hours. I charge them a flat per day rate. The long hours are balanced with the short days.

One works in a convenience store and her hours change every week. I agreed to work to 7:30 pm, but in an effort to help a nice single mom, I've kept dcg until 9:30. I expect that sooner or later I'll keep her until midnight or overnight. We love the kid, and the mom is really nice, an excellent payer, and I don't mind helping out. These 2 moms work some Saturdays, so I'm working 6 days a week most of the time. I whine a bit, but I'm so grateful to have the work that I try to keep reminding myself that this beats Walmart. I probably wouldn't get to sing or laugh as much there.

My 3rd works 12 hour shifts, 3 days one week, 2 the next. She pays extra.

One set policy, either contract or set hours, wouldn't work for me. I offered odd hours, and I feel like I need to keep that promise with these 3. If one leaves, I probably won't offer odd hours again.

[permanentvacation]

I have them all on contracted hours just so I don't get up early for no reason. Currently, I have different kids arriving at different times- two at 6:00am, one at 6:30am, one arrives either at 7:30 or 8:30 depending on the days, and another arrives at 9:00am. They all leave by 5:30 except the one who stays til 6 on Friday. So, I could say to my parents "I'm open 6-5:30, come in whatever time you want." However, if I get up at 5am, get dressed and ready for work, and NOONE shows up til 9am, MAN AM I GONNA BE IRRITATED!!! So I do contracted hours for everyone just in case the early kids don't need daycare on any given day, so I can sleep in until I really need to get up for work.

[momma2girls]

I have never had my hrs. of daycare in my contract. Now about 6 yrs. ago, I changed it to contracted times only. I was exhausted working 12 hrs. per day. Then one Dad came when he wanted for drop off and pick up. Needless to say , it quickly changed after him!!
At the current time I am open 7:30-4:30- how wonderful!! I need to be off at 4:30 for appts., dinners, practices, gymnastics, swimming lessons, games, etc. with my own children.

[Rachel]

I also have open hours (I work for an organization that sets them). I am opened from 7 - 4:30, but only 1 kid consistently comes before 8 (and he usually goes around 3:30). Most of my kids are here approximately 8:30 - 4:15, depends on the family, and depends on the day.

[VioletCupcake]

I have them all on contracted hours just so I don't get up early for no reason. Currently, I have different kids arriving at different times- two at 6:00am, one at 6:30am, one arrives either at 7:30 or 8:30 depending on the days, and another arrives at 9:00am. They all leave by 5:30 except the one who stays til 6 on Friday. So, I could say to my parents "I'm open 6-5:30, come in whatever time you want." However, if I get up at 5am, get dressed and ready for work, and NOONE shows up til 9am, MAN AM I GONNA BE IRRITATED!!! So I do contracted hours for everyone just in case the early kids don't need daycare on any given day, so I can sleep in until I really need to get up for work.

This sounds exactly like me! I am changing to contracted hours in Jan. because I HATE to get up and have no one show up! That happened to me today- I waited and hour and a half. I am so excited to start contracted hours!

I do have a question though...
What happens if a parent doesn't come at contracted drop off time? I really really don't want to charge late fees for drop off. Do I just adjust the drop off time? What if the parent gets upset and doesn't want it changed to later? I'm just worried since a few of my people are so random with their drop off times. But I LOVE my families so much, I hate to upset them.

[permanentvacation]

For parents that drop off at different times then contracted/expected, I've done a couple of things to get them to understand that they need to arrive at the agreed upon time.

If they seem to like to arrive earlier than agreed upon, (this actually only works for the child that arrives before everyone else) I have left them knocking on the door to the point that they call me from their cell phone while standing outside my house. I answer my phone and let them know that they are early and I haven't finished getting dressed yet. Then I wait until the exact minute they were supposed to arrive to open the door for them. Of course I give them a little speach about my needing my sleep and that I get dressed just in time to open at the scheduled time.

For those that arrive later than expected, I've done a couple of things. If a particular parent seems to always arrive at the same time, but later than contracted, I will let them know that I have noticed this and that we should change their contracted time to the later time that they actually arrive. Usually they are okay with that. If they fuss, then I might say something about if noone else is planning to come that day, or if I need to run out for milk, or drive my daughter to the bus stop, I need to know what time that I have to be here and if she really is not going to arrive before such a such time, we need to change her contract so I can plan my morning.

Another thing I've done to late arrivals is simply LEAVE BEFORE THEY GET HERE!!!!! Yeah, that gets their attention! I have had some sparatic arrivals who no matter what I say to them, just want to show up whenever. So, I started packing my kids up every morning and either go out for the day - to the park or wherever, and other times I have just sat down the road for a while. I have literally watched some of my parents pull up to my house, get out, go to my door, finally go back to their car in frustration, and call me. Then I tell them that I waited for them to arrive and gave them 15 minutes to be late. Since I hadn't heard from them, I thought they must not be coming that day and I have left. I usually tell them that I am pretty far away - like the next town or something. Then I tell them that I won't be back til late this afternoon. After a time or two of that, they usually start showing up on time!

I also have simply explained that they are disrupting the children's activities by arriving late. I do a preschool educational program with the kids here. I explain to the late arrivals that when they show up late, whether we are in the middle of story time, arts and crafts time, circle time, or whatever, it causes disruption in the children's activity. The children go off task, paint gets places it's not supposed to be, I have begin the activity all over again with their child, etc. Often after explaining that to the parent, they say things such as they don't want their child missing out on the activities or to cause interuptions for the other children, and ask what time my activities start for the day. I tell them that we start our day at 9 with breakfast then immediately go into our activities. Typically the parent then decides to be here by 9 every day.

I actually have terminated one parent who kept showing up at random times and couldn't care less about any of my reasons as to why I needed her to stick to an agreed upon drop off time. She would show up early, an hour late, three hours late, in the middle of nap, and actually dropped off a couple of times at 3 or so!!!

Since I am revising my contract now for next year, I am putting in the contract that all children must arrive by 9am or stay home for the day. I put in there that if they need to schedule doctor/dentist appointments or any other appointments, that they need to either schedule them for the afternoon or keep their child home for the day if they schedule the appointments for the morning.

I know of a daycare lady in my area who does not allow any parent to come to her daycare after her opening time or before her closing time. Like, if her hours are 7-5:30, you better drop off at 7 and not be back til 5:30! I don't know how she gets the parents to adhere to that rule, but from what I understand, noone comes to her house after open time or before her close time. Personally, that would make me a bit nervous that she demands that I can not go get my child whenever I want - and technically, it is illegal in this state - maybe everywhere?- for her to not allow parents access to their children, but she said that she informs them that she has a routine/schedule with the children and refuses to have anyone disrupt that routine.

I don't mind parents picking up early - that doesn't cause as much of a disturbance here. Plus, I'd rather get off work early than get up for work and noone show up!

We do have to remember that our childcare is our business, our company. Just like any other company, we can impliment policies (within the law) and demand that our policies are obeyed by our clients. If the client does not want to obey our policies, they can find childcare elsewhere.

[VioletCupcake]

For parents that drop off at different times then contracted/expected, I've done a couple of things to get them to understand that they need to arrive at the agreed upon time.

If they seem to like to arrive earlier than agreed upon, (this actually only works for the child that arrives before everyone else) I have left them knocking on the door to the point that they call me from their cell phone while standing outside my house. I answer my phone and let them know that they are early and I haven't finished getting dressed yet. Then I wait until the exact minute they were supposed to arrive to open the door for them. Of course I give them a little speach about my needing my sleep and that I get dressed just in time to open at the scheduled time.

For those that arrive later than expected, I've done a couple of things. If a particular parent seems to always arrive at the same time, but later than contracted, I will let them know that I have noticed this and that we should change their contracted time to the later time that they actually arrive. Usually they are okay with that. If they fuss, then I might say something about if noone else is planning to come that day, or if I need to run out for milk, or drive my daughter to the bus stop, I need to know what time that I have to be here and if she really is not going to arrive before such a such time, we need to change her contract so I can plan my morning.

Another thing I've done to late arrivals is simply LEAVE BEFORE THEY GET HERE!!!!! Yeah, that gets their attention! I have had some sparatic arrivals who no matter what I say to them, just want to show up whenever. So, I started packing my kids up every morning and either go out for the day - to the park or wherever, and other times I have just sat down the road for a while. I have literally watched some of my parents pull up to my house, get out, go to my door, finally go back to their car in frustration, and call me. Then I tell them that I waited for them to arrive and gave them 15 minutes to be late. Since I hadn't heard from them, I thought they must not be coming that day and I have left. I usually tell them that I am pretty far away - like the next town or something. Then I tell them that I won't be back til late this afternoon. After a time or two of that, they usually start showing up on time!

I also have simply explained that they are disrupting the children's activities by arriving late. I do a preschool educational program with the kids here. I explain to the late arrivals that when they show up late, whether we are in the middle of story time, arts and crafts time, circle time, or whatever, it causes disruption in the children's activity. The children go off task, paint gets places it's not supposed to be, I have begin the activity all over again with their child, etc. Often after explaining that to the parent, they say things such as they don't want their child missing out on the activities or to cause interuptions for the other children, and ask what time my activities start for the day. I tell them that we start our day at 9 with breakfast then immediately go into our activities. Typically the parent then decides to be here by 9 every day.

I actually have terminated one parent who kept showing up at random times and couldn't care less about any of my reasons as to why I needed her to stick to an agreed upon drop off time. She would show up early, an hour late, three hours late, in the middle of nap, and actually dropped off a couple of times at 3 or so!!!

Since I am revising my contract now for next year, I am putting in the contract that all children must arrive by 9am or stay home for the day. I put in there that if they need to schedule doctor/dentist appointments or any other appointments, that they need to either schedule them for the afternoon or keep their child home for the day if they schedule the appointments for the morning.

I know of a daycare lady in my area who does not allow any parent to come to her daycare after her opening time or before her closing time. Like, if her hours are 7-5:30, you better drop off at 7 and not be back til 5:30! I don't know how she gets the parents to adhere to that rule, but from what I understand, noone comes to her house after open time or before her close time. Personally, that would make me a bit nervous that she demands that I can not go get my child whenever I want - and technically, it is illegal in this state - maybe everywhere?- for her to not allow parents access to their children, but she said that she informs them that she has a routine/schedule with the children and refuses to have anyone disrupt that routine.

I don't mind parents picking up early - that doesn't cause as much of a disturbance here. Plus, I'd rather get off work early than get up for work and noone show up!

We do have to remember that our childcare is our business, our company. Just like any other company, we can impliment policies (within the law) and demand that our policies are obeyed by our clients. If the client does not want to obey our policies, they can find childcare elsewhere.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond! Everything you said really helped me feel better. I have done a pretty good job of standing my ground. But sometimes I get nervous, like maybe I am asking to much of families. But your right, it is my business. It's hard being younger than all my DCPs. Anyways I am super excited to start knowing when people are coming in the morning! Oh and I LOVE hearing all the things you have done to get through to families! ::