Those Who do 2nd Shift Daycare

[actaktmdt]

I received a call and am considering doing 2nd shift care. My husband is concerend about family time....We are big dave ramsey people and I cant justify not doing this as we would get rid of our debt load faster. My husbands concern is family time. How do you who do 24/hr and shift care handle this.

[Daycare Mommy]

Subbing.

We're in the same boat. Dave Ramsey fans on step 2, the debt snowball. I don't know about you, but it's gonna be a loooong step 2 for us! We're advertising for 2nd and 3rd shifters right now, but haven't had any bites yet. I'm hoping for at least a 1-2 hour gap between my day and night shift. It'll still be hard, but if we at least have that break in there for the whole family so we can sit and eat dinner together.

[katie]

I do a kind of 2nd shift, 2 days I have a dcb 11-9:30. But, she goes to sleep at 7! So it's not too bad. It does change family time, I have 4 kids of my own, but after she goes to sleep I can focus on my own nearby. It is a quick amount of time until the morning however!

[nannyde]

Supper at 5:30
Movie at 6
Bedtime as soon as the movie is over.

You don't have to have the kids up playing after six. Just have a movie every night and then put them to bed. Having them up from after afternoon nap unitl eight or so is what will make it not work. It's TOO LONG to have a day care kid up and playing.

I did evening shift for 14 years and this is the schedule I used. I have a large movie collection and just put a movie on every night. I didn't let them play during the movie or sleep during the movie. If they fall asleep during the movie you are getting them up too early after afternoon nap.

If the parents bring them after or during the afternoon nap you have to make sure they have had an afternoon nap. If you don't you will have them taking their afternoon nap during the movie and then be up and ready to roar at seven p.m.

If they arrive at three and you aren't convinced they have actually slept then put them down for a good hour or so right away. You have to work the schedule so they stay awake during the movie and THEN go to sleep till parents get there.

You will have some parents ask to keep them up until nine or after. Be firm that your bedtime is X time and you will not keep them up. Don't even do a half hour. Quiet time during your family time iand bedtime for day care kids on the evening shift is the secret to longevity.

You do not have to have the dck's schedule be the same as your children in the evening. If you allow alot of up and awake hours on the evening shift you will burn out very quickly. A few hours of play, meal, movie, and bedtime. If you get into five/six hours of up and awake time it will burn you out.

I did not do baths or change kids into jammies. Whatever they came in they slept in. I did not want to do clothing back and forth every day. It was up to the parents to send them in easy sweat clothing that they could sleep in here. I did allow a toothbrush but that was kept in my house.

Remember that evening kids have the BIG part of their day WITH their parents. They have their family time in the morning and afternoon. If you find out that parents are not getting UP with the kids and want them to sleep in so the parent can sleep you will have a lot of problems with the kids. The only way the evening works is if the parents do their family time during day time hours. They need to do their big family meal at lunch. They need to do baths before they come etc.

Don't get into the trap of doing the core parenting things for them and keeping the kids up so the parent can sleep in. Put the kids to bed early and wait for the parent to start complaining about how early the kid is getting up. If that happens it means they will ask you to keep the kid up later and later at night.... until they insist you keep the kid up till they get there. Put your foot down right away that you will not do this.

Be careful also with school aged kids. You will get a lot of parents wanting you to allow them to "stay up" on Fridays or during the summer. I didn't give a flip if it was Friday or not... I would NOT allow kids to stay up late because they didn't have school the next day. I wasn't going to have kids running around at my house at eight oclock at night when my first kid had come at five a.m. Doesn't matter WHAT day it is they need an early bed time.

[actaktmdt]

Subbing.

We're in the same boat. Dave Ramsey fans on step 2, the debt snowball. I don't know about you, but it's gonna be a loooong step 2 for us! We're advertising for 2nd and 3rd shifters right now, but haven't had any bites yet. I'm hoping for at least a 1-2 hour gap between my day and night shift. It'll still be hard, but if we at least have that break in there for the whole family so we can sit and eat dinner together.

We began year 2 of being on his plan and in step 2 as well. I wont be getting a break between times here, as the kiddos would come at 3 and leave at 11 pm.

[actaktmdt]

Supper at 5:30
Movie at 6
Bedtime as soon as the movie is over.

You don't have to have the kids up playing after six. Just have a movie every night and then put them to bed. Having them up from after afternoon nap unitl eight or so is what will make it not work. It's TOO LONG to have a day care kid up and playing.

I did evening shift for 14 years and this is the schedule I used. I have a large movie collection and just put a movie on every night. I didn't let them play during the movie or sleep during the movie. If they fall asleep during the movie you are getting them up too early after afternoon nap.

If the parents bring them after or during the afternoon nap you have to make sure they have had an afternoon nap. If you don't you will have them taking their afternoon nap during the movie and then be up and ready to roar at seven p.m.

If they arrive at three and you aren't convinced they have actually slept then put them down for a good hour or so right away. You have to work the schedule so they stay awake during the movie and THEN go to sleep till parents get there.

You will have some parents ask to keep them up until nine or after. Be firm that your bedtime is X time and you will not keep them up. Don't even do a half hour. Quiet time during your family time iand bedtime for day care kids on the evening shift is the secret to longevity.

You do not have to have the dck's schedule be the same as your children in the evening. If you allow alot of up and awake hours on the evening shift you will burn out very quickly. A few hours of play, meal, movie, and bedtime. If you get into five/six hours of up and awake time it will burn you out.

I did not do baths or change kids into jammies. Whatever they came in they slept in. I did not want to do clothing back and forth every day. It was up to the parents to send them in easy sweat clothing that they could sleep in here. I did allow a toothbrush but that was kept in my house.

Remember that evening kids have the BIG part of their day WITH their parents. They have their family time in the morning and afternoon. If you find out that parents are not getting UP with the kids and want them to sleep in so the parent can sleep you will have a lot of problems with the kids. The only way the evening works is if the parents do their family time during day time hours. They need to do their big family meal at lunch. They need to do baths before they come etc.

Don't get into the trap of doing the core parenting things for them and keeping the kids up so the parent can sleep in. Put the kids to bed early and wait for the parent to start complaining about how early the kid is getting up. If that happens it means they will ask you to keep the kid up later and later at night.... until they insist you keep the kid up till they get there. Put your foot down right away that you will not do this.

Be careful also with school aged kids. You will get a lot of parents wanting you to allow them to "stay up" on Fridays or during the summer. I didn't give a flip if it was Friday or not... I would NOT allow kids to stay up late because they didn't have school the next day. I wasn't going to have kids running around at my house at eight oclock at night when my first kid had come at five a.m. Doesn't matter WHAT day it is they need an early bed time.

Thanks for the tips, do you charge more or less for the kiddos that come at this time?

[emosks]

Don't you have kids that are there really early though? Like before 6 am? That would be too much to do IMO. You will get burnt out.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

I did 24 hour care about 15 yrs ago for 2 years. I aged alot in those 2 years. not one day off,.. no holidays, no weekends,.. nothing. I basicly kept everyone on the same schedule,.. day kids would come in between 4 and 6 am. do the normal routine, then they would leave and a night kid would take their spot, we had breakfast at 7, lunch at noon, and supper at 6. bedtime was 815. I didnt do tv though, I personally dont see it has a regular place in a dayhome. We watch it maybe 30 min a week?

[grandmom]

actaktmdt and Daycare Mommy,

Good for you both. I just finished Dave Ramsey for the 3rd time. If a second job is in order to do the debt snowball, I say do it! If the second job is also daycare, then you don't have to learn any new skills, buy a new wardrobe, etc. I say do it, but heed the advice given about bedtimes, etc.

[momma2girls]

I could never do another shift. my own family is too important to me!! I like my time away from daycare children!! I am open 9-9 1/2 hrs. and that is totally enough for me!! My daughter is in many different things, that means I would be dragging around daycare children with us everywhere!

[mamajennleigh]

I would do it in a heartbeat, and definitely follow Nannyde's advice about the evening schedule. Of course, I can barely get my parents to follow our daytime schedule so I'd either have to get a stronger backbone, or not do it at all.

I had a mom tell me today that when I take her daughter to the park, I need to follow her on the equipment with my "hands around her waist" so she doesn't fall. I told her that I'll take the other kids to the park before her daughter gets here or on the days her daughter isn't here. Ugh.

[nannyde]

Thanks for the tips, do you charge more or less for the kiddos that come at this time?

I base the fee on arrival time for 2nd shift. The earlier the arrival the higher the rate. (this is a max of NINE hours per day.. more hours more money)

2:30 p.m. arrival $195.00 per week

2:45 p.m. arrival $190.00 per week

3:00 p.m. arrival $185.00 per week

3:15 p.m. arrival $180.00 per week

3:30 p.m. arrival $175.00 per week

3:45 p.m. arrival $170.00 per week

4:00 p.m. arrival $165.00 per week

4:15 p.m. arrival $160.00 per week

4:30 p.m. arrival $155.00 per week

4:45 p.m. arrival $150.00 per week

5:00 p.m. arrival $145.00 per week

5:15 p.m. arrival $140.00 per week

5:30 p.m. arrival $135.00 per week

5:45 p.m. arrival $130.00 per week

6:00 p.m. arrival $125.00 per week

It's the reverse table of my rates on the day shift:

3:00 p.m. departure $135.00 per week

3:15 p.m. departure $140.00 per week

3:30 p.m. departure $145.00 per week

3:45 p.m. departure $150.00 per week

4:00 p.m. departure $155.00 per week

4:15 p.m. departure $160.00 per week

4:30 p.m. departure $165.00 per week

4:45 p.m. departure $170.00 per week

5:00 p.m. departure $175.00 per week

5:15 p.m. departure $180.00 per week

5:30 p.m. departure $185.00 per week

5:45 p.m. departure $190.00 per week

6:00 p.m. departure $195.00 per week

It's based on the "direct care" hours.. meaning the number of hours daily the child is UP and being directly supervised.

When you do day and evening shift the prime hours of those two shifts are 3-6 p.m. That's when you have the highest liklihood of having both shifts in your house at the same time. You need to charge for those hours because they are the most sought after hours in a two shift day care.

The earlier the child arrives on the evening shift the more hours you will have them awake until bedtime and the more hours they will be there at the same time as your day kids.

Let's say your bedtime is 7 p.m. If a kid comes at 2 p.m. they are going to intterrupt your nap, and most likely be UP from 2-7 p.m. That's a LOT of hours of a kid being up. At the end of the week you are going to be doing 25 hours of awake care for that kid.

Compare that to a 5 p.m. evening kid arrival: That kid will be up two hours a day (from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.) At the end of the week you will have that kid up 10 hours a week.

That's a difference of FIFTEEN awake hours a week. That's a lot. If you have bedtime at 8 p.m it's the difference of 35 hours of awake time for the 2 p.m. kid and 20 for the 5 p.m. arrival kid. HUGE

I don't know about you but I think kids are harder to care for when they are up and playing. That's why I base my rates on the hours they are awake.

[nannyde]

I did 24 hour care about 15 yrs ago for 2 years. I aged alot in those 2 years. not one day off,.. no holidays, no weekends,.. nothing. I basicly kept everyone on the same schedule,.. day kids would come in between 4 and 6 am. do the normal routine, then they would leave and a night kid would take their spot, we had breakfast at 7, lunch at noon, and supper at 6. bedtime was 815. I didnt do tv though, I personally dont see it has a regular place in a dayhome. We watch it maybe 30 min a week?

We don't have tv on the day shift but I absolutely used it daily on the evening shift.

I can't even think of a kid in my day care in the past five years who doesn't watch TV at home. In fact, most of the kids watch TV as soon as they get home. Home day cares that are willilng to take evening kids should NOT be expected to do ANY developmentally appropriate activities or educational program. The parents have plenty of time every day to educate their children, take them to the park, get them exercised... everything that WE can accomplish with six kids during the day they can do with their one or two kids.

IME, the evening shift needs to be REALLY relaxed and the least amount of work as possible for the care giver.

You say you did it for two years. I did it for fourteen. The ONLY way that you can do it with longevity is to get it down to as relaxed and easy as possible. It's a different animal than day time care. By the time the child arrives to your house at night their parents have given them a full day of education, exercise, and activities. The rest of the kids day needs to be chill.

The earlier the kid arrives the more play time they had at my house. I had a staff assistant until 6 p.m. She stayed thru dinner. The second she left a movie was put on for the kids... then potty... then bed. It worked great and the kids did fine. It was the only way I could do it especially when my ds was little. The kids watched TV while I had one to one time with him.

The most important thing is being COMPLETELY honest with the parents about your evening activities and bedtime. I told each parent at the interview our schedule so I didn't have parents asking me to keep them up or NO TV. If they didn't want TV and they wanted their kid up till ten p.m. they went somewhere else.

[Childminder]

I've been doing 2nd shift care for 6 years now and did 24/7 before that. For the parents that work past 11:30pm they pick up the next morning after 7a so I'm not up in the night. I charge a flat rate that is the same day or night cause I don't like book keeping enough to keep different rates. ALL parents pay a weekly rate based on a 45 hour work week and the only exception is a couple parents that go over the hours by leaving the kids all night two or three nights. I had problems with alcohol being an issue cause most that need this shift tend to be waitresses. I quit the midnite shift cause I thought it would be popular as I'm in the automation alley but was wrong. Or could be because of the demise of the auto industry. Who knows.

As far as family stuff - the kids become part of the family and what we do they do. Just like family.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

yeah, I only did it 2 years with all shifts, my ex got a job (fctory) so we were able to go to strictly second shift 130 p to 1130 p for about 4 years (until I found out that he was sneaking around after work with on of my day moms. ) @@. Then I opened a 5 am to 2 am center while I was going through my divorce, and now for the last 13 years Ive had the schedule I LOVE, 4a to 5ish p. No weekends or holidays.

I still never let them have tv. We read, or played games or just played in the afternoons. Basicly the same thing I did while I did daytime care just in the evenings. And now I have a routine that fits us. We are finished with all formal learning things by 9 am, and ready to learn thru play. by 4 everyone is gone or going home shortly and we just play either in or out. and wait until their parents get here.

We don't have tv on the day shift but I absolutely used it daily on the evening shift.

I can't even think of a kid in my day care in the past five years who doesn't watch TV at home. In fact, most of the kids watch TV as soon as they get home. Home day cares that are willilng to take evening kids should NOT be expected to do ANY developmentally appropriate activities or educational program. The parents have plenty of time every day to educate their children, take them to the park, get them exercised... everything that WE can accomplish with six kids during the day they can do with their one or two kids.

IME, the evening shift needs to be REALLY relaxed and the least amount of work as possible for the care giver.

You say you did it for two years. I did it for fourteen. The ONLY way that you can do it with longevity is to get it down to as relaxed and easy as possible. It's a different animal than day time care. By the time the child arrives to your house at night their parents have given them a full day of education, exercise, and activities. The rest of the kids day needs to be chill.

The earlier the kid arrives the more play time they had at my house. I had a staff assistant until 6 p.m. She stayed thru dinner. The second she left a movie was put on for the kids... then potty... then bed. It worked great and the kids did fine. It was the only way I could do it especially when my ds was little. The kids watched TV while I had one to one time with him.

The most important thing is being COMPLETELY honest with the parents about your evening activities and bedtime. I told each parent at the interview our schedule so I didn't have parents asking me to keep them up or NO TV. If they didn't want TV and they wanted their kid up till ten p.m. they went somewhere else.