No Power, Nothing In My Contract For This....

[Crazy8]

We could be without power for many days. I don't have anything in my contract about that, its never been an issue before. My contract does say they pay weekly for the spot not the days they attend but I have very rarely closed for anything but planned vacation days. With snowstorms I can just always be open since i am not the one who has to travel - so when parents stay home they still pay.
Do I offer to be open w/o power?? Do I credit them all the days I am closed/without power??? That could be pretty costly to me. Right now I don't think any of my families have power either.
I believe our regs say we need power/heat but i am legally unlicensed so not sure I have to follow that.
WWYD?

[itlw8]

You close it is a health and safety issue. You still charge but if any of them complain and say I have to go to work. Say do you have power? If yes say I could provide childcare at your house for everyone if you would volunteer your house.

[Country Kids]

How are you going to be open with no power?

It is a big health concern for cooking, keeping things cold, and how are you getting water? Don't you have to have power to get your water?

Also, how are you heating your house? Do you have any light source.

Sorry I legally have to close if I have none of the above and even though you are legally unliscensed you need to take inconsideration the above and how your going to run.

[biglou]

Licensed or not...if something happens to a child under your care, not having power will be held against you as a general failure to provide adequate safety and so on. I am in NYC, and writing this post with candle light as we have no power for the second day due to Hurricane Sandy! Guess what, we are closed! And I am considering the costs for a standby generator!

Big Lou

[Country Kids]

Licensed or not...if something happens to a child under your care, not having power will be held against you as a general failure to provide adequate safety and so on. I am in NYC, and writing this post with candle light as we have no power for the second day due to Hurricane Sandy! Guess what, we are closed! And I am considering the costs for a standby generator!

Big Lou

How are you on the computor with no electricity?

[SilverSabre25]

How are you on the computor with no electricity?

mobile phone probably

[Crazy8]

How are you on the computor with no electricity?

Ipad with 3g. Thank heavens for it, its been my liifeline!!

Thank you all for the input, I have been telling people i can't open without power but i am just waiting for someone to ask if i am charging them for it. As for conditions, i figure they are dealing with the same thing at their houses so why not send their kids here. School was called off for tomorrow too so i think i will be met withba little less resistance now.

We had tried for over a week before the hurricane to find a generator, there were none to be found and lowes had a wait list of 300 people!!

[biglou]

How are you on the computor with no electricity?

I have two laptops with broadband cards and my iPad with 3g. I am keeping them charged using a 12volt to 120 volt power inverter in my car!

[nothingwithoutjoy]

Last year we were without power after Halloween for a few days, and it was freezing cold. We had no lights, heat, oven. However, we did have water and could use our gas stove top if I lit it with a match. My deciding criteria was that I had a working corded telephone, so I was able to reach the parents if I needed to. I decided to stay open, but let parents know that it was cold. Their power was out, too, so most of the kids would have been freezing cold at home, too. I had a few kids come, and we cooked a lot, wore hats and coats in the house, played outside a lot, played with just-cooked warm play dough and oobleck (cornstarch/water mix) made with boiled water, read on the couch under heaps of blankets, used lots of blankets for nap. I curtained off the rooms we were in to keep in the heat from the cooking and our bodies. It was fine. I didn't want to lose the income and didn't feel like there was a compelling reason for me to close, and I didn't want to piss off the parents who felt they had to get to work. (I sure was thrilled with those parents who decided to keep their kids home, though!) I think it's up to you what you want to do, I think if you have a way to reach the parents, and if the kids would be in the same situation at home, there's no reason you have to close if you don't want to.

[wahmof3]

my state regulations:

No power No open.

Not sure about charging though. Not been in that position. My theory is they pay regardless of attendance as long as I am available. Hmm tough question because technically I would not be available, especially if they were still able to work. But yah, I really couldn't afford to lose the income & the power outage is not my fault.

[biglou]

No one wants to lose money, but we must accept that if our facility is not operational, then we really should not operate! Where the fault lies does not matter. We are held to a standard, if not legally by our state regs, then morally by our professionalism and morality. We cannot hold parents to financial payment if our facilty cannot accept children regardless of who is at fault. the facility is ours, so we ultimately are resposible for its condition. During this hurricane nearly every business has been impacted. Unfortunately, it is one of those occasions no one is at fault but we suffer because of it.

We should not let a bad circumstance lead us to bad decisions, which could possibly cause serious injury and lead to your business being shutdown and have your assets attached by litigation.

Yes, everyone is free to decide for themselves, we must remember, many folks make Wrong decisions everyday!

Be smart. do not let unplanned circumstances determine your future! Just roll with the punch and move on.

FYI...I will close again tomorrow. Still no power, so I will open some paint cans and use the time to freshen up the space with fresh paint!

[EchoMom]

Last year we were without power after Halloween for a few days, and it was freezing cold. We had no lights, heat, oven. However, we did have water and could use our gas stove top if I lit it with a match. My deciding criteria was that I had a working corded telephone, so I was able to reach the parents if I needed to. I decided to stay open, but let parents know that it was cold. Their power was out, too, so most of the kids would have been freezing cold at home, too. I had a few kids come, and we cooked a lot, wore hats and coats in the house, played outside a lot, played with just-cooked warm play dough and oobleck (cornstarch/water mix) made with boiled water, read on the couch under heaps of blankets, used lots of blankets for nap. I curtained off the rooms we were in to keep in the heat from the cooking and our bodies. It was fine. I didn't want to lose the income and didn't feel like there was a compelling reason for me to close, and I didn't want to piss off the parents who felt they had to get to work. (I sure was thrilled with those parents who decided to keep their kids home, though!) I think it's up to you what you want to do, I think if you have a way to reach the parents, and if the kids would be in the same situation at home, there's no reason you have to close if you don't want to.

I agree with this totally and would do the same.

[wahmof3]

No one wants to lose money, but we must accept that if our facility is not operational, then we really should not operate! Where the fault lies does not matter. We are held to a standard, if not legally by our state regs, then morally by our professionalism and morality. We cannot hold parents to financial payment if our facilty cannot accept children regardless of who is at fault. the facility is ours, so we ultimately are resposible for its condition. During this hurricane nearly every business has been impacted. Unfortunately, it is one of those occasions no one is at fault but we suffer because of it.

We should not let a bad circumstance lead us to bad decisions, which could possibly cause serious injury and lead to your business being shutdown and have your assets attached by litigation.

Yes, everyone is free to decide for themselves, we must remember, many folks make Wrong decisions everyday!

Be smart. do not let unplanned circumstances determine your future! Just roll with the punch and move on.

FYI...I will close again tomorrow. Still no power, so I will open some paint cans and use the time to freshen up the space with fresh paint!

nice post

[Heidi]

This is a funny discussion, in a way...

We have the same regs..no power, no daycare

However, within a few miles of here is Amish Country. NOt a lot of Amish dcp's, but they live every day without power. Although we would certainly have a difficult time, because we are so used to it, I'd say you certainly CAN do it. I probably wouldn't, though, even if it weren't against the regs.

[Country Kids]

This is a funny discussion, in a way...

We have the same regs..no power, no daycare

However, within a few miles of here is Amish Country. NOt a lot of Amish dcp's, but they live every day without power. Although we would certainly have a difficult time, because we are so used to it, I'd say you certainly CAN do it. I probably wouldn't, though, even if it weren't against the regs.

Yes, though most of us do not have wood stoves to heat/cook with. All our foods are stored in refrigerators-they have some sort of cold storage that we don't have. Most of us don't have kerosine lamps (those things scare me to death) for our lights. Also, most of their foods are farm fresh and food program wouldn't go for most of that-eggs, meat, milk, cheese, etc.

I love the Amish and their livestyle. My dd was having a conversation the other day with another kid. The other kids said his mom would have loved the 1800's (embarrissingly) and my daughter said "oh, my mom wants to be Amish". I'm sure there was some eye rolling between them-

Anyway, for them it isn't difficult because of the way they are set up and live it everyday but us "English" folk rely way to much on electricity, gas and batteries!