Does Anyone Work Mon- Thurs With Fridays Off?

[pollyo]

My goal for the summer is to have Fridays off.... and possibly into the fall and well, forever! I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot! I have been doing daycare for over a year and a half and have yet to find one family who needs 5 days a week! Some of the parents work only 3-4 days/week and the rest have a grandparent who watches them the days they aren't here. Of course they all need different days off so by saying I wont work Fridays I am forcing them to either rearrange their schedules (or grandmas!) or find other care.

I will be giving up income, but I find I am so burt out by Fridays and especially in the summers I want to give my kids a daycare-free day to enjoy.

Does anyone do this or have thought about it?

[Willow]

The daycare provider that lives up the road from me whom I frequently reference that's been licensed for decades.....she only works Monday through Thursday.

You never hear about her having openings so it must work just fine for some!

[e.j.]

I've been working M-Th for years and love it. It can be a deal breaker for families who need M-Fri care but finding families who need part time care or M-Th care hasn't been a big problem for me. Usually, they either need part time care anyway or have a family member willing to care for the kids on Fridays.

Once in awhile, I think about adding Fridays back in to my day care schedule but I don't think about it for long! :: I could use the extra money but the extra sanity is worth more to me right now.

[lil angels]

I have Friday off during the summer. When I have people call for openings I tell them I close on Fridays during the summer but the winter I am fine with. Many of my family's have grandma watch them on Fridays. Or other family member they are fine with it if you are up front from the start. I love it and will keep it up as long as I can.

[wahmof3]

I will be doing this come this summer, but for the summer only. I have mostly teachers kids but I have a couple of families that still work in the summer. I will be taking Fridays off.

I did have Thursdays & Fridays off last summer and LOVED it but financially took a hit. So I think taking off just Fridays will be ok.

I loved being able to have my days with my kids only

[crazydaycarelady]

Yep, every summer I am Monday - Thursday only. I have been doing it so long now that people know it coming in. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is a good time to do it because parents can usually get a high schooler or college student if they need too. Some of my parents use the grandparents on those Fridays during the summer and save a little money so they love it too.

[littlemissmuffet]

I don't personally have Fridays off, but I know of several in my area who do and they love it! Employees having Fridays off is quite common in my area (a goverment town) and becoming even more popularwith more employers - so Monday-Thursday daycares have clientelle here.
I would love to make a switch to having every Friday off, but I already have a smaller pool of clients to choose from that many of the daycares in my area because of my hours (7:30am-5:00pm - many potential client needs passed 5:00pm), I only accept single children (unless sibling attends), I do not offer part-time fees and I don't offer discounts of any kind for any reason (I lose alot of teachers this way because they don't want to pay for summer).

If it would work in your area and you could still pull in clients as needed, I say go for it

[williams2008]

[QUOTE=pollyo;291313]My goal for the summer is to have Fridays off.... and possibly into the fall and well, forever! I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot! I have been doing daycare for over a year and a half and have yet to find one family who needs 5 days a week! Some of the parents work only 3-4 days/week and the rest have a grandparent who watches them the days they aren't here. Of course they all need different days off so by saying I wont work Fridays I am forcing them to either rearrange their schedules (or grandmas!) or find other care.

I will be giving up income, but I find I am so burt out by Fridays and especially in the summers I want to give my kids a daycare-free day to enjoy.

Does anyone do this or have thought about it?[/QUOTE
I just told my husband today that I need to start taking Fridays off. My parents pay for their slots, so guess what....they bring them even on their days off and they stay the entire time.

[Meeko]

I wish! Three day weekends would be heaven!

[nothingwithoutjoy]

I switched to Mon-Thurs last year, and love it. Like you, I rarely got people wanting full time. The year before my switch, I had no full-timers. I had one child leaving for kindergarten, and was able to move each of the other Friday kids to one of the vacated spaces--so everyone still had the same number of days they'd had before the switch. I gave the parents lots of advance notice, and it worked out ok. Naturally, now I get calls for full-time, and have to turn them away! Oh, well, it's well worth it! DO IT!

[mom2many]

When I first started out I did! It was wonderful and I loved it! I had 2 p/t families and neither needed me on Fridays. It would be nice to have that again!

[pollyo]

OK, this is very, very exciting to think about! I am so encourages reading that other daycare providers have done this successfully! Right now, I have a light day on Wednesday but because a few of my families all have different days off, I don't have one day off completely. Granted I still have four kids who are 3,5,7 and 9 so I won't be totally "off" but it'll be nice to have it off.

I mentioned it to 2 of my families today- one comes T, Th, F and one comes M & F, with both grandmothers filling in on the off days. I hate to think about loosing them, but also know if they want to stay with me (plus 7 months notice!) they can figure it out.

So excited!!!

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

That sounds wonderful, but would take away about $1400 from my family each month so I could never do it.

[moshimoshi]

I do! I have part-timers and it just worked out that way. I love having Fridays for errands and appointments and hanging out with my own children.

[Holiday Park]

If Mon&Fri kiddo didn't come on Monday's , I'd have Mondays off. My FT 'er is a Tue-Fri kid . Gramma keeps her the other days. I've sctually thought about asking if shed have gramma trade her tuesday for my momday . But I think even if I told them and didnt even ask, gramma might not be available on monday regardless. Because the whole reason they use me two days is it's outaide wen they could get ther family to help. They would probably use family only if they had a choice .