What Do I Do????

[Lucy]

I meant to quote you, I was agreeing.

Oh, ok.

[missnikki]

OMG!! Now we are comparing banks & multi million dollar corporations to a working mom who had a baby and is trying to make ends meet?? Obviously famlies need the money they make from work to support their famlies and pay their mortgages, and pay for their childs health care, food, diapers etc, otherwise I'm sure they would rather stay home raising their children themselves! All you guys want to do is make the poor mom "pay" through the nose. I cant believe how greedy people can be!! You are not a corporation, you do not "deserve" paid holidays, but you "want" them, and you want them at any cost! Th eonly reason why I charge for a holiday and I will say this again, is so that my pay will be the same and I wont be shorted when their is a holiday..thats it! It's not because I feel I am "entitled" to it, or "deserve" it, or because I want to make sure a family "pays" me for a holiday or I will feel cheated! My bills dont stop because there is a holiday or a mom takes a day off or has a vacation! I am not out to rip off anybody. You want to treated like you are being paid by some major company..maybe you ought to have these moms pay money towards your 401 k, pay your health insurance, pay for all of your vacation, sick and personal days, and give you a raise every 6 months....

The greed on this thread is extremely upsetting. TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! Stop trying to take advantage of people who are working to pay their bills! You are not their responsibility! Take rsponsibility for yourself, and if you want all these benefits, maybe you should get a different job...

As a business owner, it is each individual's right to conduct business as they wish. Since Holidays affect scheduling, and schedules are what billing is based on...it stands to reason that there may be differing opinions on what one's time is worth. It is judgemental to think that everyone has the space for all of their Monday kids to join another day in the week- it may require another staff, or some other expense. It also puts more on your plate for that day than normal, thus the 'premium fee'.
Also it is not the burden of the provider to notice that a holiday falls on a Monday and accomodate accordingly. I believe a parent should arrange the holiday care of their child well in advance, and potentially at a premium. It is not about being greedy, it is about who's responsibility it ultimately is- the PARENT. If you're claiming it is a comparison to major corporations, it isn't. My daughter goes to a small private school, and I do not get reimbursed for holidays when they are closed. They do not offer Saturday make-up day. If I rented a movie for 5 days and one was a holiday, I don't get that day free or get a make-up day. If I pay for a month of cell phone, and I don't use it for 3 days, I don't....I think you get the point.

Treat others the way you want to be treated works well on the playground, in personal relationships, and in public... in business it is treat others at fair market value, and don't sell yourself short unless you are independently wealthy.

[MarinaVanessa]

OMG!! Now we are comparing banks & multi million dollar corporations to a working mom who had a baby and is trying to make ends meet??

Keep in mind that this works for very small privately owned businesses also. My parents owned and ran a small mom & pop Pet Shop for 10 years and even though we didn't make a large income they still had to pay their workers for federal holidays and paid extra if they stayed open on a holiday and had them work. They never had more than 1 employee working at once which is why my mom worked there mornings, my dad evenings, I worked there weekends and non-school hours and eventually even my little sister worked there too.

Yes, treat others as you would want to be treated. If I worked somewhere I would like federal holidays off and paid or would like to be paid extra if I had to work on a holiday.

[tenderhearts]

I highly doubt she gets paid for those days. The reason I changed my contract for them to fill our their "contracted" days was so that the part timers didn't think they could just switch any time they felt like it, I've had problems with that in the past. I had one parent that always switched to another day if a Holiday fell on her contracted day, but when she would switch it would put me in a bind on other days. In my contract it states, these are your contracted hours, if you need to switch a day it would need to be authorized ahead of time because I may or may not have an opening on that day, if I can do it I would be more than happy to. Like others I dont' mind IF I can do it, as long as I'm still getting paid for the 3 days.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

Wow,.ok, I apologize in advance for what Im going to say,.... once I say it Im done and back to your happy chipper laundryduchess,..I promise. .. ok, yes, I am a business, And as such I see no problem comparing my business decisions to those of multi-million dollar companies,... I pay taxes, contract work out when it can't be done "in house", I have accounting, purchasing, human resource, janitorial and secretary departments. I arrange for trainings, for programming, for interactive workshops. I am a small locally owned business and take credit for that. I am proud of that. Im not a babysitter, I am a high quality childcare provider and because of that,.. yes I DESERVE paid holidays, paid Personal Days, and raises when necessary. What bothers me more than your attitude is how you seem to think you arent entitled to these things as well.
.
I do not feel sorry for the poor single mom who has to buy diapers, pay bills, and feed her kids,.I WAS that mom,... two kids, no education, nothing but two daycare families, a car payment, mortgage, credit cards and an exhusband shacking up with a former daycare mom who I caught him in our bed with..... been there done that, and paid off that credit card. I get so tried of the "well shes a single mom, hes a single dad,... " excuse. Ok,.. thats the situation,.. deal with it, get through it and move on.

As far as paying thru the nose,... I charge 40 to 60 dollars LESS than providers in my area with half the training or programming I have. I offer a high quality affordable program that parents LOVE.

Someone elses choice to have children does not impact my feelings on getting paid for Christmas. I offer a service, I explain my policies and fees up front, prior to care, I give them a copy of our contract to read over and sign and return. ALL of my policies are written in the contract. If they choose not to read it, not to listen, not to prepare themselves for when Im closed I am not feeling bad if they have to switch shifts with someone because they failed to prepare for something they knew about a year in advance.

As a parent, I pay my insurance (health, dental, eye, car, life and home), put money in my 401, play around with other investments, pay for my mortgage, utilities, guitar lessons, trumpet rental, school clothes, dog food, plus first year tuition for my 18 yr old to go to an awesome college. (what scholarships doesnt cover that is) I also make sure he has money in his account for gas, soap, toothpaste and deodorant.

I work very hard at providing a service people LOOK for. At a price that isnt breaking them. I have never in my life been called greedy (unless we are talking about girl scout thin mints because then all bets are off, !) Maybe instead of worrying about how everyone else is trying to cheat people, if you focused your attention to providing a higher quality of care, people wouldnt bat an eye at paying for you to spend Christmas with your family. Instead of trying to blame the providers out there who TAKE paid holidays,... if you looked at it from the other side,.. you would understand how we feel. I have been available all but 4 days in 21 years for the days and times I was contracted for. I took off less than 21 days after the births of all for of my children combined. I make sure I am here, available to do my job every day. Rain or shine, snow or ice. I have taken on the role of mom, dad, sister, aunt, grandma, friend and confidant to not only the kids I serve but alot of the parents as well. I give all of me to the families lucky enough to be enrolled in my family childcare home. Here they KNOW I can be trusted, depended on and believed in. They are safe, happy and loved. I am proud of myself, Im proud of my fellow childcare providers. We deserve alot more than we get credit for. So much of who and what a child will be when they are grown is dependant on what WE do with them as infants, toddlers and young children. We ARE molding the future. It really upsets me when I find one of my fellow providers thinks we are just babysitters,... nothing special. I AM that working person who is paying my bills, and I will continue to improve my program, enroll families, teach them how to be wonderful little people, watch them go off to school, interview more families, and cycle through again and again,.. and you know what is awesome? when those children are grown,... and they call me out of the blue one day and say,.. Miss Jill,.. Im pregnant,.. please tell me you will keep my baby,.... And they come for an interview, I go over the rules, policies,.. and they smile, look at their spouse and say,.. see I told you you would love her,... and the cycle continues,.....

QUOTE=legomom922;45894]OMG!! Now we are comparing banks & multi million dollar corporations to a working mom who had a baby and is trying to make ends meet?? Obviously famlies need the money they make from work to support their famlies and pay their mortgages, and pay for their childs health care, food, diapers etc, otherwise I'm sure they would rather stay home raising their children themselves! All you guys want to do is make the poor mom "pay" through the nose. I cant believe how greedy people can be!! You are not a corporation, you do not "deserve" paid holidays, but you "want" them, and you want them at any cost! Th eonly reason why I charge for a holiday and I will say this again, is so that my pay will be the same and I wont be shorted when their is a holiday..thats it! It's not because I feel I am "entitled" to it, or "deserve" it, or because I want to make sure a family "pays" me for a holiday or I will feel cheated! My bills dont stop because there is a holiday or a mom takes a day off or has a vacation! I am not out to rip off anybody. You want to treated like you are being paid by some major company..maybe you ought to have these moms pay money towards your 401 k, pay your health insurance, pay for all of your vacation, sick and personal days, and give you a raise every 6 months....

The greed on this thread is extremely upsetting. TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! Stop trying to take advantage of people who are working to pay their bills! You are not their responsibility! Take rsponsibility for yourself, and if you want all these benefits, maybe you should get a different job...[/QUOTE]

[Lucy]

If you're claiming it is a comparison to major corporations, it isn't. My daughter goes to a small private school, and I do not get reimbursed for holidays when they are closed. They do not offer Saturday make-up day. If I rented a movie for 5 days and one was a holiday, I don't get that day free or get a make-up day. If I pay for a month of cell phone, and I don't use it for 3 days, I don't....I think you get the point.

But this is not about whether a person charges a fee for a holiday when no care is provided. She DOES take paid holidays. She made that clear. She's not asking us "should I charge for Thanksgiving day and the day after? I don't feel right about charging when I don't work." That's not the issue here. The issue is whether she should make a small accommodation for a client who's employer changed her days to earlier in the week. Can she shift from watching that woman's child on We/Th/Fr to Mo/Tu/We instead. And what many of us are telling her is that it would make for good Provider/Client relations to do so this once. Does a restaurant charge you for that extra bowl of sauce because you don't like your food dry, or extra tortillas for your fajitas to wrap up in, or the bigger piece of cake because you're sharing it with the table? Does the grocery store charge you for the bottle of ketchup you dumped over, or the 6 paper bags because you want your groceries double bagged? Dumb examples, I know... point is it's good customer service. And the Mom DID ask her ahead of time. If my math is right, Thanksgiving is TEN weeks away.

[missnikki]

But this is not about whether a person charges a fee for a holiday when no care is provided. She DOES take paid holidays. She made that clear. She's not asking us "should I charge for Thanksgiving day and the day after? I don't feel right about charging when I don't work." That's not the issue here. The issue is whether she should make a small accommodation for a client who's employer changed her days to earlier in the week. Can she shift from watching that woman's child on We/Th/Fr to Mo/Tu/We instead. And what many of us are telling her is that it would make for good Provider/Client relations to do so this once. Does a restaurant charge you for that extra bowl of sauce because you don't like your food dry, or extra tortillas for your fajitas to wrap up in, or the bigger piece of cake because you're sharing it with the table? Does the grocery store charge you for the bottle of ketchup you dumped over, or the 6 paper bags because you want your groceries double bagged? Dumb examples, I know... point is it's good customer service. And the Mom DID ask her ahead of time. If my math is right, Thanksgiving is TEN weeks away.

In case you didn't notice, I never stated MY opinion of whether or not to charge/ credit the day. I expressed the right to the option.
I was responding to the judgmental post that I quoted. How I prefer my fajitas has nothing to do with the fact that I am responsible for a child as their parent, and as an adult, I should honor all signed contracts. On the flip side, I see nothing wrong with a parent asking for the favor. It's an individually exclusive business decision, but be warned- do it once, you have set a precedent that may bite you in the butt.
In other words- it's ok to ask, it's ok to say yes. It's ok to say no. It's ok to say yes, but it will cost you. It is not ok to tell fellow providers that they are greedy for even thinking of taking a paid vacation, when you do not know the circumstances of the contract.

[Lucy]

In case you didn't notice, I never stated MY opinion of whether or not to charge/ credit the day. I expressed the right to the option.
I was responding to the judgmental post that I quoted. How I prefer my fajitas has nothing to do with the fact that I am responsible for a child as their parent, and as an adult, I should honor all signed contracts. On the flip side, I see nothing wrong with a parent asking for the favor. It's an individually exclusive business decision, but be warned- do it once, you have set a precedent that may bite you in the butt.
In other words- it's ok to ask, it's ok to say yes. It's ok to say no. It's ok to say yes, but it will cost you. It is not ok to tell fellow providers that they are greedy for even thinking of taking a paid vacation, when you do not know the circumstances of the contract.

I can agree with that. It seemed to me as if you were advocating for sticking with the contract NO MATTER WHAT. And I was just trying to say that sometimes it's good customer service to make an exception.

It's all good.

[legomom922]

Laundry duchess: No one here has accused anyone of "just being a babysitter". We all have our jobs, our businesses, and we all pay our taxes, and do this and that. No one is even talking about Christmas! None of that is the issue!

I understand that if you rent a hotel room, you have to pay weather you use the room for 3 hrs, or 24...I understand that if you order a meal you have to pay for the whole thing even if you dont eat it...I also get if you have a cell phone you pay for the service weather you use it or not..I get ALL of that type of analogy...

However I also get that if you need extra grocery bags, the store doesnt charge you for them, and I also get that a waitress will give you a free cup of coffee if you spill yours, etc etc. I totaly yget all of these type of analogies.

I went camping a couple of weeks ago and they had a 3 night min..we could only stay 2 nights because my husband had to work..they could have & should have, charged us for the 3...because thats what their POLICY said. But guess what? they only charged us for the 2 because I explained the situation.

I had a bunch of ck to mail for bills, and I went to the grocery store to buy stamps and was planning on mailing them in a couple of days, when payday came..I left the envelopes on the counter by accident..Well a good samaritin "thought" they were doing me a favor and mailed them for me..All of those cks bounced!! The banks policy is to charge for each bounced ck. I went to the bank and expalined what happened, to see if they could help me out. Well they waived all of those fees for me even though it was in their POLICY to charge $35 for each of them!

This is called "Customer Service" This is going above and beyond for people. It's the "human connection". Sometimes you just have to be human and realize other people are human beings too. you have to be willing to bend the rules and help people out sometimes. Sure policies are put in place for good reasons, but they also can be over written.

I had a situation today where DCM is "contracted" for 1130-4 on fridays. However her employer wants her to work different hrs tomorrow, and so she asked if she could come 945-230 instead. Now if it were you, you probably would have told her no, or yes but she would have to pay double or some crazy thing because you are a serious businness woman, and your contracts cant be broken or it will just mess up your whole day...So of course I told her it was ok. She needs me at a different time, so what. Shes paying for the day anyway. She was very greatful and even hugged me..not that that was required or anything, but I'm sure she greatly appreciates me, and she will tell people good things about me.

This other mom in question was not trying to get out of paying tender hearts holidya pay, she only wanted to switch her days because her employeer changed hers! She is still paying for 3 days, and tender hearts is still getting her 3 days pay and her holiday off. What is the big deal? Seems like some providers think they are getting ripped off or taken advantage of only because they just want to work 2 days and get paid for 3 days... Sounds like greed to me...

[momofboys]

OMG!! Now we are comparing banks & multi million dollar corporations to a working mom who had a baby and is trying to make ends meet?? Obviously famlies need the money they make from work to support their famlies and pay their mortgages, and pay for their childs health care, food, diapers etc, otherwise I'm sure they would rather stay home raising their children themselves! All you guys want to do is make the poor mom "pay" through the nose. I cant believe how greedy people can be!! You are not a corporation, you do not "deserve" paid holidays, but you "want" them, and you want them at any cost! Th eonly reason why I charge for a holiday and I will say this again, is so that my pay will be the same and I wont be shorted when their is a holiday..thats it! It's not because I feel I am "entitled" to it, or "deserve" it, or because I want to make sure a family "pays" me for a holiday or I will feel cheated! My bills dont stop because there is a holiday or a mom takes a day off or has a vacation! I am not out to rip off anybody. You want to treated like you are being paid by some major company..maybe you ought to have these moms pay money towards your 401 k, pay your health insurance, pay for all of your vacation, sick and personal days, and give you a raise every 6 months....

The greed on this thread is extremely upsetting. TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED! Stop trying to take advantage of people who are working to pay their bills! You are not their responsibility! Take rsponsibility for yourself, and if you want all these benefits, maybe you should get a different job...

But daycare providers ARE working to pay their bills too. They are entitled to the same benefits if the parent's signed an agreement saying they would pay holidays. How is that greedy?

[momofboys]

Treat others the way you want to be treated works well on the playground, in personal relationships, and in public... in business it is treat others at fair market value, and don't sell yourself short unless you are independently wealthy.[/QUOTE]

ITA with this.

[kidkair]

I used to feel greedy or being picky about following my policies or even worse changing them to create less chaos in my life. Then I remembered that I need to take care of myself before I help others. I even put food on my plate before helping others get their food. I don't eat before they do but I serve myself first to remind myself that I have needs that need to be addressed as well. I am not here to bend over backward to help others out. That said I do make exceptions to my policy from time to time. I actually had a mom tell me to stop allowing her husband to get away with last minute schedule changes even though the changes were not a bother to me. So my advise is do what you will but remember to put your needs before the needs of your clients.

[missnikki]

Laundry duchess: No one here has accused anyone of "just being a babysitter". We all have our jobs, our businesses, and we all pay our taxes, and do this and that. No one is even talking about Christmas! None of that is the issue!

I understand that if you rent a hotel room, you have to pay weather you use the room for 3 hrs, or 24...I understand that if you order a meal you have to pay for the whole thing even if you dont eat it...I also get if you have a cell phone you pay for the service weather you use it or not..I get ALL of that type of analogy...

However I also get that if you need extra grocery bags, the store doesnt charge you for them, and I also get that a waitress will give you a free cup of coffee if you spill yours, etc etc. I totaly yget all of these type of analogies.

I went camping a couple of weeks ago and they had a 3 night min..we could only stay 2 nights because my husband had to work..they could have & should have, charged us for the 3...because thats what their POLICY said. But guess what? they only charged us for the 2 because I explained the situation.

I had a bunch of ck to mail for bills, and I went to the grocery store to buy stamps and was planning on mailing them in a couple of days, when payday came..I left the envelopes on the counter by accident..Well a good samaritin "thought" they were doing me a favor and mailed them for me..All of those cks bounced!! The banks policy is to charge for each bounced ck. I went to the bank and expalined what happened, to see if they could help me out. Well they waived all of those fees for me even though it was in their POLICY to charge $35 for each of them!

This is called "Customer Service" This is going above and beyond for people. It's the "human connection". Sometimes you just have to be human and realize other people are human beings too. you have to be willing to bend the rules and help people out sometimes. Sure policies are put in place for good reasons, but they also can be over written.

I had a situation today where DCM is "contracted" for 1130-4 on fridays. However her employer wants her to work different hrs tomorrow, and so she asked if she could come 945-230 instead. Now if it were you, you probably would have told her no, or yes but she would have to pay double or some crazy thing because you are a serious businness woman, and your contracts cant be broken or it will just mess up your whole day...So of course I told her it was ok. She needs me at a different time, so what. Shes paying for the day anyway. She was very greatful and even hugged me..not that that was required or anything, but I'm sure she greatly appreciates me, and she will tell people good things about me.

This other mom in question was not trying to get out of paying tender hearts holidya pay, she only wanted to switch her days because her employeer changed hers! She is still paying for 3 days, and tender hearts is still getting her 3 days pay and her holiday off. What is the big deal? Seems like some providers think they are getting ripped off or taken advantage of only because they just want to work 2 days and get paid for 3 days... Sounds like greed to me...

Banks, grocery stores, and restaurants do not have binding contracts with you. In fact, you make our point stronger using those examples, because those businesses are operating on return customers, and the more the merrier- not a limited amount of possible customers and revolving contracts. It behooves them to 'give a little' as doing so puts them at the advantage of impressing a customer that can choose which restaurant, grocery store or bank to use each time the need arises. The good far outweighs the bad on that one.

In our case, 'giving a little' means possibly going over ratio or reaching less than comfortable capacity. Why bother with a contract at all, if adjustments are allowed with no repercussions. In my case in particular, I have 11 families I am juggling schedules with, and schedule changes are simply not all that easy for me. I hold parents to contracts because if one thinks they can switch as needed, they all should be able to. That cannot happen here.

I'm not even attempting to address the 'changing hours on same day with notice' bit, because I think you are trying to assert that some of us wouldn't accomodate that... please....

All in all, we all run things differently and some are able to accomodate easier than others. Can we be a little less judgmental of each others' differences? Please?