I Can't Decide How To Charge For Daycare

[Hazel]

You need to take some time off!! I close for every holiday possible. I close for black friday. This year im closed Dec 24th-Jan 9th!!! Not a single complaint from parents. They get the calendar about a year in advance. If anything comes up, I will close but I have only had to do that twice. This year im closed for about 28 days!

I know I need to take some time. I DO close for the major holidays.
Memorial Day
Labor Day
July 4th
Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday )
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Years day
Close at 3 pm in Halloween and New Years eve.
But even for this past Friday people were scrambling when they saw the reminder that I was closing at 3 for Halloween. I'm thinking "HELLO!! I do it EVERY YEAR AND its in your contract!" I thought I was just being nice putting up a reminder but thank my lucky stars I did! Most people had no clue! Ugh

[jenboo]

I know I need to take some time. I DO close for the major holidays.
Memorial Day
Labor Day
July 4th
Thanksgiving (Thursday and Friday )
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
New Years day
Close at 3 pm in Halloween and New Years eve.
But even for this past Friday people were scrambling when they saw the reminder that I was closing at 3 for Halloween. I'm thinking "HELLO!! I do it EVERY YEAR AND its in your contract!" I thought I was just being nice putting up a reminder but thank my lucky stars I did! Most people had no clue! Ugh

I give out 3 copies of my closures for the following year in december (i pre-plan my year out). Then I remind parents of the closures that month in my news letter and verbally remind them. Then I post it on the door the week of (before if it is a long closure).
It works great for me! I have only been open a little over a year though but so far so good!

[Heidi]

So...I'm considering my options:

I currently charge $120 per week for 4 days, $140 for 5. This year, I got New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Good Friday, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and "Black" Friday off, plus 5 paid personal/training days. I am gone for 2 weeks at Christmas, and that is all unpaid (it would be paid Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, but since I am gone entirely, I am waving that).

I would like to budget in the holidays plus 10 paid days off. A total of 18 days.

I have 2 4-day a week families and 3 5 day-a-week families. They currently pay one week in advance, but part of me would like to go to monthly tuition because it's more convenient for me (plus, I can use MMK auto-pay then, I think). Would a small "discount" be incentive for that?

Would you give a schedule towards the end of each month, and just have them pay $30 per day for every day I'm open? What about the 4 day-ers? I would probably never take her day off (Tuesdays). The other family will be gone for 3 months, so I may just leave their's as-is for now.