How Do You Handle Variable Hrs?

[legomom922]

I don't mind working for only 4-5 hrs and getting the $35 which would be like $7-8/hr..That part is good money, and I don't think I could get away with charging her more. I also would not want the baby here all day from 630am-430pm for $35 either. LOL Those are my normal hours I am open so I dont want her to think she could use any of those hrs when she is only contracted 4/5 hrs/day anyway.

I guess the part that really is bugging me is that she thinks she can come anytime during the day on her contracted days without asking if it is ok or if I am available, when it is outside of her hrs that she wrote on her contract, even though I dont have contracted hrs. I have lots of appts, because I have many different medical issues and 1 DS has a ortho appt every month, and the other DS has piano, and appts, and I am finding it hard to make appts and tehn be able to keep them because she changes her hrs at the last minute. Not only is she a coach, but she recently added another job at the mall on weekends, and that is where she was suppose to work on monday with those goofy hrs 1130-530 because she didnt have to work at her coaching job that monday for whatever the reason...

I was thinking of telling her because of all the medical appts I have right now, that I can only do days that he is picked up by 130, and any day that she needs me for beyond those hrs, would be available only if I was able to, because I cant wait for her schedules to make appts, as some of my appts are made 3wks in advance. How would that sound? Would that be bad?

[dEHmom]

$***/XX hrs per week. If she uses them in 2 days, oh well. Simplest way. If she doesn't use them all, oh well.

I agree with you, $35/day for 4-5 hrs is great, but if she thinks she can use 8-10 hrs/day then you're working for free.

I'd just say you have this many hours for the week, at this amount. so 15 hours for $105/wk. Go over that it's overtime. You have other families and you could simply just fill that spot with a fulltimer.

Also tell her she cannot alter the hours without 48 hrs notice, and your approval. I mean if you have appointments scheduled around her hours, and then she goes and changes it, now you have to change your schedule again. Book the time and stick with it.

[kidkair]

I got rid of variable hours by demanding that every child is here by 9am and doesn't get picked up until 3pm. I still allow drop-in for SA but they have to follow the same schedule. I allow part time but the have to be full days. So in your case I would have the baby from 9 am until pick up 3 days a week. It allows us to stay on schedule and the kids respond to schedules much easier than chaos. I take personal days for medical appointments. In your case I would probably tell her in advance as to what days she could not leave him past 1:30pm.

[momofsix]

No she is not paying a full time spot. I charge by the day, no matter how many hrs they are here, 4 or 10, and she is contracted for 3 days a wk. Her hrs are crazy..sometimes I get a text at 1030at night telling me what time she will be here..She hardly knows from one day to the next.

I dont think she can possible think because I charge by the day, that I should be at her beck and call. She did sign a contract and pur hrs on there which they are supposed to be most of the time, but the most of the time hrs, change anyway. So for example, if she put on the contract drop off will be 630am and pick up will be 12pm, what happens is she will text me on sundat night and say she will need me from 9am-1pm instead. So I cant really go by what hrs shje put on the contract.

Last week she told me on wed that she needs me fri 9-130. I already had a appt scheduled for 230. She tells me at 130, that she is picking up at 2 instead. I told her I couldnt that I had a appt 45 min away, and she showed up at 2pm anyway and said she didnt get the text till 155...I had to resch my appt at the last minute..and not only that but the baby was packed up with his snowsuit, in his carrier, ready to go at 130! he had to sit like that for 30 minutes!

See, if she was paying for 5 days and using 3, I know I couldnt fit in another kid, because those would be her days, but her days change per semister, its not always m, th fri, or t, th, fri, and I have a dcg here on t,wed, so I cant really rent out my 2nd spot on tues, in case she needs it next semister..or I would have to charge her the ft rate of 175 to save it for her.

And if she is picking up at 130 everyday, I could still get an afternoon kid from 130-530...so it does mess me as far as squeezing in other kids too.

I told her I need to talk to her on Thurs about her schedule, but I dont know what to say...

Oh, sorry about that, I misunderstood. i would just be honest with her. Tell her you need to be able to schedule appointments and you count on her coming when she says she will. maybe she needs to redo her contracted hours? she should at least be able to give you a weeks heads up on any changes. Then if you know there are days when you will have appointments you can let her know that too. I feel your frustration!

[legomom922]

Update

So she gave me her new schedule, and its even worse now then it was before..ck this out her days have changed again!

January
mondays times unknown, wednesdays 9-2, thursdays times unknown

Feb
1st wk- wed & thurs time unknown
2nd wk-m-f 630-1230
3rd wk mon, wed, thurs time unknown
4th wk-winter break off

This is where is gets really werid:
March
1 wk tues maybe wed& thurs 630-1230 fri maybe (doesnt even know if she will need me or not???
2nd wk- m-th 630-4
3rd wk- m, tues maybe, wed-& thurs time unknown fri maybe
4th wk-mon- time unknown, tues 1-4, wed time unknown, thurs 1-4, fri time unknown
5th wk-mon time unknown, tues- maybe, wed & thurs time unknown

WTH? How can I plan anything with a wacko schedule like this? I cant even advertise for another kid because everything is always changing! She doesnt know the times of the days because she hasnt gotten her schedule yet, and the days which are maybes is because she doesnt have her schedule yet and she doesnt know what kind of weather they will have so doesnt know if she will have to coach or not!

Now you see how crazy her schedule is!! What do I do? I need to tell her something by mon, as I am off this week.

[marniewon]

I had to laugh at the part where you say "this is where it gets really weird" because what you have above that was already really weird to me!!!

Any chance you can replace this family with another one with a more regular schedule? That's the only advice I can think of. You are right, you can't get any other family in there with hours/days like that.

[Cat Herder]

Wow!! There is just no sane way to do that...:confused: I am very happy with my set operational hours, one-drop-off/one pick-up per family/per day and no drop off after 10am policies. I don't know how you get any free time doing it.....

Wishing you luck..... Hopefully she will get her ducks in a row, fast!!!! You deserve more consideration than that.

[SandeeAR]

I would tell her, I realize for you, your schedule is part time. However, it prevents me from taking another child to fill the other days/hours. So, therefore you are actually taking a full time spot on my end.

A full time spot is $$$ per week. However, since you won't be using me everyday, every week, I'll be happy to knock of the cost of 1 day per week.

If that doesn't work for you, I'm going to have to give you notice and fill the spot with a full time child. I hope you understand, I need a steady income, just as you do.

[momma2girls]

I would make sure she pays for a fulltime spot, or find another fulltimer!! If you have to be open everyday with that schedule, she has to pay for it!

[legomom922]

I understand that she may not get her schedule until late...but it really does affect me..How do you think other dcps would handle this? How would a center handle this? Some days I only have the baby for 3/hrs, yet I am still getting my full $35/day, so that is a plus for me. I dont want to say he must be here from 9-3, because hek, if I can get my full days pay for 3/hrs, who would want him him for 6?

My biggest issue is that I cannot advertise my open days that she does not use, because it changes by the month and its really hard to make appts! I was thinking of telling her she is going to have to pay the FT rate $175/wk, but is that really fair if she only needs me for 15/hrs 1 week and 24/hrs the next week? Or should i switch her over to an hrly of $8/hr? Thats good with the weeks that require more hrs, but it would **** the weeks that he is here 12! I also thought of maybe doing a variable schedule rate where she would pay more per day because of her schedule, like instead of $35/day make it $40 or $45/day...but that might scare her away too..I also dont want to bbe put in teh situation where I say ok you have to pay FT rate for m-f and then she brings him anyway just to get her moneys worth, because right now with her schedule, I get fridays off and my other pt girl is here only on tues/wed.

I am sooo confused! She is a great client and NEVER balks at my policies and pays me all my vaca days holidays etc, so its also the type of client we wish for, but not with this scheduling problem!!

Any other thoughts?

[KEG123]

Maybe say... "For any days that I am to provide care, but you do not know the hours at least one week in advance, then those "unknown" days I will charge more (insert amount $___)" Does that make sense? I know what I'm trying to say at least... haha

[laundrymom]

I would tell her you don't have the availability for that varied of hours. Tell her since she has no idea when, if, or for how long she will be using a slot the only way you would be able to insure another child didn't take the slot is to charge her full time.

[Blackcat31]

Okay, just for the fun of it I called our local YMCA childcare center and a well-known child care center chain and asked them what their rates would be for a schedule like the one you listed......BOTH places said that if a definite schedule could not be given with exact time for d/o and p/u then the full time rate would be charged...which at both places was a full week rate. One place said if times could be given and I went over given times or used more that I would be charged a "over time" or "additional fee" for that time which amounted to like double the normal part-time rates. BOTH places suggested I either pay the full week rate to ensure availability of space or to hire an individual who is capable of being flexible; such as a nanny.

So I am wondering why you don't just charge her the full time rate. Make your appointments as necessary; let her know in advance when your appointments are and stick to it. For example if you have an appoinment on Thursday at 3 tell her. If she comes late or disregards any time you tell her you need to leave or be gone then term her like any other family who disregarded your policies.

I also asked 3 provider's in my area and they said same thing.....full week rate. NOT anyone's problem except the mom's that HER schedule is sooooo wacky.

[DBug]

If you like having the Fridays off, why not contract her for Monday to Thursday at a set rate for a specific number of hours/day (anything above would be overtime), and then offer a higher drop-in rate if/when she does need you on a Friday?

[MarinaVanessa]

I must say that it seems like a lot of trouble to me. The way I do it is like this: I figured out what I wanted to charge weekly for a full-timer up to 50 hours a week and set that as my base pay. I then figured out my PT rate up to 29 hours) by increasing the fee a bit. Drop-ins pay an even higher rate ... so in essence the less they stay the more they pay, this helps make up for not being able to fill in the gaps that pt's leave.

For children with variable hours I usually I require the childs schedule in writing two weeks in advance but I do have a DCM that doesn't know what her schedule will be like (she's a tiler) and so she pays a higher rate ($20 a week more) than other FT families for the inconvenience of having to always leave an entire slot open all of the time. This extra fee guarantees that her child will always have a slot reserved for him no matter what time he gets dropped off or picked up (but never longer than 10 hours a day).