Panicking About Closing

[mrsp'slilpeeps]

I am Having panic attacks about giving my months notice in july.

I have really great families, and im so worried about making them mad, or disappointing them. We live in a small town so its not hard to run into them.

I have so much guilt and worry about this. How do I make this easier for the parents?

[NightOwl]

Be prepared. Check into openings with other providers so the dcps will have leads immediately. And give them plenty of notice. I`d give a month. Maybe you could offer to let them go down to part time the last week or two before closing so they could come to you a couple of days and to their new providers the other days. That may help ease the transition for all of you.

[NoMoreJuice!]

Be prepared. Check into openings with other providers so the dcps will have leads immediately. And give them plenty of notice. I`d give a month. Maybe you could offer to let them go down to part time the last week or two before closing so they could come to you a couple of days and to their new providers the other days. That may help ease the transition for all of you.

Great advice! When I closed my daycare to move to a new city, I found tons of openings with providers that had excellent reputations, and that helped a LOT! I gave 30 days notice.

[AmyKidsCo]

Be prepared. Check into openings with other providers so the dcps will have leads immediately. And give them plenty of notice. I`d give a month. Maybe you could offer to let them go down to part time the last week or two before closing so they could come to you a couple of days and to their new providers the other days. That may help ease the transition for all of you.

Definitely great advice! And don't start getting rid of things or rearranging until the day you close, otherwise parents will think you're mentally checked out already and don't care about their child.

[childcaremom]

I gave a month's notice when I closed. Put out feelers to see who had openings. Gave my families lots of options.

I did start to get rid of stuff, though. Only my indoor stuff. We spend most of the time outside so it wasn't an issue and parents couldn't see the daily depletion. It didn't affect our day, at all, so I didn't feel bad.

Try not to stress. Once you tell the parents it will feel 100% better.

[Play Care]

How do you plan on letting them know? I would think a heartfelt letter to the families following up verbally would be the way to break it to them. You can say everything you want to in the letter without worry about messing it up, or how the parent will react with you *right* there, etc. It also gives the parents time to process the information without you *right* there. ::

I would be positive and professional even if you do have a few upset parents - though I would think most would be understanding and happy for you. If you behave as though this is a wonderful, positive thing, they will take your lead, usually. And when you see them out and about, kill them with kindness. I also live in a small town and see retired providers out and about and this seems to work for them.

Good Luck!