5:30 am Letting Go

[nikia]

So I think I need to let the family go who comes at 5:30 am. I started nursing school and doing this 12 hours a day plus taking care of my own family and having my husband working out of town most of the month has proven to be a bit to much for me. I stay up late to do everything I need to for school and then cleaning for the next day. I'm exhausted.

They are problems with this family as far as them paying, respect things like that. I have stuck it out because dcm works with two other families I have and was referred to me by them. I worry that by letting one go they all might leave. I'm not sure if they are all really good friends or not.

So how would you guys do this? Do I say that 5:30 drop off is not working in my schedule anymore? How can I handle it the other families start asking questions and get upset that I let the one family go? Dcm told me the other day she has a half of a point left until she loses her job I am sure that will happen soon so would you wait until that happened and they no longer need me? Thanks for any help I don't want to make other families upset but something has give and it can't be my own kids or schooling

[Cat Herder]

Tell her the truth.

You have finally been able to enroll in Nursing School, something you have planned/worked hard to be able to do, and the early hours are too demanding on you. You feel this is important for your family's future and you will allow her **** weeks to find alternative care. Nobody could fault you for that.

DCM knows that 5:30am is a ridiculous schedule for a mother of small children unless DH is the primary caregiver. She is responsible for her life choices, not you. Nobody is legally required to give birth. You should not feel guilty for making positive choices for your family.

Several of my DCM's are friends outside of here and when I asked one to find alternative care recently, I was nervous about the same thing (not nervous enough to not do it). It turned out they were happy she was gone since it seemed to be a constant drama for them and they enjoy the peace, now. "Girl World" has not changed much since high school. ::::

Congratulations, by the way!!

[Abigail]

What happens if she offers to have other arrangements until your normal later time? LOL, ultimately, is it the early hours or just everything in general where you want to term? Would you be willing to change her hours to start later if a babysitter or a relative was able to bring them to you at your open time?

[lvt77]

I just went through the same thing. I am going back to school and could no longer do the 12 hour days....here is part of the letter that I sent to the parents dec 31...


Some of the other changes you will see are the hours of operation that the daycare is open. The new hours will be from 7:45am to 6:00pm Monday – Friday. However, you will still be set in your set times stated in your contract. I know that this will affect some of the families and this was not an easy decision for me to make. At this time I am working over 80 hours per week and I will be going back to night school to continue my degree in teaching, which would make it impossible for me to sustain the current schedule that we have now. The new hours will being February 1, 2011. I hope that I can help make arrangements for all families to be able to work with these new hours.

3 of my families were affected by this and none of them left. They did not want to upset their child..... I got lucky

[Daycare_Mama]

I think you should just let her go and tell her you have too much on your plate right now.

I highly doubt your other families would leave just because you term her. After all, this isn't junior high where if one of your friends is mad at some girl, you can't talk to her either.

These other families clearly like you as a provider (or they wouldn't be there) and they're not going to uproot their child's schedule/routine and put themselves in a position to have to look for other care themselves just because their friend can't go there anymore.

I think you are okay to give her the boot! 5:30am makes me cringe just thinking about it.