How to Politely Turn Down a Family

[Lil_Diddle]

I do home childcare and have been fortunate enough to have all but one family I provide care for work in the school district. When I found out last May that one family with two boys were moving away, I was actively trying to fill the spots with more teacher's children. I did fill one of the spots. After no luck of finding more teacher's children I figured I'd take what I could find, but was hoping for older children as I liked the idea of my son who is one now being the youngest. Anyways, I did get a call last Tuesday someone asking questions for a one year old. we set up an interview for this Tuesday. Just today I received messages from two different families that the mother's are teachers, one of them with an older child which I'd prefer. I hate to back out on the first family that I have already scheduled an interview (they've basically already told me they want the spot) but the other family would be such a better fit with my personal preferences. Not sure what I should do???

[Michael]

Welcome to the forum. Here are some rejection letters to look at: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...jection+letter

[Alwaysgreener]

Interview both. Tell them that you will make your decision at the end of the week and you will let them know.
Don't burn any bridges, you never know who will be the right fit until you meet both families.

[Blackcat31]

Interview both. Tell them that you will make your decision at the end of the week and you will let them know.
Don't burn any bridges, you never know who will be the right fit until you meet both families.

[Pestle]

You never know who will be the right fit until you meet both families.

And sometimes people flake out after signing, too, or their kids turn out to be a bad fit. So after you interview everyone, give the rejected family the courtesy of a letter, but let them know you will reach out if your situation changes.

[daycarediva]

Interview both. Tell them that you will make your decision at the end of the week and you will let them know.
Don't burn any bridges, you never know who will be the right fit until you meet both families.

[Lil_Diddle]

Thank you for your answers. I did contact the family to let them know I had another family interested and wanted to interview both. It actually worked out that they found something else that fit their needs better. So really it all worked out and I didn't feel so bad.