When Should I tell the parents?

[Unregistered]

Hi everyone! I'm planning on not doing my daycare anymore and would like for the last day to be before December 23rd. My contract says I will give 2 weeks notice, but I would like to give them a little more notice than that. When would you tell the parents?

[Pestle]

The earliest that I could tell them and still afford to immediately be without pay until my next job's first paycheck came in. Just in case.

[MunchkinWrangler]

I would be careful with how early you tell them. There was a thread on here that mentioned that within a few weeks of a notification of closure everyone had found alternate care. The provider still needed the income for the couple months that she would've been available.

I would wait at least until 2 weeks before or maybe 3 to 4 weeks, especially if you need the income.

[Play Care]

There have been many providers on here who gave too much notice to be "nice."
Either everyone left as soon as they got the news, or they stayed, but stopped following the rules and behaving badly until the situation disintegrated and then the provider was no longer "nice"

I would not give notice until I had another position lined up and was starting it as soon as I was done with dc.

[daycarediva]

Give them two weeks. That is what they would give you. UNLESS you don't care about lowering your numbers/income. I had a provider friend close recently. She was pregnant and originally anticipated staying open afterwards. Then her mom offered to watch LO and she got a great job offer when she was 7m pregnant. Her job was waiting for her after she had the baby/she would be replacing a woman retiring so timing was an issue. She told all of her families, gave them 6-8 weeks, and all but ONE pulled in 2 weeks. She was SHOCKED, and then there was a HUGE back and forth with lawyers involved because she didn't want to remain open for another month for ONE family.

It was a HUGE loss of income and she ended up getting a temp job in the meantime.

[Ariana]

You are contractually obligated to give 2 weeks notice and based on experience as well as reading some experiences on here, parents will not hesitate to only give you that amount of notice when leaving. I understand wanting to be "nice" but you are not required to be nice, only professional so I would stick to my contract. People might be angry but they will be angry either way.

I had a family who was with me for nearly 4 years. They gave me two weeks notice right before Christmas! Meanwhile I had known they were leaving because their 5 years old told me months before.

[MunchkinWrangler]

You are contractually obligated to give 2 weeks notice and based on experience as well as reading some experiences on here, parents will not hesitate to only give you that amount of notice when leaving. I understand wanting to be "nice" but you are not required to be nice, only professional so I would stick to my contract. People might be angry but they will be angry either way.

I had a family who was with me for nearly 4 years. They gave me two weeks notice right before Christmas! Meanwhile I had known they were leaving because their 5 years old told me months before.

Not to hijack but I totally agree. A family I've had since before I was licensed pulled, they gave proper notice but did not tell me that they were on a waiting list for a center. This really showed me how much my care meant to them and the fact that if they had any problems, which they keep saying that they don't, they didn't communicate at all with me.

Another one put in notice because they didn't like my illness policy, funny how they had care lined up immediately.

[Melissa67]

how about the first of the Dec, that's plenty of time

[Unregistered]

Op here.

Thank you everyone! Now that I think about it, is it mean for me to term them right before Christmas? Or am I just overthinking this way too much?

[Play Care]

Op here.

Thank you everyone! Now that I think about it, is it mean for me to term them right before Christmas? Or am I just overthinking this way too much?

Why would it be mean? They would give you notice in a heartbeat, at any time, if it was a better move for them/their family.
Of course they'd be "so sorry" and allow you to use them as a reference
This is business, it's not personal.
Or, as I like to say "business is business and sometimes it's ugly"

[Controlled Chaos]

I would tell them when you come back from Thanksgiving break. That is about 4 weeks. I would word it as "I have decided not to reopen after Christmas due to personal/whatever reasons." There is no mean or nice when it comes to this. They will find care. I only say give them 4 rather than 2 weeks notice as many places will be closed quite a bit during the month of December so it might be a little trickier scheduling tours, but 4 weeks will be plenty of time.

[AmyKidsCo]

Don't tell them any earlier than you're prepared for them to leave. Personally I'd give 4 weeks, but I'd expect most to be gone before my final date.

[Mike]

As a few have said, give earlier notice if you want to be nice and make sure they have time to find a replacement, but don't give notice before you can afford to because they just might all be gone 2 weeks later.

[Mike]

Being before Christmas isn't that big a deal. They'll probably have holidays too, so that means more time to find alternate care.

[happymom]

I agree with AmyKidsCo.

Even though I loved my daycare so much and was so happy there, when I was given notice I felt it was my best interest to enroll my kids elsewhere as soon as they had an opening.