Do You Close For Snow?

[SandeeAR]

I don't close, put don't usually have kids. 2 of my 3 offices usually close and the 3rd, Mom's a nurse and usually still has to go in, the Dad's employer usually closes too, so he stays with the kids.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

We've been wondering about the same thing. Does anyone have any suggestions for our case: The daycare is in a seperate building from owner's house. When it snows I usually can't get there, so the owner either has all the kids by herself (which makes for a crazy day for her! Not only does she have the usual kids, she has school agers also. Some of them never come on snow days, but others do, still making it a very crazy day for her, even if she is still in ratio).

But other times, she has only 2 or 3. Which seems like a waste of untilities and food for only 2 or 3 kids to spend all day long at the daycare building. And a boring day too, since it's just toddlers those days, doing their own little thing. plus her own school agers have to spend their day cooped up in daycare all day when they could have been at home enjoying their snow day, and her with them.

So in these two cases, what would you suggest? If she closed without pay, she'd be losing a lot of money. keep in mind, Some days she has too many to close, but she doesn't have my help to take care of them all day either, so that's a LOT of extra stress on her... and some days it's a waste to watch just 2-3 children and using up all that food, heat, and electricity...and the main thing is, her own children are BORED being cooped up there with just 2 or 3 toddlers.

[Abigail]

Jen, I would go along with the school closings and not charge for those days. It's not fair to you for only ONE child. I would offer assistance to that family to help find a backup sitter if they didn't have one, but would not stay open. I'm sure they have a relative or friend or school-age teen who wants some extra cash.

Preschool, I would talk to the person you work with and weigh the pro's and con's. It seems like most of the time many of the daycare kids can make it on bad weather days so it wouldn't make sense to close. Maybe she could find a nearby backup helper for the days that schoolage is with her when you can't make it and it will be easier on her.