2 Kids 1 Spot - Help Me Solve Please

[Baby Beluga]

This may be long, please bear with me I have one spot open for August and two potential people to fill it.

First family: Good family. Sibling of long time (now aged out) child. Was with me for about 4 years and are pretty familiar with how my program works. Have been waiting to enroll sibling until he was 12 months then enrollment was pushed back until August because I decided to keep numbers low due to health reasons/appointments/procedures with my own son. DCM understood this and wants to enroll child in August 2 days a week. Schedule may increase of mom's work schedule increases. Will be 18 months in August and just started independently standing. I do not enroll non-walking children and I am not sure he will be walking by the beginning of August.

Second family: Interview is tonight. I don't know much other than child is 3, has an 8 year old sibling and mom is a teacher. Mom is looking for care in August when she returns to teaching. She is seeking full time care.

It is my policy that families with full time schedules take precedence over those with part time schedules. If you were in my shoes would you:

*grant the first family a part time schedule since there is history there and advertise for a another part timer and enjoy low days.

*give first family a chance to go full time and if they don't want to offer drop-in days if someone is absent?

A few things to consider: I have a 3 month old and a 5 year old who is starting K this year. There will be growing pains for sure. Also, if I enroll first family I will lose about $360 per month. That's a lot to lose.

Of course right now all of this is speculation based on how the interview this evening goes.

[bklsmum]

Depending on how tonight goes...I would first offer first family full time or at least more than 2 days a week to make the loss not as big.

[Cat Herder]

* I would offer full-time to 12mo. If declined, I'd then offer full-time to 3yo. If declined, I'd then offer part-time to 12mo and fill other 3 days with another part-timer.

Full-Time > Part-Time always, nothing personal about business decisions.

I would prefer a younger child for fewer behavioral issues and longer term income.

In your shoes, however, the 3yo would be more independent allowing more resources for your 3mo.

[Mike]

If you think you can fairly easily fill some missing days with other part-timers, I would figure out the minimum required from dcm1, let her know, and let her decide if she wants the spot. If she can't afford your minimum requirements, business says take #2.

[AmyKidsCo]

Here are my thoughts:
- The first family wants PT, but if the teacher wants "off" during the summers the income could even out.
- It might be easier to fill in the other PT days than to fill a summer spot. (And you said they might want more days.)
- You already know the first family is "good" so there's less chance of issues there.
- The first child is younger so you'll probably have him longer, rather than just 1 year before the 3 yr old goes to 4K.

Personally, I'd rather go with a younger one I can "mold" and who will be with me longer, rather than an older one who already has bad habits and will only be with me a year. Especially if I know the parents will be supportive.

[lpperry]

I would take the first family for sure! You know that you like them and you know they will be with you long term. The other family may not enroll or may be a nightmare. This little guy--even if he isn't walking yet by August will likely be very soon so I'd definitely take an older crawler.

As for the decrease in pay, I'd find another part timer. I liked part timers a lot! I made more with them bc daily rate was higher so if I had a 2 day and 2 day it equaled a 5 day. If I had 2 day and 3 day, I made more.

[trix23]

I take full time families over part time families. But if I liked this particular one, I would offer them a spot but at FT rate. If no, then offer the other child the FT spot.

[Baby Beluga]

So interview tonight went really well. This DCM was almost a replica of my current teacher DCM. Same hair, glasses, diction, mannerisms, etc. It made me feel like I knew her already. The only red flag (if you can call it that) I saw was potential DCB has allergy induced asthma. It is controlled through meds at home but I would need to have a rescue inhaler here. Other than that there were zero read flags. They really did seem like a wonderful family.

I'm torn. They only need 4 days, which would leave me being able to offer 1 day to the first family. I do have concerns about him not walking yet though. He has spent all of his time with grandma or mom and dad. That combined with him not walking yet makes me wonder if he is held all the time. Mom also said he has no experience with utensils. I just get the feeling he is super babied or is super lazy.

[Mike]

If you're not certain about the child, why not a 1 week trial period? That might make the decision a lot easier.

[trix23]

That is quite odd that he's not even trying to walk at his age. I agree that doing a 1-2 week "working interview" would be helpful.

[Baby Beluga]

Everyone has a 2 week trial period here. This little dude would too

It looks like the interview from Friday will not be going with me. Dad was concerned about next summer since mom (a teacher) has it off. I told them they could continue to pay tuition and child could attend or they could withdrawal and if the spot was still available come August they could re-renroll. That answer wasn't liked.

[trix23]

Teachers get paid every month of the year, so why should they expect to not pay daycare? Lol

[Baby Beluga]

Teachers get paid every month of the year, so why should they expect to not pay daycare? Lol

It's an irritating mentality, that's for sure. Everyone wants low ratio but doesn't want to actually pay for their spot.

[trix23]

I've run into that issue too. You can't have both....

[Blackcat31]

This may be long, please bear with me I have one spot open for August and two potential people to fill it.

First family: Good family. Sibling of long time (now aged out) child. Was with me for about 4 years and are pretty familiar with how my program works. Have been waiting to enroll sibling until he was 12 months then enrollment was pushed back until August because I decided to keep numbers low due to health reasons/appointments/procedures with my own son. DCM understood this and wants to enroll child in August 2 days a week. Schedule may increase of mom's work schedule increases. Will be 18 months in August and just started independently standing. I do not enroll non-walking children and I am not sure he will be walking by the beginning of August.

I am curious...is the reason enrollment was pushed back (in mom's eyes) because of your wish to have low numbers or because the 12 month old was not walking at that time?

I assume you discussed enrollment at that time with that mom as you had to have at some time notified her of pushing back enrollment. I am just curious what the mom thinks the reason is.


My advice is trial period with both.