Do You Offer Weekend Care?

[Controlled Chaos]

Could you get a few weekend care kids and take your days off during the week. Try to have the same days off as dh, and that can be your family time.

Have a Sunday and Monday off or Monday and Tuesday wouldn't be too bad. And you could enjoy some time off while still acommadting some difficult schedules.

[Unregistered]

I've been doing every other weekend for almost 3 years. It makes for some long weeks, but the pay is hard to turn down.
In my case, it's two girls from 530am-2pm. They are the same age as my daughters, and sweet kids. Counting the food reimbursements, I make over 700/month from the 4 days.
They love going weekend grocery shopping with us.

[Josiegirl]

If I was desperate I would. OR more likely, try to cut back expenses. I took 3 boys for Saturdays only, for maybe 6 weeks. They were rough kids, and the mom never did all that she was supposed to do, to get paperwork in, etc. One day she showed up with the boys and I didn't accept them because I didn't have the papers yet. She was not a happy camper. But the reason I let them go was because they were not nice kids, by any stretch of the imagination and I kept thinking 'I'm giving up Saturdays for this'??
In my situation(empty nester) I'd probably seek out weekend employment somewhere else at minimum wage.
It's definitely a personal choice. Knowing myself, I definitely need weekends to recharge from a house filled with kids.

[nannyde]

I did it for four years when I first started doing daycare.

I had pretty strict rules for it.

I wouldn't combine Monday through Friday kids schedules with any weekend day. It became a deal of constant requesting of schedule changes during the week and wanting the weekend for the same price.

I did not allow children up in the evening beyond seven p.m.. I didn't take kids who needed to stay up later. I didn't do the "stay up late because they don't have school" deal. I kept the same schedule I had for the evening kids during the week.

I didn't take infants that needed feeding from seven p.m. to whenever the parent picked up.

I didn't allow evening parents to go home after work and pick up in the morning. They had to pick up right after work. I had too many parents going out after work and then not showing up until the next morning or even afternoon because their alarm clock didn't go off or they couldn't hear the phone. If you let them go out after work and pick up the next morning you will have the kids for as long as they want you to have them the next day. Making them pick up after work could lead to them coming to pick up under the influence. If they brought the kids when they really weren't working and would just go out... you could end up with clients who came after partying.

The weekends are the most unstable shift. Most people don't want to work weekends and finding weekend work is the easiest for lower paying jobs. There was a lot of turnover in their work life which made for constant work schedule changes.

I found that most requests were for combination week day weekend schedules so I really limited the pool of potential clients. I could fill my Monday through Friday slots so there wasn't any reason to muddy the waters by adding the weekend to their possible M-F shifts.

I did not take the shifts of 10a-7p or 11a-8p. These kids took a half day slot and a half evening slot. I would rather have a full day kid and a full evening kid in the slot to make double the money. (I had this for my Monday through Friday kids too)

I did not take school agers who I didn't raise.

It was hard to find clients willing to pay more for weekend work. It stands to reason you would get more and some of them did get more because they worked the weekends but they wanted to keep that extra pay for working the weekends.

The advantages financially are huge. The time space percentage deduction dramatically increases which lowers tax liability. You only have to have one kid to make that happen.

The food program money was awesome too. In the early mid nineties I had 24/7 and my checks way back then were in the 1400 range. That helped a ton.

Once you get on your feet the weekend shift is the first to go just like any other worker.

It's very profitable with boundaries and limits on what situations you would take but it is a ton of work.

Edited to add: If you have kids who are in care or school Monday through Friday AND you have them on the weekend... you have kids who aren't with their parents awake very much. This leads to a lot of behavioral issues from both parents and kids. The parents can be highly indulgent and the children are starved for their parents attention. The evening weekend kids were easier because they spent the morning with the parents BUT sometimes they wanted a later bedtime because they wanted their kid to sleep in in the morning. They wanted to put them to bed when they got home so they could have "me" time. Just as it would a day shift kid... if the parents were away all day... the kids didn't want to go to bed when they got home from day care. The most successful ones were ones who kept their kid up a few hours after getting home and had a meal together and then went to bed together.

[Unregistered]

What About Exclusive weekend care

Does anyone offer exclusive weekend care? I was thinking it might be easier than doing weekday care, because I could charge more for less days. The only downside is there might be huge variability in need. this way in the summer when my kids are off school we can take vacations during the week and attractions are less busy during the week typically. Plus during the week when I'm raising my kids I won't be stressed and burnt. I'm single so not worried about how this might impact that, and things can always change. I know there is a need here for weekend care.

I had a daycare a few years ago, and as others have said, doing weekday care along with weekends burned me out, and I had to quit to reassess my business plans and what was important to me. As others have said, I think its best to keep your weekday spots separate from weekend spots, so that way one group of parents has to pay for m-f, and weekend spots are extra; otherwise you force yourself to work 7 days a week to make what someone else makes who only is open m-f. This is because parents will have schedules that include weekdays and weekend days.

I was thinking I could tell parents they can find someone else to do weekdays, and I can do their weekends and keep it separate.

[Blackcat31]

I am sure it would be highly unstable as I don't know anyone that just works weekends.

Plus the availability of low cost teenagers and free family as other options on the weekend would be more competition than I'd want.

Bottom line though is meeting the needs of your community.

[Snowmom]

Does anyone offer exclusive weekend care? I was thinking it might be easier than doing weekday care, because I could charge more for less days. The only downside is there might be huge variability in need. this way in the summer when my kids are off school we can take vacations during the week and attractions are less busy during the week typically. Plus during the week when I'm raising my kids I won't be stressed and burnt. I'm single so not worried about how this might impact that, and things can always change. I know there is a need here for weekend care.

I had a daycare a few years ago, and as others have said, doing weekday care along with weekends burned me out, and I had to quit to reassess my business plans and what was important to me. As others have said, I think its best to keep your weekday spots separate from weekend spots, so that way one group of parents has to pay for m-f, and weekend spots are extra; otherwise you force yourself to work 7 days a week to make what someone else makes who only is open m-f. This is because parents will have schedules that include weekdays and weekend days.

I was thinking I could tell parents they can find someone else to do weekdays, and I can do their weekends and keep it separate.

I think if you can afford the ups/downs of enrollment, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Thinking about the clientele who work weekends, the vast majority of those employees are on the lower end of the pay scale spectrum (as mentioned above).

That typically (not always) equals more issues with paying on time, job security, variable hours, income limits (state assistance).
If it were me, I think I'd rather offer babysitting services over weekend "daycare". People are more apt to pay the higher per hour range over regular daycare spots. But again, only if you can afford the inconsistent income.