What To Do? Overtime/Rate Question

[SilverSabre25]

Dcg has been with me over a year now. Great family, pay on time, love me and let me know it. She comes three days a week--usually 10-5.

Couple months back, dcd got a new position at his company that requires him to work late nights twice a month--the 16th and the last day of the month. He sprang this on me kind of last minute once and I just said, "okay" without thinking about it. These days don't often fall when she's here, so it largely isn't an issue, but it does happen sometimes.

Well, now that we're a couple months into this, I am majorly starting to regret saying yes without making arrangements for extra pay to compensate for the extra time. He just called to remind me that today is one of those days (yep, I knew it already) and said the absolute latest it will be is 9 or 9:30!!! Um...ack? My DD goes to bed at freaking 8 or 8:30! That's not very likely to happen when she has a friend here!! Bloody h-e-l-l that's a late night for me, for DD...and not apparently for dcg who usually goes to bed at 10. It won't necessarily BE that late, but I'm really annoyed that I'm not getting paid for this overtime...even if it isn't that late.

How can I go about adding an overtime clause to my contract with them? What do I say, how much should I charge, how do I bring it up?

[TBird]

Sorry I can't be of any help. I haven't had to implement something after I've already said yes, but I can't wait to hear how it's done. Thank you for asking the question!

[squareone]

Are you wanting to tell them that you can't do it anymore or do you want to just have them pay extra?

If it's the former, I would tell them (the morning after the next late night) that you gave it a try but find that's it's not working for you. Ask if they have a friend or relative or backup person that can pick up dcg on those 2 nights a month.

You could charge $10/hr overtime for any hours after their normal pickup time. Hopefully it will be too expensive and they will make other arrangements on their own

Where is the mom? Unless she works nights, why can't she pick up on the nights that dad works late?

[SilverSabre25]

Are you wanting to tell them that you can't do it anymore or do you want to just have them pay extra?

If it's the former, I would tell them (the morning after the next late night) that you gave it a try but find that's it's not working for you. Ask if they have a friend or relative or backup person that can pick up dcg on those 2 nights a month.

You could charge $10/hr overtime for any hours after their normal pickup time. Hopefully it will be too expensive and they will make other arrangements on their own

Where is the mom? Unless she works nights, why can't she pick up on the nights that dad works late?

I'm mostly wanting to get compensated for the extra time, the extra food, the extra hassle...

Mom works 4 10 hour days, and I know she works as late as 8:30 or 9; she might have required overtime sometimes, too, I don't know for sure. Mom drops off around 9:30/10 AM so I know her day goes pretty late into the evening.

$10/hour is what I was thinking would be fair...since I'm basically babysitting and that's what a regular ol' babysitter gets paid I think.

[Meyou]

I think I would tack on another daily fee for each evening just to make it easy for everyone.

[daycare]

I would tell them that when you agreed to it that it was your fault for not asking how late he would be picking up DCG, you never thought it would be that late.. Inform him that the fee he is currently paying only covers his curent set hours of 10-5:00 and that you charge $10.00 per hour after your daycare closes 5:00PM. I would rewrite the contract to state this and make sure that they pay you at pick up or in advance.

I am sure that they would understand.. DCD wouldnt work more hours with out more benefits why should you?

[DBug]

I had this exact issue happen, although the hours weren't quite so late. But after a few times of another parent being late and paying the late fee ($1/minute past closing), I started to realize that it really wasn't fair for one family to have the privilege of picking up late without paying anything extra (even though that's what we contracted for), and for all of the other families to have to pay.

So I went to the family and told them just that: that it just wasn't fair, and that I hadn't really thought it through initially. I asked them to compromise with me by paying the hourly rate for any overtime on top of the daily rate, instead of $1/minute, and surprisingly, they were quite happy to do it. It had to be alot easier for them then having to find an evening sitter, figure out transportation, etc., etc.

Definitely ask them to pay for your time. Figure out what you think is fair, and just be honest with them. I would say there's a very good chance they'll go for it, especially when they consider the alternative of having to find someone else to do those late nights!