Tweet
I have a family that comes here and they have a 2 year old little boy that comes here full time and they just announced to me a few days ago that they were expecting in Oct! I asked today if they were planning on sending the baby to daycare and she said yes and that it would be probably sometime in January when they would need to start and asked if that would work for me! I told her I believe so, but need to check it out to make sure! How do you guys go about this, like holding a spot for her and stuff like that?? I am at a loss as how to handle this! I mean their 2 year old comes here full time so do I just not accept any other kids and hold that infant spot for her with no incentive other than their 2 year old comming here and hope that they still plan to come here with the new baby or how does this all work???
-
-
yeah thats a long way from now. are you at capacity at this moment? -
That's a tough one for me too. Do you happen to have anyone going off to school in the fall?Comment
-
I did hold one for a family. I found out when they enrolled here in October that they would need infant care in May. I had a spot become available in April so I held it no problem. They aren't changing their mind, but I figured if they did then I have a fairly long waiting list and should easily fill the 2 spots. It would have been different, I suppose, if the spot had been open longer. I do try to fill spots with kids whenever I can (we all do-that didn't come out right-I meant that for example if I had an infant that wanted to start in 6 months, I'd try to fill the spot now with a 6 month old so that he/she would be 1 when the other person wanted to start. Does that make sense?)
I guess it all depends on if you are full now...Comment
-
I do have an opening so it really isn't a big deal, but I get calls for infants all of the time! I am not looking at adding an infant right now as I just had a baby myself in Dec and just want him to be my little one for now!! I have him he is 4months, two 2 year olds. three 3 year olds, two 4 year olds and then once school gets out I will have a 6 year old a 7 year old and possibly a 9 year old! I can have 12 kiddos total! But when the baby will start I will DEFINATELY have room! I just don't know how everyone goes about this like do you charge anything to hold a spot, do you just let them have a spot and save it for them since their 2 year old comes here full time? Plus once maternity leave for her comes around I will need to know how to handle that!! : )Comment
-
When should I have them sign a contract and get everything set up??Comment
-
If you want to keep the 2 year old, you pretty much have to take the baby... I don't know anyone who wants their children in two different spots.... here is what I did when one of my existing families had a baby. I didn't have her pay to hold the spot, I just decided that I had it, I would save it for her. It ended up being a long time because she told me right away when she found out she was expecting. I had a few moments of "Man, I could have more income with this spot" but they were a good family, and I knew she told me early because she so badly wanted to stay here. About 6 weeks before her due date, I gave her a letter explaining how Maternity Leave would work, and also gave her all the paperwork I would need on the new baby, including an updated contract. In the updated contract, I had a spot for both children, details about the leave, the new rates for the baby, etc. I told her I had to have the contract back in two weeks, and that I had to have ALL the other paperwork completed and returned on the baby's first day, or before.
For Maternity Leave I told her she could bring her 1 year old, or keep her home, it was up to her. She had to pay me a regular rate when DCG was here, and 1/2 rate when DCG wasn't here. She could use her "free" days at her discretion during this time. I also told her that this all ended at 6 weeks.. meaning after six weeks, it was full pay no matter what. She ended up bringing DCG about half the time, and it wasn't a problem. Looking back, I lost A LOT of money holding that spot for almost a year, but it was a good family, and in my small town, midwest part of the world, people can't afford to pay much to hold spots. So I did what I felt I needed to do to keep the family... just cover yourself as far as what's expected. This mom did end up taking 8 weeks off work, but when the six weeks was up she just brought DCG back everyday since she had to pay full rates anyway.Comment
-
I charge half rate to hold spots.Comment
-
I am in a similar bind, except I dont have a spot for the new baby that is coming. the family already has 2 kids here.
I am at my max on the days that they want and they only want PT care. I don't even offer care to infants and still am not sure what i am going to do about telling the DCP that one I dont have a spot and two I dont offer infant care due to my preschool program.
I think that if it were me and i really trusted the family, I would hold it for them, but then again anything can happen and you will the one left out with a LOT of pay that has been lost.
Maybe you can do the math and see how much money you would be losing if you held the spot and then decide if its worth it..Comment
-
Sooooo this is what I have been thinking and want your opinions!! : ) K I am going to tell her that I will hold the spot for a certain amount of money - haven't come up with the amount yet! I am going to tell her that the money can be used towards their tuition once baby starts comming and if something in the mean time happens or changes I keep the money!! What do you think of that???Comment
-
it worth the shot... I think that you really need to stress that you will need to turn other business away in order to keep the spot for them which means a loss of income.Comment
-
Xy94r9
That can get tricky. I had two families that wanted to send there babies here after having there older sibs. They both acted suprised that I would charge them a deposit but at that time I was having to turn other babies away knowing i would have them soon. I felt so much better when they both turned in ther deposits! What I usually do is wait until the baby is born and about a month or two out from start date firm everything up, otherwise thats a long time to hold a spot unless she wants to pay to hold the spot for that long! Its not a spot taken until you get that deposit.Comment
-
I had a family pay...
I had a family do this and they offered to pay full price for the spot because I told her that I couldnt promise I would have an opening by then (it was like 6 months away!)... So they offered to pay and I accepted it. They paid for each week full price until the baby came.Comment
-
My deposit policy is I will only hold a spot for 3 months maximum. If a parent would want me to hold it for longer than that, I require a $25 a week non refundable holding fee. The 3 month deposit is equivalent to 1 months care...then they are paid the first 2 weeks and the last 2 weeks of care.
Even for a current parent, I wouldn't hold a spot for more than 4 1/2 months...3 months before due and 6 weeks postpartum without them paying the additional holding fee.
I've seen way too many scenarios change the outcome...premature delivery, longer time off, baby has problems requiring more care, mom decides not to go back to work, layoffs, job terminations, etc.
Be sure no matter what you decide that you note...any and all deposits are non-refundable. They want to pay you to hold a spot, you do just that, hold the spot. If they change their mind, you aren't out any of the money they already paid you.
Comment
-
nonrefundable
And I made sure they knew it was non-refundable so in case they changed their minds - I would not have to pay them back.Comment
Comment