FT To PT Family - Lose Vacation Days?

[jojosmommy]

Recently had a family ask to go PT for the summer. I agreed but said I would have to write up a new contract. Should I make them use up their vacation days first or should I allow them to keep their vacation days at the FT spot? I give 10 for FT and 5 for PT. She will be back FT in September.

I have a feeling I am going to get ripped off on Memorial day, 4th of July (and 5th which I close as a holiday) and Labor day b/c she is going to want to schedule her 3 days of care around those days and not pay me for them. I also have 1 personal day in June which I assume she will try to schedule the 3 days around so she doesn't have to pay me for that either. I allow parents to not pay me for holidays IF they want to burn a vacation day. This mom has done this in the past but I doubt she would want to do that now.

I have maternity scheduled in October and she has already asked if she "Has to pay for that too." Which I replied, "one week paid since I haven't used that vacation time. Unless you have time left to use of your own." She seemed irritated.

[Lilbutterflie]

Well, this might get complicated but here's what I'd do.

You say you allow 10 vacation days per year for FT. That's 0.83 vacation days per month they can "accrue". I would treat this as a vacation bank. Much like vacation time is given to employees with many companies. They've had 5 months of accrual thus far, giving them 4.15 days. How many have they used this year thus far?

In the summer, they go PT. This means 5 vacation days per year. That's 0.42 vacation days per month. So in the months they go PT, they accrue just .42/month to add to their bank.

[bice99]

I have several teacher's families who pay to "hold" their spot over the summer. They pay 1/2 rate and get to come 1/5 of their normal time as a courtesy so their child and I still know each other come fall. I added to my new handbook that they may not use vacation weeks during holding periods (maternity leave either). I'm already cutting them a deal for the summer.

[Abigail]

I guess I would try to figure out what you want to offer for days of free care. Do you have per calendar year or per contract year for free days? Have they used any free days? I would probably stick with your part time rate, but this really is making you rethink everything, .

As far as her going part time, make sure she has three SET days. You make it sound like she can attend ANY three days, but it should be set specific days so you can fill the other spots. Also make sure your part time rate is higher than your daily full time rate. If she can't decide on a set schedule, she should pay the full time rate.

[WDW]

As far as her going part time, make sure she has three SET days. You make it sound like she can attend ANY three days, but it should be set specific days so you can fill the other spots. Also make sure your part time rate is higher than your daily full time rate. If she can't decide on a set schedule, she should pay the full time rate.

I like this! I think three set days makes sense, and then as far as the holidays, my policy says if a holiday falls on a day your child would be in care, you pay for that day, if not, you don't. If I have a MWF kid, and I'm closed for Memorial Day, and mom wants to bring the kid Tuesday instead, I take the kid IF I have the spot, but I am then paid for four days... my holiday plus the three days of actual care.

As far as vacation time, for me, I would just leave it alone. They are only part time for what, 3 months? It is worth a little less money to have a smaller house a few days for that, but that is JMO. Good luck!

[mac60]

I had to work around this similar situation before. I had a family that had M/TH/F scheduled every week. Whenever there was a Monday holiday, or a Monday school was closed (mom worked for the school), mom would schedule them for T/TH/F instead, so she wouldn't have to pay me for the Monday holiday. I nipped that in the butt, I gave a paper explaining that if on weeks where Mondays were a holiday and she changed her days to T/TH/F, she then owed for 4 days instead of 3. She would do anything she could to screw me out of pay....She didn't last long.

[momma2girls]

I used to accrue Holidays and vac. days, til it was way too uch to keep track of. I changed mmy contract about 5 yrs. ago saying- Part-time and full-time will pay the same Holidays and Vac. days as fulltimers. There are so many out there, that need part-time now, this is my little perk for taking them. They also have to have at least 3 contracted days per week.

[jojosmommy]

Thanks for the tips. I am still unsetteld on what I will do. Mom is still jerking me around about when this will start, what the plan is etc. Lets just say her kids need to be home and I prefer to just have a smaller group for the summer anyway so any days they are not here is like a mini vaca for everyone else here!

I am going to try to get tough on her at pick up and make her tell me the plan. She is on a rotation schedule so there are like 10 days where she doesn't work at all and then she works 3 days in a row. I personally don't care about her schedule, I just want her to nail down WHEN the kids will be here and hold her to it.

I just wondered what other people did when people were PT and holidays came b/c I can imagine it is an easy way to get ripped off.

[Cat Herder]

I used to have 5 Full-Time and 2 Part-Time slots (M-W-F & T-TH). (6/1 ratio)

If a parent no longer needed Full-Time care, they gave up their slot.

If I had a Part-Time slot available they could have it but I filled their Full-Time slot from the wait list.

If they ever needed a Full-Time slot back they went on the end of the wait list like everyone else.

This eliminated the temporary stuff from disrupting our group.