Texting

[nannyde]

I don't belive in texting for a business, and that is what we are.

That's interesting to me. I don't have any problems with it.

It's IMPROVED my parent contacts and relationship with them.

They love getting a little text during the day about their gifted sprog They love funny videos. They like the quick "diapers" text they get to remind them about bringing diapers.

It's SO EASY.

I haven't had anything bad happen with it yet so maybe I'll change my mind if that happens. It's pretty effortless for me and it's just a nice way to keep in touch.

I don't think it's unprofessional if it's just activities of daily living texts. If it's business stuff that needs to be discussed then no... I wouldn't do that via text.

I haven't had anyone abuse it yet so I guess time will tell. If the clients like it and it keeps you easily connected then I say "go for it". If it's an annoyance then don't allow it.

[Cat Herder]

Note to self:

Start texting Cathearder every thirty minutes.

timer set...

wait for it......

Got your text.....::::::

My DH now refers to you as "The Other Woman".

I did not see your post and for a split second I thought I was outed, it did not show your name....

One quick reverse look-up and life was good and I still have to right to vent at will.

[dEHmom]

one thing i love about the texting, is sometimes i only check email 1 time a day and that can be at any point. my phone is almost with me, so at least a few times a day i check it (if i haven't heard it vibrate or anything).

the convenience of the text is much the same as an email. it's a conversation at a convenient moment. you can pick back up the conversation when it's convenient for you.

sally: hey just wondering how X making out on his first day.

2 hours later....

me: he's having a blast. see you at pick up

[nannyde]

Got your text.....::::::

My DH now refers to you as "The Other Woman".

I did not see this thread and for a split second I thought I was outed, it did not show your name....

One quick reverse look-up and life was good and I still have to right to vent at will.

I shall embark upon texting terrorism. Whenever I have to get up to go potty in the middle of the night... I'll let ya know.

[sharlan]

Since my cell pretty much lives in my car, I would miss a lot of texts.

Now, take my computer away and we'll have lots of problems.

[daycare]

agree here.... with nan....but then again who wouldn't....


I used to allow it until like I said, someone had to ruin it for everyone else...

I also had a strange situaiton occur several years ago about texting.

Long story short.

I had a young couple (not married) looking to place their 6month old. At that time, i took babies and was going to care for the child once he reached 6 months. the couple seemed very nice and out going. Very cute couple. They lived in town, actually just aross the other side of the freeway, very close.

Any ways, one day the dad text me and said,(baby had not started yet) hey do you workout at XYZ gym? I replied and said yes. So a few text go back and forth about the gym, am I going to do the ironman, blah blah blah. It ends and I think nothing of it.

Two days later, dad text and says can I bring the little guy by for a drop in, something that we had not agreed to, but dad wanted to go to the gym and needed a sitter...the little guy was 3 months old at the time. Ok sure, bring the baby over.

Dad drops off, I text him about 15 min later a pic of the baby with a big smile and say everything is going great. Dad replies, more text are exchanged.

The next day around 6am the mom starts blowing up my phone. She starts yelling at me why in the He!! are you texting my BF? Huh what?

Yeah so I guess the GF went online and could see that we were exhanging text but did know why or what we were talking about. She went off the wall crazy at me. Obviously they had other issues, but boy did I learn a lesson over texting.... NO more text to dads that mom dont get and vice versa....

[MissAnn]

I love texting. It's the best invention since the internet.

I have unlimited texting so they can text away. I just send them back a "k" when I get it.

That's good! No "k" means you didn't get it

[dave4him]

Texting is a great way to share whats going on during the day as well as sending pictures

[Nellie]

It would take me all day to send out a text. Not to savey with all the abbreviations. I often get FB Messages sent from phones and I never know what they are saying. Once I googled text abbreviations and pulled up a page to decode the message. I have texting blocked on my phone. When the phone rings during DC hours from a DCF and I have a free hand and a second I pick up. Otherwise I let it go to voice message and call back when I can. Tell all DCF's the little ones are first priority, and my attention and time goes to them first. I will try to break away for a second to return urgent phone calls otherwise they are left for nap or after hours. Luckily all my family's respect and appreciate it.

[2ndFamilyDC]

I never thought of using texts as a way to communicate with my dc parents before, but I am going to start now. Thanks for the idea.

[permanentvacation]

I don't believe in texting from parents! I do use my cell on my advertisements so random people can't use my number to find my address. But when I am hired by a family, I let them know to call my house number and to call me on my house number whenever they need to get ahold of me. I let them know that my cell is laying around the house somewhere throughout the day and I don't check it for messages. I have had a parent or two who texted me throughout the day. When they pick their child up, they say something about texting me. I say that I hadn't even checked my phone, go get my phone and say - "yeah, there is a text from you. I never check my phone during the day, you need to call my house number from now on." I really don't have many problems with parents texting me.

My daycare is a COMPANY! Would you text the cashier at Walmart to ask anything such as the price of an item, Walmart's hours, etc.? Would you text your child's teacher to let them know you need to pick your child up from school early for a dentist appointment? NO!! So, why do parents think they can text their daycare provider? Simply put, because they are not looking at you as a business. They are looking at you as either a friend or babysitter. They are not showing you the respect of being a business owner, teacher, etc.

Texting is not personal at all. It is something that is done when you want to tell someone something that is so unimportant that you don't care if the other person gets the information immediately or 5 hours later, you don't need to know when they receive the information, and you don't need an immediate response.

If a person needs to contact their daycare provider during the work day, it should be important enough that they need to have the information delivered to the provider immediately, get an immediate response, and know that their information has been received by the provider in a timely manner. Which means needing to make a PHONE CALL! Now, yes, we might be busy and they might need to leave a message. But most home providers leave their cells laying around and don't check them randomly in case someone might have left a message/text. But most of us can hear the home phone ringing and therefore know to check it for messages when we finish whatever we were busy with when the phone rang.

[Childminder]

I never thought texting would be a problem but some issues have came up. I have had clients say they sent a text stating they wouldn't be attending daycare, and another say that she would be late for pick up. I don't have problems with receiving anyone elses texts so I assume they are lying. These are becoming more frequent now so that I waive the pick up fees. I am solving that by no longer waiving ANY fees regardless of being informed or not.

Unless they get a "K" back from me it is not considered received by me. They better text back in a few minutes to "check" that I got it.

[Unregistered]

I don't believe in texting from parents! I do use my cell on my advertisements so random people can't use my number to find my address. But when I am hired by a family, I let them know to call my house number and to call me on my house number whenever they need to get ahold of me. I let them know that my cell is laying around the house somewhere throughout the day and I don't check it for messages. I have had a parent or two who texted me throughout the day. When they pick their child up, they say something about texting me. I say that I hadn't even checked my phone, go get my phone and say - "yeah, there is a text from you. I never check my phone during the day, you need to call my house number from now on." I really don't have many problems with parents texting me.

My daycare is a COMPANY! Would you text the cashier at Walmart to ask anything such as the price of an item, Walmart's hours, etc.? Would you text your child's teacher to let them know you need to pick your child up from school early for a dentist appointment? NO!! So, why do parents think they can text their daycare provider? Simply put, because they are not looking at you as a business. They are looking at you as either a friend or babysitter. They are not showing you the respect of being a business owner, teacher, etc.

Texting is not personal at all. It is something that is done when you want to tell someone something that is so unimportant that you don't care if the other person gets the information immediately or 5 hours later, you don't need to know when they receive the information, and you don't need an immediate response.

If a person needs to contact their daycare provider during the work day, it should be important enough that they need to have the information delivered to the provider immediately, get an immediate response, and know that their information has been received by the provider in a timely manner. Which means needing to make a PHONE CALL! Now, yes, we might be busy and they might need to leave a message. But most home providers leave their cells laying around and don't check them randomly in case someone might have left a message/text. But most of us can hear the home phone ringing and therefore know to check it for messages when we finish whatever we were busy with when the phone rang.

As with any business, I think you have to learn to get with the current technology. Email used to be for personal letters to friends too, but has turned into a great business and marketing tool. I think that's what texting will do as well, especially for the daycare business. It's a quick & easy connect for parents and providers. I just tuck my cell phone in my pocket. I can't do that with my home phone or my computer. I carry it around all day so that wherever I am, inside or outside, I have a phone on me for emergencies. I tell my parents NOT to call my home phone because there's a pretty good chance the ringer will be turned off for nap time or I could be outside and won't know they called. I would rather they didn't email either, since I don't check emails all that frequently. A cell phone is just SO easy. Send me a text. It's fast and can be answered at my convenience from any location.

As for the personal texting issue, I occasionally have that and I've found if I ignore the off-topic stuff completely, they quit sending it. I have unlimited texting so that's easy for me to do. If that doesn't help after a couple days, I'd go with a quick reminder mentioning that you only have a certain amount of texts available on your plan so please limit the texts to only those related to little so & so.

[safechner]

I don't believe in texting from parents! I do use my cell on my advertisements so random people can't use my number to find my address. But when I am hired by a family, I let them know to call my house number and to call me on my house number whenever they need to get ahold of me. I let them know that my cell is laying around the house somewhere throughout the day and I don't check it for messages. I have had a parent or two who texted me throughout the day. When they pick their child up, they say something about texting me. I say that I hadn't even checked my phone, go get my phone and say - "yeah, there is a text from you. I never check my phone during the day, you need to call my house number from now on." I really don't have many problems with parents texting me.

My daycare is a COMPANY! Would you text the cashier at Walmart to ask anything such as the price of an item, Walmart's hours, etc.? Would you text your child's teacher to let them know you need to pick your child up from school early for a dentist appointment? NO!! So, why do parents think they can text their daycare provider? Simply put, because they are not looking at you as a business. They are looking at you as either a friend or babysitter. They are not showing you the respect of being a business owner, teacher, etc.

Texting is not personal at all. It is something that is done when you want to tell someone something that is so unimportant that you don't care if the other person gets the information immediately or 5 hours later, you don't need to know when they receive the information, and you don't need an immediate response.

If a person needs to contact their daycare provider during the work day, it should be important enough that they need to have the information delivered to the provider immediately, get an immediate response, and know that their information has been received by the provider in a timely manner. Which means needing to make a PHONE CALL! Now, yes, we might be busy and they might need to leave a message. But most home providers leave their cells laying around and don't check them randomly in case someone might have left a message/text. But most of us can hear the home phone ringing and therefore know to check it for messages when we finish whatever we were busy with when the phone rang.

I am sorry you feel that way. Honest, I do text both of my children's teachers and they also text me if they need anything. I don't have phone land line and never will. I must to have a cell phone that I can only use text and emails. I have a computer but I don't stay all day to check my emails very often.

[caligirl]

I love texting. It's the best invention since the internet.

I have unlimited texting so they can text away. I just send them back a "k" when I get it.

I'm with you! Best thing EVER!