Do You Transport Kids??

[broncomom1973]

I am wondering how many daycare providers take kids out and about in their vehicle. Do you take or pick up dck's from school? I have never filled out the paperwork to be able to take these kids anywhere.....mostly because I had no desire to take a 6 yr old and 5 kids under the age of 3 out and about, BUT starting in the fall I will need to be able to assist my dh in picking up our daughters from school and preschool when needed. I will only be doing it when absolutely necessary. Here is my situation:

I have one dcg here who is 4. Her mom mentioned to me sometime last spring that they wanted to get her into a preschool. I told her where we are sending dd and told her that there is usually a waiting list but I could contact the teacher and see if she had any openings. She had one opening left on the same days that my daughter will be attending (T, Th). Dcg's mom enrolled her right away. I think that dcg's mom assumed we will take her and pick her up, however, I do not think that we (dh and I) are out of line to ask them to pick up 1 day a week if dh takes them both morning's and picks up one morning, leaving them only to pick up one day/week. I sent dcg's mom an email 2 weeks ago asking if they could do this and she has never discussed it with me other than to say "I got your email, but havent talked to dh about it". I know that the daycare I used to send my girls to did not have anything to do with transporting kids. Parents were responsible for getting their kids to and from preschool and school. My dh has a carpet cleaning business, so luckily he is somewhat flexible. The problem lies in the fact that if he is taking our older daughter to elementary school at 8 a.m. every day and then comes and pics up our other dd and dcg and takes them to preschool at 8:30 and then has to come home and switch vehicles into his work van and go to a job and set up and try to clean and come home and switch vehicles and get back to the preschool by 11 a.m. and then bring the girls home and try to work before being back to the elementary school by 3 p.m. He sometimes does big jobs that take anywhere from 4-7 hours depending on the size, so this is really going to affect how he has to schedule things. It was hard enough last year with only one child attending school and those hours were from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., if he had a job out of town, sometimes 60 miles away, it was an all day trip. If dcg wouldnt have gone to this preschool, we would have tried to carpool with another daycare family. Sorry, I guess this is more of a rant than anything. I just dont know of many daycares (where I live anyway) that are responsible for transportation to and from school/preschool. Any thoughts here?? Thanks.

[Blackcat31]

I don't transport EVER. but was curious as to how many others did and how they managed. Here is the link to that thread. https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30652

[broncomom1973]

Thanks for the link!!

[MsMe]

We do not provide any transportaion. We used to and it was terrible. I told all the parents we would transport to preschool if they all went to the same class on the same day at the same school. Well then some wanted christian preschool and some needed cheeper city preschool and then one girl signed up for the extra Firday for advanced students.

I felt that I couldn't make the City kids pay for the more expencive Chritian school, and couldn't make up the Christian parents give up their faith based preschool. The little girl really was advanced and they get to do so many cool activites on the extra day. So I ended up transporting EVERYDAY of the week!! and to top it off it was right in the MIDDLE of our lunch time. Never again.

We made it work for the school year and it was hard.

Now we dropped it from our ins. and tell parents that is NOT an option....and good thing bc this year I had kids in FOUR differnt preschool programs all over town!!

[JaydensMommy]

This is something that I am also curious about since my son will be starting preschool in September and I will be taking him and picking him up. I only have one nine month old and the other three are older so I'm hoping it goes ok. I am considering having my mom do it on some days but I would love to be able to drop him off and pick him up...

[Country Kids]

I don't transport to preschools but then I offer that here so no reason to go somewhere else is how I figure it. The one parent who's older children went to preschool and private kindergarten before I had them said they are tired of wasting the thousands of dollars when they know the one I have now will do just fine here.

[wdmmom]

I had a parent email me telling me that they enrolled their 2 year old in preschool starting the day after Labor Day. The email went on to say what days he had school and for how long. She went on to say that because her husband and herself have to be to work at 8am that it will be up to me to get him there and pick him up! She never asked. She said it like it is. I told her I no longer provide transportation and she was mad. Well, I come to find out that children must be 3 by September 15th (which he won't be) and he must be potty trained (which he is not) so that was a good try on her part. Come next year though, I foresee them leaving to find a provider that will accommodate transportation.

[sharlan]

I had a parent email me telling me that they enrolled their 2 year old in preschool starting the day after Labor Day. The email went on to say what days he had school and for how long. She went on to say that because her husband and herself have to be to work at 8am that it will be up to me to get him there and pick him up! She never asked. She said it like it is. I told her I no longer provide transportation and she was mad. Well, I come to find out that children must be 3 by September 15th (which he won't be) and he must be potty trained (which he is not) so that was a good try on her part. Come next year though, I foresee them leaving to find a provider that will accommodate transportation.

That takes a lot of guts. Sorry, but YOU don't TELL ME what YOU THINK is going to happen. You ASK ME if I am available to HELP YOU.

I've always had SA kids and transported them back and forth. I've had several kids go to tiny tots or pre-k and transported them. It's never been an issue to me. The parents would chip in for gas now and again.

[broncomom1973]

Dh supports us. I mean, I take care of our 3 kids and take care of only 2 others (the 3rd dcb just left beginning of July). So, I dont make much at all. My husbands income pays for our home, vehicles, energy bill, insurance. He pays most everything. I pay for the food, water and television. My point is that if this affects his ability to schedule work, it affects us ALOT. I know in their minds they are probably thinking that we have to take our daughter anyway, so why not take and pick up theirs too, but like I said, I would have worked something out with another family if need be. I need to get all of the paperwork in order so I can do it when absolutely necessary, but I dont want to be doing it all of the time. It is in the middle of my meal preparation. We eat at 11:30 and if I had to pick up, I would have to leave at 10:45 and wouldnt be back until around 11:20. It would be a real hassle.

[CheekyChick]

Dh supports us. I mean, I take care of our 3 kids and take care of only 2 others (the 3rd dcb just left beginning of July). So, I dont make much at all. My husbands income pays for our home, vehicles, energy bill, insurance. He pays most everything. I pay for the food, water and television. My point is that if this affects his ability to schedule work, it affects us ALOT. I know in their minds they are probably thinking that we have to take our daughter anyway, so why not take and pick up theirs too, but like I said, I would have worked something out with another family if need be. I need to get all of the paperwork in order so I can do it when absolutely necessary, but I dont want to be doing it all of the time. It is in the middle of my meal preparation. We eat at 11:30 and if I had to pick up, I would have to leave at 10:45 and wouldnt be back until around 11:20. It would be a real hassle.

Is there any way you can get an assistant to come in for an hour a day (from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.) and help prepare the meal while you pick up the girls?
Maybe DCM would pay half of the cost of what you would have to pay your assitant. Just a thought...

[familyschoolcare]

Not only do I transport it is what I specialize in and from what I can tell I am the only option other than the on cite care (which is not licensed) that this parents have.

[Crazy8]

No, I do not transport kids at all. ever. No field trips, nothing.

For those who do, I am curious about car insurance coverage. I was under the impression that you were are covered for something like daycare kids who you are PAID to watch, etc. unless you had livery insurance which is rather pricey!

[familyschoolcare]

my liability insurance cover my transporting the children.

[afmama]

I do! And so far so good! I like the happy balance between getting the kids out and about, but not purposely FINDING reasons to leave. I'm pretty against keeping them in carseats all day. So far I've taken kids to my son's swimming lesson's while the dck's run around or watch. Then we all go swimming or to the park. In the fall I will be loading them up to take my son back and forth to pre-school.

But with only drop-ins I know I won't have the same children every day getting lugged to pre-school.

[mac60]

I never transport kids. I offer preschool activities/curriculum. If a parent chooses to take them elsewhere, they can figure it out. I don't give a discount either if they are gone 2/3 hours per day. This year unfortunately, I will have 3 kids going to 2 different preschools at different times. I am not looking forward to it.

I will soon be putting in my handbook that if your child attends outside preschool activities, I will no longer include them in my preschool activities here. It is too hard/confusing to keep them up with varying schedules, part time kids, etc. It makes for a big headache for me. I have actually thought about charging more for going to outside preschool, as it totally disrupts my day with the departures and arrivals and I am constantly having to tweak my lunch times because I only have a window of less than 25 minutes where everyone is here at once to eat lunch, or else I have to go to seving 2 times.