Sibling Discounts

[mac60]

Just wondering what parents feel is a fair deal when it comes to having to pay for care for 2 or 3 children from the same family.....some providers offer a sibling discount, some don't.

Just would like to know what parents thoughts are on this.

My thoughts are....while I don't think sibling discounts are fair to the provider, I do give them, probably too much, mostly because it is the norm for my area. I mean, I am still required to give the 2nd child the same care, love, and security that I am the first child, yet many parents think we should do it for a "less amount" than the first child. I am only allowed a set amount of children to care for, and giving sibling discounts certainly does cut into our income.

I have often wondered where and how sibling discounts came to be in this business. As when my husband and I go to a restaurant, we don't get a discount because there are 2 of us, when I take my 2 kids to the doctore, we don't get a discount because there are 2, but when it comes to daycare, many parents expect us to give them a discount because there are two.

So parents, do you expect a sibling discount and what do you think is fair if you do.

[melissa ann]

I do not give sibling discounts. I figure my rates are low enough. Right now, I'm at $17/day so for the 3 kids that I care for, comes to $51/day. I will be raising the rate by $1/day with a 3 day min. rate. The ages of the kids I watch are 3 1/2, 2, and a 2 month old. I also don't charge extra for an infant. I know some providers do charge differently for different ages. I think that just gets too complicated.

[mac60]

I do not charge more for infants either. As far as I am concerned, they are much easier to care for than a 2 yr old.

[laundryduchess@yahoo.com]

I dont give discounts to siblings either. I used to, but you could always do a 5 % discount, so they would feel like they were getting it and you would be losing a minimal amount. I dont provide less care, so I dont charge less $$.

[Former Teacher]

At my former center.....

we use to have a $5.00 dollar discount. The highest child was at full price and then the discount per child after that.
I totally agree that while we provide the same amount of care per child it should be the same rate. However I also feel that in this "great economy" of ours, it sometimes is an incentive. Every dollar helps!

[mac60]

While I do agree it would be an incentive. While I have never raised my rate on an existing family, unless they added another child, in the past 1 1/2 years while all my expenses have went up considerably related to daycare, I have yet to have 1 family offer me a $5 increase to help offset any of the cost to care for their child. We are always the forgotten ones. Parents never think that our expenses may go up. They just expect us to make up the difference out of our income...if that made any sense.

[GretasLittleFriends]

I keep it simple for myself. I charge $X (per hour) for a school aged child. I charge $X.25/hr for a child that has been potty trained (or 2 yrs of age, which ever comes later) through school age. And I charge $X.50/hr for infants through age 2 (or potty trained whichever is later). I figure if I have to change stinky diapers, I'll charge a little more. I do not offer a discount for more than one child. I feel my rates are on the low side of average for the area I live in.

When I used to work out of the home and had my kids in daycare I did not get a discount because I had two kids. I would have never thought to ask for a discount from my provider either. I didn't see why she should get paid less from me than if she would have only had one of my children and another child from another family there. It just seemed unfair.

[mac60]

I think a lot of it goes back to some parents don't think of daycare as a "business", when in fact it is, a very important one at that.

[tymaboy]

I do not charge more for infants either. As far as I am concerned, they are much easier to care for than a 2 yr old.

I would much rather have all little ones enrolled then older children. I too find them much easier & I enjoy them much more.

When I 1st start DC I was going to offer a sibling discount but the more I talked to other providers I realized that it was not very smart on my part. Each child takes up the same space & time (I would say effort too but I think we all know the better then that)

I am very lucky with the parents I have right now. My one mother has offered to take lunch breaks at a certain time when she knows that my DS has an apt somewhere so she can come watch the kids instead of me taking them with. I have never taken her up on the offer but it is nice knowing that if an emergency came up she would help. My other parents have donated supplies & bought gift cards threw out the yr. It is a much welcome change to the past parents that I had.

[Unregistered]

i sneak in the backdoor with it

1 - you have to cover costs, etc

2 - to make your business competitive in the above mentioned "great economy" you have to do something. especially with the way people prioritize their spending these days. they won't bargain shop for cars, homes, clothes, restaurants ... but want child care at the bare minimum.

i have "X" spots available. i need/want "Y" per spot. so my rate is "Y+$15". discounts are built in to the rate. siblings get discounts, vacation days are available, sick days are available, and all my bills are paid. everybody's happy.

[Unregistered]

"I have "X" spots available. i need/want "Y" per spot. so my rate is "Y+$15". discounts are built in to the rate. siblings get discounts, vacation days are available, sick days are available, and all my bills are paid. everybody's happy."

TOTALLY AGREE. Think about what YOU need to be making and build in the discount on the front end ahead of time.

[ConcernedMotherof2]

The sibling discount thing always kind of stumped me. I do appreciate the $5 off/week that I get at daycare because I have two kids attending (daycare rates can seem daunting to a parent when more than one child needs care... a lot of parents can't work because it would only pay for daycare), but that $5 is realistically not going to make a difference to my family. Yes, it adds up over time for me. But it adds up much quicker for the provider. 10 kids from 5 families with each recieving a sibling discount would be $25/week (much more if 3 or 4 children came from one family), money that could be spent purchasing supplies to make the experience much more enriching for the children. To me, it would be worth 'chipping in' my $5/week.

As a parent, I seek quality over price (although my budget does not allow for extremely expensive care--I just don't have the money), but a $5-$10 difference per week is not going to sway my dc decision when my children are recieving above-par care, as they are at their current dc.

[jen]

I charge $135 for one; $245 for two. And yes, it adds up...

[seashell]

No but . . .

I don't give a discount because my rates are already much lower that the rest of the area at $33 per day.

However, there is one family here that I do give a break to. A young single mom with 2 kids. I charge her the same price for 2 that I charge for 1. She pays $165 per week for both kids. I do it because I was in her position once and it would have made life so much better for my kids if I had that extra money each week.

[VicDelmonte]

It's a balance - if others in your area give the discount, you have to ask yourself if having more children (and so, more money) is worth the discount or not.