What Would You Charge For This?

[small_steps]

Ok...I have a parent who is a teacher. I allowed her to go to part time care this summer. I'm totally ok with that except she is going back and forth about the days and hours she needs. At the beginning of May I sent out a paper to her with different part time rates...2 days per week, 3 days, and then full time. I also gave her the option to do the Mother's Day Out program that I just started. She chose Mother's Day Out which is less expensive for less hours.
For my drop in rate I charge $40 per child. For Mother's Day Out (9am-3pm) I charge $20 per day but it's 2 day/week minimum. For any extra hours, before or after my normal hours for care I charge $10 per hour. She is wanting me to keep them all day Monday and even open an hour earlier and then Wednesday will be MDO again. I have no idea what to charge and it's not really fair to me to give her the full time rate she paid during the school year for a day which would be $51 for both of them (at least I don't think its fair). So I'm not sure if I should charge her the drop in rate for both kids, or charge her the MDO rate since that's what she is contracted for and charge her the extra hourly fee.
What would you guys charge? I told her I would get back with her as we are going out of town and I'm not sure what time we will even be home Sunday night and if it's late I may not want to open that hour early.

[Michael]

I placed several tags related to rates. Maybe some of them answer your question.

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=after+hours+care

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=drop+in+care+rates

https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29854

[daycare]

Ok...I have a parent who is a teacher. I allowed her to go to part time care this summer. I'm totally ok with that except she is going back and forth about the days and hours she needs. At the beginning of May I sent out a paper to her with different part time rates...2 days per week, 3 days, and then full time. I also gave her the option to do the Mother's Day Out program that I just started. She chose Mother's Day Out which is less expensive for less hours.
For my drop in rate I charge $40 per child. For Mother's Day Out (9am-3pm) I charge $20 per day but it's 2 day/week minimum. For any extra hours, before or after my normal hours for care I charge $10 per hour. She is wanting me to keep them all day Monday and even open an hour earlier and then Wednesday will be MDO again. I have no idea what to charge and it's not really fair to me to give her the full time rate she paid during the school year for a day which would be $51 for both of them (at least I don't think its fair). So I'm not sure if I should charge her the drop in rate for both kids, or charge her the MDO rate since that's what she is contracted for and charge her the extra hourly fee.
What would you guys charge? I told her I would get back with her as we are going out of town and I'm not sure what time we will even be home Sunday night and if it's late I may not want to open that hour early.

so your MDO program is 6 hours at 3.33 am hour. I am sure that this is what she is wanting.

how many hours does she want for monday?

I would charge her $10.00 early open fee
and then the normal drop in rate for monday and the $20.00 rate for the MDO

If she signed the contract and then wants to change the hours or time, then you need to make a new one reflecting the changes.

[Unregistered]

I have a DCM who just signed a contract with me for her 7 year old son. He only needs care 3 days per week. OK - $45 for part time school age kids during the school year.

He only needs before school care. 6 AM - bus pickup at 7 AM.
3 hours per week. OK - Not comfortable charging $45/week for 3 hours since I wouldn't want to pay that as a parent.

This is what I am doing:

School age kids are here at most 4 hours a day (6am-7am & 3pm-6pm). 4 hours day x 3 days week = 12 hours week for $45. ~ $3.75/hour

$3.75 x 3 = $11.25 + cost of meals = $15 /week.

But what about school vacations? I'll charge the full $45/week part time rate for the 3 weeks that kids are on vacation during the school year.

Ok, but what about summer vacation? I'll charge my full $75/week part time rate for the 10 weeks that kids are on summer vacation.

DCM tells me "Summers are really hard for us..."

OK - How about this.

$15/week for in school care x 39 weeks of school = $585
$45/week for in school vacations x 3 weeks of vacation = $135
$75/week for summer vacations x 10 weeks of vacation = $750

$585 + $135 + $750 = $1470

$1470 / 52 weeks of the year = $28.50 (rounded for simplicity)

So this DCM will pay $28.50 a week all year round rather than different rates for different times of the year. It will be better financially for her, and better for me as that small amount is less likely for her to fall behind on.

[Blackcat31]

I have a DCM who just signed a contract with me for her 7 year old son. He only needs care 3 days per week. OK - $45 for part time school age kids during the school year.

He only needs before school care. 6 AM - bus pickup at 7 AM.
3 hours per week. OK - Not comfortable charging $45/week for 3 hours since I wouldn't want to pay that as a parent.

This is what I am doing:

School age kids are here at most 4 hours a day (6am-7am & 3pm-6pm). 4 hours day x 3 days week = 12 hours week for $45. ~ $3.75/hour

$3.75 x 3 = $11.25 + cost of meals = $15 /week.

But what about school vacations? I'll charge the full $45/week part time rate for the 3 weeks that kids are on vacation during the school year.

Ok, but what about summer vacation? I'll charge my full $75/week part time rate for the 10 weeks that kids are on summer vacation.

DCM tells me "Summers are really hard for us..."

OK - How about this.

$15/week for in school care x 39 weeks of school = $585
$45/week for in school vacations x 3 weeks of vacation = $135
$75/week for summer vacations x 10 weeks of vacation = $750

$585 + $135 + $750 = $1470

$1470 / 52 weeks of the year = $28.50 (rounded for simplicity)

So this DCM will pay $28.50 a week all year round rather than different rates for different times of the year. It will be better financially for her, and better for me as that small amount is less likely for her to fall behind on.

....until she pulls out over Christmas vacation or right before summer because she found someone to watch the kids for free.

ANY time you reduce your rates over a period of time YOU stand to lose if the client withdraws from care.

It shouldn't be YOUR problem that summers are hard for the parent. Taking SA kids for such little pay will ultimately be hard on YOU.

I do hope this mom follows through for you the ENTIRE year.

[AmyKidsCo]

I'm confused by the options, but IMO you don't make any concessions. If she wants MDO she has to stick to those hours. If she wants to drop off before 9am it's not MDO, it's a regular drop in day.

I don't get what's not fair to her - you're giving her a ton of options to choose from. IMO it's not fair of her to ask you to create a custom option for her.

[Blackcat31]

I'm confused by the options, but IMO you don't make any concessions. If she wants MDO she has to stick to those hours. If she wants to drop off before 9am it's not MDO, it's a regular drop in day.

I don't get what's not fair to her - you're giving her a ton of options to choose from. IMO it's not fair of her to ask you to create a custom option for her.

If you are responding to the OP, she posted in 2012.

[AmyKidsCo]

....until she pulls out over Christmas vacation or right before summer because she found someone to watch the kids for free.

ANY time you reduce your rates over a period of time YOU stand to lose if the client withdraws from care.

It shouldn't be YOUR problem that summers are hard for the parent. Taking SA kids for such little pay will ultimately be hard on YOU.

I do hope this mom follows through for you the ENTIRE year.

We can have SA kids up to 3 hours/day but once they go over 3 hours they're counted in our regular ratios. So I'd only be able to charge my SA rate on the days they'd be here 3 hours or less. School vacation, snow days and summer have to be full time rate because they'd be taking a full time spot.