Since When Did Money Become More Important?

[DanceMom]

Than spending time with your children ? I have heard from all of my parents once or twice when they have days off that they are sending so and so because they are paying for it anyways.

I get that you need a break once and awhile, but almost all send their kids here everytime they have days off.

I know me, when I worked outside of the home, ANY day off I did not put my kids in daycare...spending time with them was WAY more important than whether or not I was paying for daycare anyways.

I ended up giving them an extra week free this year to keep their kids at home when they had days off to spend with them - Id rather not get paid than have their children here while their parents are at home.

[momma2girls]

Than spending time with your children ? I have heard from all of my parents once or twice when they have days off that they are sending so and so because they are paying for it anyways.

I get that you need a break once and awhile, but almost all send their kids here everytime they have days off.

I know me, when I worked outside of the home, ANY day off I did not put my kids in daycare...spending time with them was WAY more important than whether or not I was paying for daycare anyways.

I ended up giving them an extra week free this year to keep their kids at home when they had days off to spend with them - Id rather not get paid than have their children here while their parents are at home.

I totally agree, I sent out a letter one week ago, to all my teacher's on Spring and xmas breaks, I will only be charging them 1/2 the weekly rate, since I know you have off, and want to spend your precious time with your loved ones, I am offering these 2 weeks at 1/2 off your weekly rate!! I know at least 2 of my families, would have been here every day!!

[Unregistered]

I know what you're saying. Before I started my day care, I worked outside the home and was thrilled to be able to spend every minute of my time off with my kids. Snow days, sick days, dr. appointments, etc -- I looked forward to them all! I didn't care if I was paying for child care and not using it; I was just happy to have that extra time with my kids.

Although I felt that way, I can understand why some parents choose to bring their kids to day care even though they are home. I think some parents choose to bring their kids to day care because they think the kid is happy playing with their friends. I have a couple of kids who ask to come on weekends because they miss it here when they're home. I can also understand the need to get things done that you can't do as easily when the kids are around. I can even understand wanting time to yourself just to relax a little knowing your child is being well cared for. As a provider, I love getting that little break that even one kid's absence gives me but I figure if a parent is paying me for child care, they have a right to bring the kids here even on their days off even if it's not the choice I would have made. There have been times, though, when I wished I could have afforded to offer 1/2 price to anyone who wanted to keep their kids home!

[Blackcat31]

I have a dcm and dcd who bring their child (was children, but daughter went to kindergarten this year) at 7:00 a.m. and pick up at 5:30 p.m. every day. Mom works 9-4:30 Monday through Thursday and dad works 9-5 Monday through Friday. Mom is off on Fridays and she still has her kid(s) in child care. When she gets done working at 4:30 she goes home and lets her husband pick up the kids after he gets off. I swear he sits at work and counts down til 5:30 because he NEVER walks in the door until 5:30 on the dot. He works 3 blocks from me. In the mornings, the mom drops off at 7 (actually she is here at 6:45 but waits in car til I open at 7). When I asked her why they come so early she says she likes to get some coffee and read the paper and relax before she starts her day. When I questioned why she leaves kids til dad gets done working she said because she drops off so it is only fair he pick up. In the summer, the dcg who is in kindergarten now told me that her and her mom and dcb drive around the block in morning unit I open!!!!
This family always pays and kids are great but REALLY?!?!?

[safechner]

I am not surprised about this. A long time ago, I don't charge the parents if the child/children are not attended in my daycare but they are STILL bringing them here when they have day off.

Now, I do charge the parents whether they are here or not. They are still bringing the kids here when the parents have day off. I also wrote my policy: If you have the day off, I expect your child to be with you. Children grow so fast, take this opportunity to spend time bonding with your child. Ultimately the care of the child is the parental responsibility. Does it work, nope! That is sad!

When I work outside about 5 years ago when my daughters were little. I gave my old provider in 6 months advance that I will be off to spending time with my kids. I have never bring them to daycare whenever I have a day off.

[momma2girls]

I am not surprised about this. A long time ago, I don't charge the parents if the child/children are not attended in my daycare but they are STILL bringing them here when they have day off.

Now, I do charge the parents whether they are here or not. They are still bringing the kids here when the parents have day off. I also wrote my policy: If you have the day off, I expect your child to be with you. Children grow so fast, take this opportunity to spend time bonding with your child. Ultimately the care of the child is the parental responsibility. Does it work, nope! That is sad!

When I work outside about 5 years ago when my daughters were little. I gave my old provider in 6 months advance that I will be off to spending time with my kids. I have never bring them to daycare whenever I have a day off.

I love your quote, I may steal it from you - LOL!!!

[melskids]

i had one who was here everyday, 7:30 to 5:30, and sometimes mom tried to push for an even later pickup. he never missed a day. never came late in the a.m. never went home early at night. wanna know moms work schedule? mondays and wednesdays from 9 to 1. thats it. i even offered to only charge her for time used. she never took me up on it. he was here 50+ hours a week so she could work 8.

[MyAngels]

I have a dcm and dcd who bring their child (was children, but daughter went to kindergarten this year) at 7:00 a.m. and pick up at 5:30 p.m. every day. Mom works 9-4:30 Monday through Thursday and dad works 9-5 Monday through Friday. Mom is off on Fridays and she still has her kid(s) in child care. When she gets done working at 4:30 she goes home and lets her husband pick up the kids after he gets off. I swear he sits at work and counts down til 5:30 because he NEVER walks in the door until 5:30 on the dot. He works 3 blocks from me. In the mornings, the mom drops off at 7 (actually she is here at 6:45 but waits in car til I open at 7). When I asked her why they come so early she says she likes to get some coffee and read the paper and relax before she starts her day. When I questioned why she leaves kids til dad gets done working she said because she drops off so it is only fair he pick up. In the summer, the dcg who is in kindergarten now told me that her and her mom and dcb drive around the block in morning unit I open!!!!
This family always pays and kids are great but REALLY?!?!?

I had a family once that came right at 7 a.m., and picked up right at 5 p.m. (my hours exactly). This was at the same time that my oldest turned 16 and started driving. He came home from practice at 4 p.m. every day. One day he saw a car sitting a block away and noticed it was this dcd, just sitting there. After seeing this for a few days he pulled over, tapped on the window, and asked if there was a problem (good kid, he was concerned). Dad said, no, I'm just waiting until your Mom closes, so I can pick up the kids. Needless to say, we had a nice talk about this. I made them feel very guilty for leaving their children long past the time when others were picked up. Sometimes I just scratch my head over the thought processes of folks.

[momma2girls]

I once had a Mom that was always off on Fri. but she still brought her 1 yr. baby to me every Fri. I finally started realizing this, when she would come in jeans, or sweatpants. I finally asked her after about 4 weeks of this, are you working on Fri.? She said no, I never work on Fri. but I have a ton of stuff to do every Fri. It was so sad, she woke the baby up at the same time, she always arrived at 7 am and picked up at 5:00- Can you believe this???

[DanceMom]

It is SO sad...I was a nanny in Phx yrs ago..the dad would come home from work in the afternoon and go straight to his room and shut and lock the door..his youngest son would bang on the door bawling to let him in. He never did.

This is the hardest part of doing daycare for me..I really wish these people that spend an hour a day with their kids..never had them to begin with..I dont know why they did...

They even tell me to give shorter naps so they can be in bed after dinner..so they can spend what 5 hours a week with their kids?

Makes me sick.

[SilverSabre25]

I can understand an occasional day here or there where you need to get things done, clean the house, relax, recover from being sick, whatever, so you would take your child to daycare anyway...but I really can't understand why parents would do it every single week! Or even worse, every day! That's just crazy!

Some people shouldn't have kids...

at least in those cases you have to figure that at least the child/children are probably getting more love, attention, and stimulation in your care than they would at home, and with that thought console yourself. A little. Maybe.

[mrs.meg]

I used to be a single mom. I only worked 4 days/week and every other Sat. I paid full time rate and did not ever take my daughter to daycare on my day off. It never crossed my mind and I did not think twice about paying my DCP for that day. It is worth my time off to be with my child. I felt that the child care providers work harder than I could imagine and I had no idea that other parents were not this way!!!! Then when I started doing home DC, I could not believe the mentality of MOST of the parents I have cared for! It is like they are so afraid they might give you something that you didn't earn!! We earn every penny and no amount of money will make up for what they are losing with their kids!

[momma2girls]

I used to be a single mom. I only worked 4 days/week and every other Sat. I paid full time rate and did not ever take my daughter to daycare on my day off. It never crossed my mind and I did not think twice about paying my DCP for that day. It is worth my time off to be with my child. I felt that the child care providers work harder than I could imagine and I had no idea that other parents were not this way!!!! Then when I started doing home DC, I could not believe the mentality of MOST of the parents I have cared for! It is like they are so afraid they might give you something that you didn't earn!! We earn every penny and no amount of money will make up for what they are losing with their kids!

This is so well said!!

[marniewon]

I had one family where the mom went to school (online) and dad didn't work at all. They brought their 18mo boy to me 3-4 days a week. Even though he was sick (no fever, but had ear infections constantly!), even though he was having a really hard time adjusting to dc (never been to dc before), mom would still wake him up uber early and bring him to me - right from day one. I really thought that she could have eased into it. She was getting him up way before he was used to getting up and bringing him to me. She told me that her husband would eventually go back to work, and she would eventually finish school and she wanted him to get used to dc, and to a degree I understand that.....but really, why make it harder on him by bringing him so often and so early, from the very first day, when it wasn't necessary? I eventually termed him, for many many reasons, but I really felt bad for the little guy. I mean, dad is sitting home all day long, why couldn't he be home with him??

Editing to add: for most of my children's young lives, I was a single parent. For anyone who is a single parent, you know how hard it is to work, spend time with the kids, clean, laundry, etc, all by yourself. For some reason I was always blessed with dcp's who never charged me any more than what the state would pay. I never took my kids to dc when I wasn't working (unless I had a dr. appt or something like that where I couldn't take the kids with me - and even then, it would be during a work day, not a day off with my kids!). In fact, the one and only time I was off early (court date for my divorce) I had planned to leave the kids at daycare for the rest of the afternoon, to sort of "celebrate" the divorce, and I can't remember what happened, but I ended up getting the kids early anyway!

[QualiTcare]

I know what you're saying. Before I started my day care, I worked outside the home and was thrilled to be able to spend every minute of my time off with my kids. Snow days, sick days, dr. appointments, etc -- I looked forward to them all! I didn't care if I was paying for child care and not using it; I was just happy to have that extra time with my kids.

Although I felt that way, I can understand why some parents choose to bring their kids to day care even though they are home. I think some parents choose to bring their kids to day care because they think the kid is happy playing with their friends. I have a couple of kids who ask to come on weekends because they miss it here when they're home. I can also understand the need to get things done that you can't do as easily when the kids are around. I can even understand wanting time to yourself just to relax a little knowing your child is being well cared for. As a provider, I love getting that little break that even one kid's absence gives me but I figure if a parent is paying me for child care, they have a right to bring the kids here even on their days off even if it's not the choice I would have made. There have been times, though, when I wished I could have afforded to offer 1/2 price to anyone who wanted to keep their kids home!

i agree. there were plenty of days i didn't take my daughter to daycare when i was off, but there were plenty of days when i didn't plan on taking her and she ASKED to go so i'd take her. she might go a little late and be picked up early, but if she wanted to go and i paid for her to go - why wouldn't i let her? any provider should take that as a compliment that A) a child wants to go to daycare and B) the parent trusts you that they're letting you keep their child not just because they HAVE to.

i know there are parents who just don't care and don't want to deal with their kids, but that's not always the case. it's absurd to think that working parents don't spend enough time with their kids. that's like saying if your child goes to school then you don't spend enough time with them. they (and you) are still with their children every weekend/every morning/every evening. you don't have to be a stay at home mom to be a good mom. god forbid someone let their child go to daycare (with a supposedly wonderful provider which they pay for) and let them play with their friends whom they love while they go pay bills - or (GASP) have lunch with a friend they haven't seen in a year.

unbelievable.