Help Responding

[Great Beginnings]

So I posted an ad on craigslist to replace the family that had an issue with me being pregnant and that affecting her children. Today I saw I have an email from that ad from another parent. How should I respond?

I am tempted to respond, so do we agree this is officially your two weeks notice?

I don't want to be caught off guard so I would rather just term them now right?

[JoseyJo]

I'm confused (maybe too much turkey!) - you placed an ad to replace a family and that same family responded to the ad not knowing it was you?

[Great Beginnings]

Lol, unfortunately it was a different family. I told families I was expecting in June and I have not had favorable results

I only have 2 during the day right now and a few school agers so I am not sure why they are so concerned about me having a baby. It's ridiculous and not like I have too many children to handle an infant.

[JoseyJo]

I would interview the other family and if they are a good fit I would offer them the spot saying it was available on Dec 16th (2 weeks from now) and give your current family 2 weeks notice- last day being dec 13th.

I would not give current family notice until you have another family for sure lined up (unless you don't need the income and just want to be rid of them)

A lot of times I think a family will be a perfect fit after the phone interview but when they come to the in-person interview things are different than presented by email/phone and they are not a good fit. It depends on how picky you are

[Great Beginnings]

No ! The person that responded to my ad was another daycare parent that I currently have now. I am wondering how to respond to the family since they are currently in my care and apparently contacting me for daycare.

[Unregistered]

The responses from her ad was her OTHER CURRENT daycare family that is apparently shopping around for another provider.

[snbauser]

At a minimum I would respond with something along the lines of "Is there something I should know or something we need to discuss?"

[julie]

How about this?

Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry. You have requested information about new care from your current provider. All the answers you seek, including proper paid termination procedures can all be found in your parent handbook/contract, or you could just be upfront with your stressed, pregnant provider who has until this point had no indication that you were unhappy with the care or the announcement of her pregnancy. It would be helpful to advertise the exact amount of spots she has available if there will be a sudden, unplanned departure in the not too distant future, especially with Christmas around the corner.

Respectfully Yours,
Provider

[Great Beginnings]

Lol! I love that! They pay me through minute menu and have yet to pay me today. All payments are due by 5pm so I sent them a reminder. I am waiting to get paid before sending them the response

[momofboys]

Lol! I love that! They pay me through minute menu and have yet to pay me today. All payments are due by 5pm so I sent them a reminder. I am waiting to get paid before sending them the response

I loved the letter the other poster provider but I would not state that you are STRESSED. I just think that sounds inappropriate & probably to them means you can't handle the job.

[Great Beginnings]

I loved the letter the other poster provider but I would not state that you are STRESSED. I just think that sounds inappropriate & probably to them means you can't handle the job.

Good point! I am a little stressed at how aweful some people feel towards babies. I even had a parent tell me this was an inconvenience and would probably affect her children

[Evansmom]

I had something similar happen once where I happened upon and ad on CL one of my clients had posted about the DCM starting to advertise her own new home daycare. She had not mentioned to me that she was doing this and had not mentioned pulling her two girls either. So I may be evil but I created a fake email account and emailed her asking all the regular questions that a prospective client would ask. I just wanted to make sure it was my client. Yep! It was! She had never worked a day in child care and said everything she learned was from her current provider (me, because this job is so easy II can figure it all out during drop off and pick up :.

Anyway, I gave them their 2 week notice and told them I knew about the ad. And you know what? I would have totally helped her if he had told me about her plan. I could have really given her a lot of advice. But since it was so sneaky on their part I just termed.

If I were you I would term them. I'm sorry you're going through this OP.

[e.j.]

If it were me, I might respond with, "DCM, it's me e.j. It appears that you are looking for alternate care. I'd appreciate the chance to speak with you before you make any final decisions. Will you have time to speak with me Monday morning?"

Given that it's a holiday weekend, I might even let her assume I was away for the weekend and wait until drop off on Monday to respond to her in person so I could ask her directly about her concerns.

[MarinaVanessa]

I wouldn't keep them. I would write up a written two-week termination notice and hand it to them on Monday morning. "Hi Susan. I had put up an craigslist ad for new clients and I got your inquiry for it. I'm figuring that it's because I am expecting a baby and if you feel so strongly about finding alternate child care arrangements that you have to do so this early on and without communicating with me I just don't feel comfortable continuing with our arrangement. Finding daycare is hard so I'm giving you two weeks notice so that you can find child care." And hand her the notice along with her response to your craigslist ad, but make the notice generic.

At this point they are so unhappy that they don't want to continue care with you and I for one would be very uncomfortable with this arrangement. They could leave at a drop of a dime if they stay and many times when a client has it in heir head that they are no longer happy they may disregard policies.

[MyAngels]

Is there any chance they are looking for back up care or care for your maternity leave?

I agree that while it might come off as underhanded to be looking for new care without telling your current provider, you also have to look at it from their point of view. They could be looking just to see what's out there in case your pregnancy does happen to affect your ability to provide care. I wouldn't tell my current provider that I was looking into alternative care unless or until I had definitely decided to make the change, either.