Vacation Time

[GirlMomma]

I had a parent tell me their child would not be attending from 8/3 to 8/10. The child’s first day back will be 8/11. I’m not sure if the child will be here on 8/2 or not, I need clarification on that. I allow “each family three, one week vacations/year with a two week written notice.”

I am obviously going to charge the week of 8/9, but would you charge the week of 8/2, also?

Is my contract clear enough that I don’t allow weeks to be broken up?

[PB&J]

Can you say “If you’d like to use one week’s vacation, the drop in rate for Aug 2 is $X. The full rate is due for the week of Aug 9 because I do not track partial weeks, as you know.” Then they can pay a drop in rate or tell you they don’t intend to bring her that day.

[GirlMomma]

PB&J Thank you, I will respond with that!

[PB&J]

Glad to help! This forum has been so helpful to me regarding policy. There are so many different ways to “do daycare” and just knowing that is reassuring. It’s nice to have people who’ve been there help find the loopholes. At our daycare we provide one vacation week. For instances like yours, in our situation I would tell the parent “your free week falls over two weeks, so for those two weeks you’ll pay for one and redeem your annual free week.” But I can see that if you allow three weeks, tracking partial weeks would be a headache! A lot of providers write that the vacation week must be consecutive and all other time off requires payment.

[GirlMomma]

@PB&J this forum has been very helpful! Especially when parents love to find the loopholes!

In this case, the parents are gone the whole week of 8/2 so they had no problem paying for a full week for his return on 8/11. I didn’t need to explain myself, thankfully! LOL she was happy having a free week.

I don’t track partial weeks. It’d be too much to manage. I do offer 3 weeks/year since I give myself 3 weeks a year if I choose to take them. This year I took my vacation last week & I plan to close the last week in December to spend with my girls on winter break.

[Jo123abc]

I would just let them have the days they want. Charge for the 2nd. Don't charge for 5 days if that's how many days you allow. Then charge for the remainder. I pick my battles. Which days they use for their vacation is up to them here.

[Cat Herder]

* I used to give two weeks unpaid vacation per family/per year.

1. Be sure to specify it is not per child, that loophole really sucked. Yes, They pulled that one on me alternating kids per week for four weeks. They were being passive aggressive because I would not give them a sibling discount. I had to do an edit that year.

2. Be sure to specify there must be 12 months between each set of two weeks. None of the "last two weeks in December/First two weeks in January horse pucky.

3. Be sure to specify if the can take it in one, Monday-Friday & Monday-Friday block or two, separate, Monday-Friday blocks.

* Now I just don't charge for my two weeks. They can take theirs with mine unpaid, or pay for the weeks they are out.

[GirlMomma]

Thank you!