Drop Off Cut Off of 1130 am?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from one daycare that had no such rule to a new daycare with that rule (ours is an earlier cut-off time). We learned to schedule routine visits far in advance and either at 8am or 4pm and we now anticipate needing to take whole days off for middle of the day appointments. We ask in advance to bend the rules if we think we might miss cut-off by less than an hour, but it's rude to the teachers if we try push it beyond that. We do a lot more urgent care visits and have a dentist that does evenings, etc.

Rude to the teachers? Routine visits only?

No way.

These are screaming red flags.

Yup.

You tell the daycare to pound sand. They are looking to cut staff hours to keep the ratios at a minimum. Which means they are likely violating the ratios during parts of the day.

So you tour of daycare, you sign a contract and you agree to their terms and yet when a rule doesn’t work for you you make a big stink about it? That is entitlement all right!

I am not saying I agree or disagree with the rule but if it doesn’t sign up for a place whose rules do not suit you. I would like to think that this forum is full of intelligent women so why not read before you sign?

Yup. I think it's entitled to for a daycare to dictate when a kid can go to the doctor. The daycare exists to make the parents' lives easier - not vice versa.

This policy is becoming more frequent with expensive private day care centers in DC. It is worrying.

DP. The daycare exist as a business. To do that, it provides a service to you. It doesn’t provide a service to you on whatever terms you dictate. It especially doesn’t provide a service to you on terms expressly contrary to the terms they laid out.

My daycare doesn’t have this rule and it would be a negative factor in me evaluating the daycare. But if they clearly told OP (and others) the rules and OP agreed to them, she really had no basis to complain at this point.

Think about the craziness you're defending:
"Your child can only have a doctors' appointment from 8am-10am or after 4pm. Otherwise, don't bring your kid into the center for which you're paying $90-100 per day."

That is kookoo. Daycare centers are forcing this onto parents. I'm fine with them making a profit, but this is insanity. The reason why people utilize daycare is because they work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you disagree with the way a business is being run, you should also feel free to name and shame.

Sure! As long as you’re willing to sign your real name and stand behind the reasoning. Post on yelp or something.

Anonymous criticism is perfectly valid - the reasoning stands and falls on its own.

And here, it's clear that a "routine visits only" or "drop off cut off" only helps daycares that are stingy on ratios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from one daycare that had no such rule to a new daycare with that rule (ours is an earlier cut-off time). We learned to schedule routine visits far in advance and either at 8am or 4pm and we now anticipate needing to take whole days off for middle of the day appointments. We ask in advance to bend the rules if we think we might miss cut-off by less than an hour, but it's rude to the teachers if we try push it beyond that. We do a lot more urgent care visits and have a dentist that does evenings, etc.

Rude to the teachers? Routine visits only?

No way.

These are screaming red flags.

Yup.

You tell the daycare to pound sand. They are looking to cut staff hours to keep the ratios at a minimum. Which means they are likely violating the ratios during parts of the day.

So you tour of daycare, you sign a contract and you agree to their terms and yet when a rule doesn’t work for you you make a big stink about it? That is entitlement all right!

I am not saying I agree or disagree with the rule but if it doesn’t sign up for a place whose rules do not suit you. I would like to think that this forum is full of intelligent women so why not read before you sign?

Yup. I think it's entitled to for a daycare to dictate when a kid can go to the doctor. The daycare exists to make the parents' lives easier - not vice versa.

This policy is becoming more frequent with expensive private day care centers in DC. It is worrying.

DP. The daycare exist as a business. To do that, it provides a service to you. It doesn’t provide a service to you on whatever terms you dictate. It especially doesn’t provide a service to you on terms expressly contrary to the terms they laid out.

My daycare doesn’t have this rule and it would be a negative factor in me evaluating the daycare. But if they clearly told OP (and others) the rules and OP agreed to them, she really had no basis to complain at this point.

Think about the craziness you're defending:
"Your child can only have a doctors' appointment from 8am-10am or after 4pm. Otherwise, don't bring your kid into the center for which you're paying $90-100 per day."

That is kookoo. Daycare centers are forcing this onto parents. I'm fine with them making a profit, but this is insanity. The reason why people utilize daycare is because they work.

Then don't sign up for that daycare. Simple. As you read here, plenty don't have that rule.

[Anonymous]

And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director here. Our policy is 9:30 in general and 11 for appointments.

It is disruptive to other children and staff and can really mess with ratios so we are pretty strict about it. It is explained to parents at intake and those who don't like it are free to enroll elsewhere.

I make my own children's appointments in the afternoons so that it's a non-issue with my child-care provider.

"Mess with ratios" is a red flag, if you mean that you send teachers home & pare staff down to the bare minimum based on the morning headcount. Cf. the discussion re: staff turnover. The pay will never be great, that's a reality. But split shifts and unpredictable hours are notoriously bad for service worker retention.

OR they could be trying to free someone up to work on curriculum for next week, start a project that will take 3-4 hours at one time, to do administrative work that day, to help other teachers with a planned activity, etc... and then when your kid shows up in the middle of that, it's really annoying to have to just stop in the middle of something big.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

Crazy paranoid much? I see nothing wrong with a rule that says you can't drop your child off in a way that will disrupt lunch/nap/whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

And everyone else has the right to tell you that you have no valid basis to bitch if you knowingly signed up with this rule in place.

[Anonymous]

Could it be related to staff lunch breaks and ratios?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

And everyone else has the right to tell you that you have no valid basis to bitch if you knowingly signed up with this rule in place.

As new parents who were struggling to find daycare for our child before maternity leave ended, we signed up with a daycare in NW DC with this rule. Due to our ignorance as new parents and lack of sleep, we didn't understand what it actually meant from a practical standpoint - gaming ratios, cutting hours for caregivers with little notice, and also just the impracticality of always trying to schedule doctors' appointments at the "approved" times.

I would never put my kid in a daycare with this rule, now knowing what I know. We've since switched to another, better daycare center that doesn't have such policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Director here. Our policy is 9:30 in general and 11 for appointments.

It is disruptive to other children and staff and can really mess with ratios so we are pretty strict about it. It is explained to parents at intake and those who don't like it are free to enroll elsewhere.

I make my own children's appointments in the afternoons so that it's a non-issue with my child-care provider.

"Mess with ratios" is a red flag, if you mean that you send teachers home & pare staff down to the bare minimum based on the morning headcount. Cf. the discussion re: staff turnover. The pay will never be great, that's a reality. But split shifts and unpredictable hours are notoriously bad for service worker retention.

OR they could be trying to free someone up to work on curriculum for next week, start a project that will take 3-4 hours at one time, to do administrative work that day, to help other teachers with a planned activity, etc... and then when your kid shows up in the middle of that, it's really annoying to have to just stop in the middle of something big.

This just sounds like the daycare wants reasons to not have to care for kids that they've been paid to care for.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's not obvious to new parents that personnel spend is the biggest expense for a daycare, and an easy way to cut costs there is to send caregivers/teachers home when it appears that they won't be needed to maintain the legally required ratio. But even if the daycare always remains compliant with the ratio, split shifts + unpredictable hours are extremely negative for employee retention. So a daycare that imposes a strict drop off cut off to cut hours will, unsurprisingly, tend to have higher staff turnover -- not great for your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

And everyone else has the right to tell you that you have no valid basis to bitch if you knowingly signed up with this rule in place.

As new parents who were struggling to find daycare for our child before maternity leave ended, we signed up with a daycare in NW DC with this rule. Due to our ignorance as new parents and lack of sleep, we didn't understand what it actually meant from a practical standpoint - gaming ratios, cutting hours for caregivers with little notice, and also just the impracticality of always trying to schedule doctors' appointments at the "approved" times.

I would never put my kid in a daycare with this rule, now knowing what I know. We've since switched to another, better daycare center that doesn't have such policies.

Sounds like the system worked, and if enough people feel like you, they may have to change policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to be clear I am not defending the daycare’s rule. I am defending their right to run their business as they please.

They have the right to have the rule.

Prospective parents have the right to be informed of the unsettling, negative implications of a daycare with such a rule.

Parents who sign up knowing about the rule have the right to continue to bitch about it.

And everyone else has the right to tell you that you have no valid basis to bitch if you knowingly signed up with this rule in place.

As new parents who were struggling to find daycare for our child before maternity leave ended, we signed up with a daycare in NW DC with this rule. Due to our ignorance as new parents and lack of sleep, we didn't understand what it actually meant from a practical standpoint - gaming ratios, cutting hours for caregivers with little notice, and also just the impracticality of always trying to schedule doctors' appointments at the "approved" times.

I would never put my kid in a daycare with this rule, now knowing what I know. We've since switched to another, better daycare center that doesn't have such policies.

Here's your solution, OP. Easy peasy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This just sounds like the daycare wants reasons to not have to care for kids that they've been paid to care for.

Nailed it - assigning a caregiver to a non-caregiving function *is exactly the same as skimping on ratios*