Anonymous wrote:I agree that providers need to have down time - but 4 weeks a year is a lot.

I am a professional - I get 2 weeks paid vacation. Getting backup care for my child for 4 weeks a year is a huge burden for me. I do not care how much notice I am given.

what is it people are not understanding. When I take 4 weeks off, the other parents are arranging their own vacations around mine. The clients I work with, most have the week of christmas and the week of spring break off. So it doesnt affect them! Whatever floats ones boat. Out of the 4 weeks, the parents are usually looking for back up for 2 of them, of which I do not get paid.

Yes, we have used an in-home daycare for 3+ years and she gets two weeks paid vacation. She is part of the Infant Toddler network and it is standard.

standard

I agree that providers need to have down time - but 4 weeks a year is a lot.

I am a professional - I get 2 weeks paid vacation. Getting backup care for my child for 4 weeks a year is a huge burden for me. I do not care how much notice I am given.

20 days is a ton of time? Good grief. If a parent understands this at the time of contract signing, and agrees to it, why should it be a problem? If the provider informs said parents well ahead of time, the parents have the option of lining up their vacation at the same time. What works for one doesnt always work for the next but dont be so closed minded or you may end up passing up on excellent daycare. I know someone who never took vacations and got so burnt out with daycare she lost everything - her license, her business and eventually her home. Providers need time to regroup themselves. They are human

Standard.

Pretty standard. If it is just two weeks a year that is good. I would never go to a provider closed 4 weeks a year - paid or unpaid. That is a ton of time to not have care.

It's standard. We used to do it.

Yes, it's standard. Just as your job pays for vacation time, you pay for the daycare provider's vacation time.

OK. Thanks for the tips. I had not seen this before so I just wanted to make sure that it was standard. I'd previously had a nanny and now that my son is over a year I had opted for an in-home daycare to start cutting back on costs. The paid weeks off just threw me for a loop. Thanks again.

I am a provider. I am closed 4 weeks, 1 week is paid. The parents either schedule their vacation the same time as me, or they are already off, or they find back up (clearly stated in my contract and has never been an issue. Of course until the time comes up and then all of a sudden we forgot what we signed to in the contract). I give plenty of notice, 2 weeks of which are standard weeks closed (christmas week and spring break). the other two are announced at least 1 month in advance.

We paid our home daycare for days that it is closed which I think added up to 2-3 weeks a year? We paid for all federal holidays + maybe 3 days off during the Xmas holidays + maybe a week or so during the summer? So that seems about right.
You're right to think of it as how you would pay your nanny. Or your center-based daycare. Many center based daycares close A LOT for things like professional days or teacher appreciation days or spring break, etc. so i think you're pretty lucky if your provider only wants 2 weeks.

Are you still required to pay for the weeks that it is closed? I understand it being closed, I just wanted to check on the payment part. Thanks for your time.

Our daycare is closed the week of Christmas as well as a few days the last week of August.

It is a daycare - so it is frustrating. But we just deal with it - mostly b/c we really do not have any other options.

I would ask them what the protocol is for communicating when they will be deciding on the week in the summer. We just plan our summer vacation at that time.

I just met with a home daycare provider this morning. There is the primary provider (owner of home) plus two assistants and around 9-10 kids. Everything seemed pretty standard but then she said that the daycare was closed for the week of Christmas and for one week in the Summer (still yet to be named). We owe her full payment for both of those weeks, although they'll clearly be at home with me. I just wanted to get a feel for whether or not this is standard practice? I would understand if I owed vacation pay to a personal nanny, obviously, but I didn't think that was practice for home daycare. I'm a bit put off by this because I'll have to find alternate care while still paying daycare lady.

Thanks for any pieces of advice.