Our DC $$$ center closes for 2 weeks at Christmas, one week in July, and all Federal holidays. We knew this going into the arrangement. For Christmas, usually my MIL comes into town for the second week it's closed and helps out. This year we will just work remotely at her place for those two weeks. We take a family vacation the week in July. And I have all federal holidays off. Centers that have this kind of leave for their workers generally are better employers and retain better workers. Is it a little annoying? Sure. But nowhere near as annoying as school breaks once your kid hits elementary school.

I remember asking another center and she said they didn't close at all except on Christmas, and "please come get your kid earlier in the day on Christmas eve, if you can." She also said their turnover was high. Something along the lines of "well, this is childcare."

Our center, by contrast, has the same employees year after year (we are approaching year 4 with a kid in the center). We like paying for a daycare that values its staff's personal lives, too.

We use a chain similar to Bright Horizons (Chesterbrook Academy) and they are also only closed for major holidays (New Years, 4th of July, Memorial Day, two days for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and early closure on Christmas Eve and NYE) and then 2 or 3 development days that fall on Federal Holidays that not all private businesses take. They also allow for families to take a vacation week once a year that you don't have to pay tuition on.

Bright Horizons offers backup care, which is an option for weeks that your school is closed.

Anonymous wrote:No our daycare in our new state (a Bright Horizons) is only closed on actual holidays (like a regular employer). If the staff takes PTO, there is additional staff to cover. Our old preschool and daycare in Virginia we had to deal with much more school closings including a full 2 weeks in August for one place and a week and a half over Xmas in addition to all the ridiculous snow closures in the winter . It was a pain I’m happy to not have to worry about now but I very specifically looked for centers that didn’t close all the time.

OP here. Thanks for the insight. We are generally happy with our daycare other than the time-off thing, but I am currently interviewing another place just for basis of comparison. Otherwise we may look into allowing our son to join a friend's nanny for a week here and there if our daycare closes. It was something that hadn't even occurred to me and then when I was adding up the days, I was like "jeez, this is a lot"... just stinks that of course daycare's rate doesn't change on months there's a whole week off where we'll now have to pay for another form of childcare. But that's life!

No our daycare in our new state (a Bright Horizons) is only closed on actual holidays (like a regular employer). If the staff takes PTO, there is additional staff to cover. Our old preschool and daycare in Virginia we had to deal with much more school closings including a full 2 weeks in August for one place and a week and a half over Xmas in addition to all the ridiculous snow closures in the winter . It was a pain I’m happy to not have to worry about now but I very specifically looked for centers that didn’t close all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daycare gives federal holidays, two weeks at Christmas, three days for thanksgiving.

Not to be snarky OP but this will be your experience throughout your child’s schooling. Kindergartners get off more days than that. Might be worth coming up with a long term solution.

DP. True but it just feels worse when you are paying so much. But yeah, a long tee solution would be ideal.

My childcare close 2 weeks for Christmas, 1.5 for summer, and all university holidays. We plan our vacations around summer break.

Or you can find a daycare that effectively serves working parents and allows teachers to take vacation when they want to. Most schools have before after programs that also cover school breaks. The "long term solution" to needing child care is to pay for child care.

Anonymous wrote:My daycare gives federal holidays, two weeks at Christmas, three days for thanksgiving.

Not to be snarky OP but this will be your experience throughout your child’s schooling. Kindergartners get off more days than that. Might be worth coming up with a long term solution.

DP. True but it just feels worse when you are paying so much. But yeah, a long tee solution would be ideal.

My childcare close 2 weeks for Christmas, 1.5 for summer, and all university holidays. We plan our vacations around summer break.

My daycare gives federal holidays, two weeks at Christmas, three days for thanksgiving.

Not to be snarky OP but this will be your experience throughout your child’s schooling. Kindergartners get off more days than that. Might be worth coming up with a long term solution.

Anonymous wrote:My center in Silver Spring is only closed for the usual fed holidays. The teachers do take vacations but I guess they have enough staff or subs to cover.

Same.

Our first in home had several caregivers, so they only closed on federal holidays, plus a few extra days around Christmas.

Our second in home closed fed holidays, two weeks in the summer, 2 days for thanksgiving, 3 days for Christmas plus a handful of other days throughout the year.

We are now at a daycare/preschool. They are closed all fed holidays, a week at Christmas and the entire month of June, plus a handful of staff development days throughout the year.

Definitely varies from place to place, but having multiple breaks and days off throughout the year is not uncommon.

My center in Silver Spring is only closed for the usual fed holidays. The teachers do take vacations but I guess they have enough staff or subs to cover.