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[quote=Anonymous]We have always used all 45 of our APs' hours because we are still in the young, non-school-aged children years.  Our APs know this when they match with us - and it has been fine.  Some of their friends have similar schedules, some have "cushier" schedules.  We also often use up the hours even when we both have off on a weekday, such as, e.g. a federal holiday.  We might give the AP off on the holiday, but then have a couple of ten hour days and a date night.  We also explain this to APs before they match with us.  We have never felt badly about this; there are also plenty of times when we don't end up using all 45 hours because we go away somewhere and the AP gets extra vacation weeks, or because the AP asks for extra time off to do something she wants or needs to do.  As long as the relationship is good and the family and the AP are kind, generous, and flexible with each other - and the program rules are followed - having the AP work the contracted number of hours on a regular basis should be nothing more than par for the course.

Now, as another poster pointed out, if your desire to "eek out" all the 45 hours in a particular week stems from resentment and not real need, you probably want to consider giving some extra time off that week.  I do understand this impulse - we had to fight against it with our last AP.  She was a really good AP, but while we were fairly flexible with her hours when things arose that she needed us to switch around the schedule for, or scramble for last minute child care when something came up that she suddenly *had* to take care of (though she could have given us more warning than she ever did), she was never as flexible with us, and made us feel supremely guilty if we were ever five minutes late because of traffic or something, even when we called ahead and of course switched the next day's hours to make up for it.  So - when we had weeks with extra hours - especially right after she had just gotten time off for one of these last minute requests - we always had to remind ourselves to be generous-spirited and not begrudge the AP the extra hours off if we didn't really need them.  It felt better in the end.[/quote]

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