Am I Being Unreasonable

[LovesTimone]

My friend has a day care in her home she watches only special needs children. She gets paid a flat rate weekly. She does not drop off or pick up the bus stop outside her home. She charges about 100 a week per child, a bit more for some children, that need changing and such. She gets paid whether the child is there or not. She take kiddo's as early as 5:am and the last pick up is at 7:00pm, she does homework with some, feeds breakfast and dinner to some kids. As far as sick day for herself, she has a back up person who comes to her home as not to upset the routine of "her kids" as she calls then.

I know that just for after school care alone is around 100.00. and that is at the school. And if you are late picking up they charge you a dollar a min. after 6:00pm
My dd pays her sitter 25 dollars to watch my DGS ( 5months) for 1-1/2 to 2 hrs, when her DH and her sch. overlap. and he sleep most of the time.

I would check around and see what other day-care offer so that you can be in line with others, make sure to let them know what the special needs are.

I would sit down and talk with her, I suggest that you should give at least 12 to 24 hours notice so that parents can make other arrangements, anything last minute I don't know if I would not charge for. As parent might have to pay more to someone else for last minute. Do you charge her extra when she is late picking up? or drops off early? these are things that you need to talk about. It is better to have everything in writing and details worked out in advance so that everyone knows what to expect and to follow the rules.

Good Luck.

 

[roadtripper]

Our son has disabilities and gets Medicaid (MassHealth in MA) which we pay a premium for, but MassHealth pays our sitter 12 dollars an hour to watch him. I would never watch this woman's child again if I were you for you ryour own protection, but you might want to become a personal care attendant and get paid more if you like working with children with disabilities. Children who qualify for personal care attendant services (and I know some on the spectrum who do) are allotted a certain number of hours per week. You could list yourself with a local office, advertise as a PCA, and make up for your lost income (and then some) if you could find someone who didn't mind bringing their child to you. Our PCAs have been great--it's a real sanity saver, too.

 

[squirrel]

I doubt you will have anymore trouble with this parent.

If you want to continue looking after another child, re-write your contract and make sure it's signed before the child starts.

We've all made mistakes when doing daycare. Up here we have government subsity where the government pays a portion or the whole daycare fee if a parent qualifies. It frustrates us daycare owners as we can't get any information as to why we don't have an authorization # so we can get paid. We have to keep asking the parents to call. We have to accept children on subsity but honestly it's a big pain. Parents that don't renew their subsity and then leave the daycare without any notice-good luck getting any $ from them or the government. I'm almost at the point where if I get another parent that messes up my income I'm going to have anyone on subsity give me a deposit that will be returned when they give me a months notice.

 

[captinhookedondisney]

I don't know if you have ever done this calculation but you are getting paid 3.75 an hour....

Deal breaker that is almost 1.2 minimum wage.

 

[sam_gordon]

Everyone keeps talking about $3.75 being too cheap. Our daycare prices are generally around $110 (age dependent) for full day care. That gives you daycare access from 6AM-6PM, although we would use ~9 hours a day. That means we were paying less than $2.50/hour. Granted, this is an actual daycare, not a "home setting".

While I do think the $75/week was undercharging, I don't think it's totally out of line.

 

[21hearts]

My first thought is you're not getting paid enough money.

My second thought is that I would not expect to be paid if you didn't provide the service unless it is spelled out in some kind of contract.

I agree with this.

 

[Swan4Me]

Sitters for elderly folks cost $10 an hour-minimum

You need to find a job that pays more-even if its sitting for the elderly