How much time does your daycare provider take off?

FarmingBride

I have a 4 year old and just had another baby 8 weeks ago.  With my first child we have only used one daycare provider the whole time so I do not have anything else to compare to when it comes to this matter.

 

How many days/time off does your daycare provider take? 

 

I am 3 hrs away from my family and my husbands sisters all moved away from where we now leave which just leaves my husband and I and his folks.  His folks help out but they are mid 70's and it is getting tougher for them to help out as much as they used to when my first child was born 4 years ago.  So I really need a dependable daycare provider to help us out as my husband and I both work.  My daycare provider took 43 days off last year---which would almost be 9 weeks off (obviously counting on a Mon-Fri basis as we don't use daycare on Sat. or Sun.)  I am not counting holidays with this (like 4th of July, Christmas).  Just seems a bit much to me, am I out of line?   This is an in home daycare and my son has been the only full time kid there for 2 years now.  The daycare provider herself has two kids now and the only other person that goes there only has kids there 3 days a week.  I just feel like she wants to be a part time daycare provider.  And maybe that changed when she started having kids because when my son started there 4 years ago we did not have this issue and her time off has picked up as she had kids.  She has already taken 12 days off from Jan to end of May this year...but she was also pregnant and had baby in June.  But still it would be nice if she would help out and find someone to cover for her....but then again when it's only my kid there she probably feels it's silly to pull someone in for just my kid, but it just makes it so tough for me.  I am thinking of switching to a more consistent daycare provider as I can only take so many days off. 

FtrMrsC

That seems excessive. Ours only takes a total of 2 weeks with holidays. You need someone reliable and consistent. Doesn't hurt to look around.

Karla CS

I would love to work at a job that gave me 9 weeks of vacation a year! That being said, I live in the real world, and most real world jobs tend to start with 2 weeks of vacation a year and then work their way up. Even senior level execs at my company get 4-5 weeks total. From the home day cares we toured, 2 weeks is pretty standard, with some personal days occasionally, with plenty of notice.

It sounds like it's not working - have you talked to her about it? I would start looking for other options more conducive to someone working full-time - sounds like it would be a better fit for you and her.

lexusolsen

That is one reason that we decided to switch to a center. I'm a teacher and DH is a govt contractor. We can't take off last minute because our DCP has a dr appt or decided to take a long weekend. We were lucky to have family help us cover and we had to take very few days off of ourselves but it was stressful trying to figure it out.

laurakaz13

Our center takes no time off and all the teachers are highly qualified with early childhood education degrees. 

I would never use someone who took that much time off.  I don't have that much time off.  How did you even handle it?  Time to move on. 

LoCarb

That is excessive!
We use a center and besides major holidays the center is always open. If a teacher is ill, there is a back-up.
I think you may want to look for a new DCP. If you choose to go the in-home route,make sure there is a contract with specifics of discretionary time.

jbatch

That is ridiculous in my opinion.

thedash

That is a lot! My DCP took a month off this spring to visit her family in another country but she only goes every other year. So it averages to 2 weeks per year I guess. Other than that there are random days here and there but it probably only adds up to another week or week and a half over the course of a year. And most are near holiday weekends when it's not a problem for me to stay home.

Leap08

This is one of the reasons why we chose a center. I cannot take that much time off and we don't have any family in the area to cover for us. Our center is only closed on major holidays. I think the only day they are closed that I am scheduled to work is the day after Thanksgiving, and I usually take that off anyway.

Stephorse

I'm not sure as we're trying out a new daycare, but in the handbook she is able to take off two weeks of vacation, which I'm sure will be over the summer which won't be a problem for us since I'm a teacher and I'll be watching them at that time.

EastCoastBride

That's a lot.  9 weeks?!  Wow.  Our DCP takes 3 weeks of vacation, but one is between Christmas and NYE.  So she's actually home and I know if I REALLY needed her, she'd watch DS (I have that week off too, though).  She closes more because the demand is usually SO light that week, she feels it's not worth staying open.

Then she'll take a few other random days - but I would say they don't add to more than 5. 

This doesn't include sick days- but she's really careful about that.

2chatter

Our center is closed the week between Christmas and NY.  I have back up care through work and will use that on the days I need to work, if we don't just get a sitter inhome for DS.  But I only get 25 days of back up care in a center per year, so 43 days would not ever work for me.

FarmingBride

I usually don't get a lot of notice of days off so I am usually scrambling.  But sometimes if she does give notice I have my mom drive up 3 hrs to watch my son on a Thursday/Friday if she needs off.  Otherwise my in-law helps or I have another friend that is a farm wife and stays home to help out and she sometimes takes my son.  I have also called another daycare provider but she is usually booked full.  Otherwise my husband and I trade off taking some days when we are without daycare.  It's just getting to be too much for me to handle.  I think I need a change now that I know that I am not out of line in asking her to not take as much time off.  But I really don't see her changing so I think we are the ones that need to make a change. 

aeh72

All the major holidays, plus 2 weeks for vacation (one week in the summer, usually, and one week between Christmas and New Years). 

MoreThanABride

That is one of the main reasons I chose a center

Mustardseed2007

It sounds like she's not serious about being a DCP. If she was, she would be thinking about how her time off will impact you.

I would find either a center, or an in home that is serious and views being a DCP as a job.

And yes, 9 weeks is nuts. Especially when it sounds like she's taking it here and there as she needs to or feels like it and not for a major trip out of the country to see her family or a major medical procedure or something like that where it happens once and you're done.

court115

43 days off?! That's crazy to me.

We had our DS in an in-home that I LOVED but she took, what I thought was, a ton of vacation. 3 weeks plus 5 personal days plus a ton of holidays (she counted Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, etc. as holidays. They aren't holidays for me!). Plus she was closed on Fridays. We do have family close but I felt bad always asking someone to watch DS and I was already paying for this woman to watch him! I felt like we were really paying for her to go on vacation. Even though she was great with DS, we ended up taking him out and putting him in a center. We're loving the decision so far.

FarmingBride

I really appreciate everyone's comments and experiences that you were wiling to share.  It's just a tough decision on who to choose to watch your children.  Change is tough and I know our previous gal does a good job with kids, but it also has to work for us all.  That's why it's such a tough decision for me, I feel it's a very important and critical decision to try to think everything through and do what is best for the kids.  Thank you everyone.  You have given me great advice. 

ashcody2

She takes two personal vacation days/yr. + holidays - so total would be something like, 1-2 weeks.

Alexames

Our daycare center takes 2 days for staff development days towards the end of August and 1 week btwn xmas and ny (+ the major holidays).  

scrappingcat

We had to recently move our DS to a new daycare and while looking it was crazy the amount of time that some providers were taking as paid vacation.  The worst one was something like 3.5 weeks vacation, 2 weeks for "professional development", insane amount of Holidays (MLK, Presidents Day, Vetrans Day, ect + the normal holidays) and no vacation allowance for us.  Plus she was super expensive considering we only need 3-4 days/week.  

Our new daycare takes 1 week paid, 1 week unpaid (between XMas and New Years), normal holidays and 3 personal days.

This is similar to our previous provider who was 2 weeks paid, 3 personal days and standard holidays.  We also got 1 free week to use as vacation which we typically used between XMas and New Years.

Pips09

That is a crazy amount of time off, and it would not work for my family. Our provider takes one week in the winter, one in the summer, and most Federal holidays.

seahorse102410

I also used an inhome until my son was a little over 2.  She would take 2 weeks vacation and then usually the days around thanksgiving, christmas and easter.  We moved him to a center in May.  It is SO much easier knowing that I don't have to worry about her springing the vacation on me and having to scramble for childcare.  I highly recommend it.

cecilyandgautam

I'm at a licensed in-home and my provider takes national holidays + the pseudo holidays (like Friday after Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, etc) and less than 5 religious holidays per year. We pay her for these. She also occasionally needs to close an hour early to take her child to a Dr's appointment but she gives me enough warning that I can shift my hours and I just drop my daughter off early that day, go in to work early, leave early, etc - so doesn't really make a difference to us. 

With yours, that just wouldn't work for me. I don't have that much leave. Could you bring this up to her and say it's really adding up, you can only manage to pay for X more days off this year and any additional days with be LWOP for her? My work provides a backup childcare benefit which I can use up to 5 days per calendar year - I would use that as my negotiating baseline. I have backup care for 5 days and 5 days only. If she needs me to have more than that, I need to go somewhere else and she can become the backup care. 

laurakaz13

Wait OP, are you actually paying her for all these days off?  No.  Just no.  You need to explain to her that this isn't working for you and you will not be able to continue this way.  As far as I'm concerned 12-15 days should be it for the whole year, minus federal holidays. 

rebaann

Our provider takes all the major holidays, two extra days at the 4th of July, the Friday after Thanksgiving and is closed the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Other than the extra days in July, my office is also closed all those days, so it's no problem.  She also takes two other days a year for Muslim holy days.  She is an in-home provider.

Soxgirl07

My DCP has around 25-30 closed days a year. She gives us a schedule in November for the next calendar year. The days include all holidays, a week vacation in July, plus some random long weekends or days off.
I'm a teacher, so I have all the holidays off too. I think her days off that I end up actually needing coverage for total 8 days.
In the 2 years we've been going there, she has only added 1 day last minute and we actually got 48 hours notice.

kanga1622Wed220857

Our in home DCP takes a week in the summer, a week at Christmas, and works our holidays depending on client needs. She does occasionally close early on Fridays if her kids have something going on at school that she wants to attend like the science fair.

We don't pay for her sick or vacation days; or ours either; and between the two of us we can easily cover any days off. Usually I e of us already had the time off anyway as DH works half days most Fridays.

MickeyM04

IMHO that is a lot.  Our nanny gets 10 days off per year for sick days, vacation days, whatever.  And then if we have a holiday off like 4th of July, obviously she gets those off too, so it usually works out to 10 days of her own plus the 7 national holidays or however many it is (XMas, Thanksgiving, etc.).  

But with childcare I know once you find someone you like, it is hard to make the switch, so you just have to do what's best for you.  Our nanny brings her 3 year old to our house every day and so many people say OMG I WOULD NEVER DO THAT, or I COULD NEVER TRUST A NANNY TO WATCH MY CHILD AS MUCH AS HER OWN blah blah blah!!!  But DS absolutely idolizes her son, they are best friends and play together so well, and he gets the socialization aspect he's missing from not being in daycare, so I always say to people, "Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but this is what works for us." 

I think it's the same here.  If you weigh it out and you REALLY love this provider and you'd rather scramble to deal with finding back up than risk finding someone new that you don't love as much, then that's what works for you.  If you weigh it out and the inconvenience of not having care 43 days a year outweighs how much you love this woman, then you have to do what's best for you and find someone else.  Just my two cents.

alieb82

Our nanny works 3 days a week so we give her 1 week paid and 1 week unpaid.  That's a total of 6 days off for the year. 

mrskelly731

Estwd2 said:

My in home provider has never closed for anything other than a national holiday. I wouldn't use an in home who took more than 2 weeks planned vacation a year.

This exactly.

FarmingBride

No I am not paying for her to take all this time off.  She is taking it all off unpaid.  We are not on a contract...just pay if the kid is there type of system.  So really, I just feel she is just doing the daycare on the side as a part time now.  When my son started there 4 years ago, she did it more full time and didn't take as much time off.  But it has gotten to be more and more time every yr.  In 2011 she took 43 days off (28 days + 25 days maternity leave).  Again I am not counting Christmas, Labor Day....major holidays, this is above and beyond those.  And again I am counting only days on Mon-Fri basis.  Then in 2012 she took 43 days again.  Then in 2013 with the days she has taken off from Jan to May which sits at 12 plus her 45 day maternity leave this time....she's currently up to 57 days.  And also....I just learned last week that my first week back to work after my maternity leave she can only take the kids 3 days out of the 5 days.  She just had a baby also so it's her first week back too.  She had a dr. appt one day and is going shopping the other day.  So 57+2 days off = 59 days off from Jan. to mid August....can't imagine what her total # of days off this year will be!  I think I am going to switch to a more consistent daycare provider.  Just getting to be too stressful for me working full time and trying to juggle my 4 yr. old and a newborn all over for daycare.