What's a normal ML holding fee for in-home DC?

ricekez

How much is normal to pay to hold your spot at an in-home DC while you're out for maternity leave? We'd be holding 2 spots, one for DS, one for new baby.

This is a unique situation, because our daycare provider is currently our nanny for a nanny share with 3 kids. Once we have #2, the nanny-share falls apart because 4 kids requires a daycare license. When we disband the nanny-share, our nanny is hoping to start her own in-home DC and has asked us to pay $125/week holding fee (which seems like a lot to me) plus her proposed weekly fees are high for in-home daycare, same as what we're paying for her to be a nanny. I'm in a LCOL area, for what it's worth. I'm curious about what others have done while on maternity leave and trying to get 2 kids into an in-home daycare?

jbatch

I run a daycare center and we do not charge a weekly charge to hold a spot..

FemShep

For infant care, we didn't pay a weekly holding fee.  We put a deposit down on the spot ($250, I believe), but did not pay a weekly fee.

It seems odd to me to pay the same fee for a shared in-home daycare center as you would pay for a nanny.  If you have other daycare options and if you're willing to lose her as a caregiver, I'd negotiate her proposed fees as well as the "holding fee".  I'd be comfortable paying 2/3 of what I paid her as a nanny (since she'll also be taking care of other children and you'll lose some of her attention) as well as a deposit of $250 each for the spots.  On the other hand, if you love her and you don't have any other care options, you need to ask yourself if the money you'll save is worth losing a trusted caregiver.

snicksnack

I think it depends on the demand in the area.  For your infant you should not have to pay anything other than a deposit because the baby has not started and she could have another child in that spot up to that point.  Most of the daycares where I live charge the weekly rate for current children unless they have someone who can use that spot for the amount of time the other child will be out.  While it is a new daycare she has been watching your son and I would call him current. As for paying to hold the spot,  I think it is only fair because it is the person's job and how she makes a living. In your situation unles you are paying under the table it seems strange to pay an inhome the same you would a nanny daycares are less because more kids bring down the cost and she can now take on more than just what she had in the nanny share.  Additionally, there are differnt tax issues with running a business vs. being an employee.  I guess I would need to know what you are paying etc.. to say if it was fair and inline with other daycares as far as the weekly rate.  Where I live in a middle to high area in-homes run on average 175 but I have seen them as high as 250, which I would not pay for in-home considering centers are the same or not much more.  

ASmallWonder

I agree with this ^.  You give a start date for the baby and the provider works their ratio/needs around the start date.  That's one of the tricky parts of a daycare is managing the flow of children.  For the older one, every place we've ever used requires us to pay for the care we are enrolled for, regardless of whether or not we use it.  So, if we go on vacation, we pay the regular rate.  If I keep the kid home for a day, still pay.  If I had kept him home during my maternity leave we would have paid the same as if he'd gone because that's part of them managing their flow and expenses.  If your kid is taking up a slot that could be filled by a paying customer, you have to pay for it if you want to keep it.

ricekez

We're paying ~$215 per week to her, on the record (legally), then payroll costs on top of that (we pay a company to cut paychecks and do our tax forms) She's planning to charge $215/week for care, which is what the "best" centers charge for care. In-home is typically $160-$180/week in this area. The issue is that she's trying to start up, needs to keep her income, and doesn't know when she'll get more kids. But, at $215/week plus $190/week for the second kid (she's doing a sibling discount) plus a $125/week holding fee during my 12 week ML, hiring our own nanny becomes more economical. Plus we're concerned that she'll never get off the ground with her rates higher than everyone else's. I wanted to get an idea of what is normal, so that we can make some proposals to her about how to restructure her fees to something that will work for us and other families.

jlaOK

Yeah, that seems a bit much.  For DS we paid for 4 weeks of tuition ($175/week) to hold his spot but that was a very unique situation because we were scrambling to find care.  I've only ever heard of paying a deposit (amount can vary) to hold a spot, which is what we did with DD.  I'd definitely negotiate with her (maybe offer to pay a 1-time $125 deposit) and even look around for other daycare options.  $215/week and $190/week seem pretty high for an LCOL in-home daycare.

snicksnack

I think $215.00 is high for in-home.  The advantage of a nanny is she is coming to you, lower ratio etc...and you pay for that.  I would start looking and gather data you can counter her with what the going rate is and go from there.   

jf198400

Also why is she not continuing to nanny for the other family while you are on ML? If she works for them you would just need to continue paying for your one spot so she can maintain her income. Is the other family planning to use her Inhome or are they going another direction?

cecilyandgautam

Our provider held spots for long term clients who she wanted to keep - if one child started preschool and the younger sibling was just a couple months away from being enrolled as an infant, then that's a family that brings in 4+ years of reliable business. So our DCP was willing to hold the spot without a fee and take on the risk of 1-3 months of that spot being unfilled. The family creating the gap + the rest of us would blast the short term availability to all the local mom listserves and given that center wait lists are super long in our area, usually our DCP was able to get a short term client family to fill the gap. Basically, if you're told that your first choice center will have a spot for you 2 months after you go back to work, then you can either hire a short term nanny or you can look for an in-home provider with a short term opening. So our DCP kind of fills the gaps with the families in that situation and we all help get the word out to find the match. The stop gap family usually really likes DCP and comes back for back-up care, weekend babysitting, and the like. 

DH & I had talked about doing an income guarantee for our provider when we thought we'd enroll our second there but they're be a 2 month gap between DC#1 going off to preschool and DC#2 enrolling with DCP - we would have helped find a gap filler family and made up the difference of up to 3-4 weeks when there weren't any families to fill the spot on a short term basis. 

Just a couple other options!

*sparky*

What are you doing with your older child while you are on ML?  Will they not be going to this provider at all during that time?  I did look at in-home DC's and they just wanted one week of their normal rate to hold a spot, and then that deposit gets applied as your first week's fee once your LO starts attending.  Centers I looked at wanted either one or two weeks as a deposit, but you did not have to pay a weekly hold fee the whole time you were on ML to anyone I talked to.

If you are now in an in-home DC situation vs. a nanny share, then I would certainly think the rate would be adjusted.  I understand she wants to maintain her income, but she has time to look for other children to bring in.   

Katie829

Do you have an issue with in home care? Would you send your kids there (a new person) or do you like having a nanny? I thinks it's absurd the money she wants given the info about the costs of daycare in your area. She is not a center and shouldn't charge $215/wk when the competition is charging $160-$180.
Also I find it strange that she wants a holding fee when her set up hasn't changed yet. If she wants up start a business than she can incur the costs but to suddenly charge you fee to hold a spot that she can't take until she is a legal daycare seems alittle much.

ricekez

I think we're all going to sit down with her and work something out.  There are 3 families involved in our current nanny-share.  We all formed this nanny-share when our daycare center closed with 1-month notice, leaving us without care and our nanny without a job.  She's been caring for our kids since they were 12 weeks old.  I'd love to be able to keep DS with her until he starts preschool, and I already trust her to watch my newborn, so finding new care is not what I want to do. If we can work out a temporary agreement that keeps her afloat until she gets enough kids, then switch to a more normal rate (~$160/month per child), I think we can make this work.  I'm not sure how to approach maternity leave, though.  I'll offer up the ideas of paying a set deposit amount or a lower "holding fee" since she will be able to take drop-ins or temporary care while I'm on leave.  We're planning to pay through the end of April, then not pay for May and June, then resume care in July (I will go back to work early to mid-July).  We'll figure something out that covers her need to stay afloat financially and our need to not pay for care when I'm not getting a paycheck.