in home day care vacation policy

dglvrk2 · October 2014

Curious.....

For those of you who send your children to in home/private day cares, what are the providers' vacation policies like? Do they take 1-3 weeks paid vacation each year? If so, do they get substitutes or have their assistants work longer hours? Or do they shut down their business entirely?

I fee we have our two daughters at a well run in home day care. However, they shut down for a week or two each year, completely. We're on our own to find day care. We have to pay still as it's the provider's paid vacation. However, we pay double for day care (provider and back up) for two weeks out of the year this way. Is this the norm?

vvvvvfee · October 2014

unfortunately, i think it is the norm for in-home daycares. daycare centers tend to be closed less.

DS has been in 2 in-home daycares. one was just one woman- she took around 2 weeks of vacation plus all major holidays.

his current DC is an in-home, but the owner has 4 employees. they are closed even more- a week at christmas, a week in spring, and a week in august, plus all holidays.

at both we still had to pay for all the days they were closed.

in our state, at least, they are entitled to take up to 2 weeks of vacation plus holidays. (i do wonder why at his current daycare, with the owner plus 4 staff, that they can't rotate which staff are there for the april/august breaks, so they could be open during those 2 weeks.)

sdlaura · October 2014

That's the norm for us. Our in home provider gets 2 weeks paid vacation per year, plus 6 personal days, and holidays (including between Christmas and New Years, when we still have to work), during which she shuts down entirely. This year she's actually taking 3 weeks and having us not pay them during one week. We were only able to make that work because it coincided with my maternity leave for #2. Otherwise, we try to take vacations when she's closed and also try to time my parents or in-laws coming to visit when they're closed, so that we don't have to take vacation for the full time.

One way I have chosen to view it, though, is that I (knock on wood) almost never have to take time off because a kid is sick. I expect that if I had the two kids at a center, I would have to take more time off because the kids would get sick more, even though the center would be open year-round.

Pips09 · October 2014

Yes, I think that's the norm for an in-home. We used to use one, and she got two weeks off (one in the summer and one at Christmas) where we still paid full tuition, but she was closed.

caladpi02 · October 2014

Our in home provider has three kids of her own, so she follows the school holiday/calendar and we have two weeks at Christmas/NY, 3 days over Thanksgiving, 2 weeks in August of her personal time plus spring break and all holidays. It sucks but it is still cheaper than a nanny.

fitmom82 · October 2014

I used a SAHM who watched a few kids, not as formal as a home daycare. I only paid when DD went, so the once or twice she cancelled on us, I didn't pay. She also only watched teacher's children so she had the summer off and several other holidays and breaks throught the yeat.

dashofreality · October 2014

Normal. When we went to an inhome she would tell us months in advance when her two weeks would be and she did take them a week at a time. So we would try and plan our vacation on the same week. Her backup was her husband so no backup. Even with the challenges, it has still been our favorite DCP to date.

BabyHope2013 · October 2014

We are in an in-home and our provided does not charge us when she is not open. She closes for the two weeks around christmas and new years, thanksgiving and the day after thanksgiving and then the other standard holidays (4th of July, Memorial Day and Labor Day). She will also typically take off another additional 5-6 days total spread throughout the year. She gives us her entire vacation schedule in February for the following 11 months. DH and I then usually plan our vacation days around her schedule. She never closes, even if she is sick because she has two assistantships and a few people on back-up that she can call if she still needs an additional person.

In addition, we get 10 days per year that we can use whenever we want to not have DS go and not have to pay. The only catch is that we have to notify her by 8 a.m. on the day we want to use one of those days to use them. Any days we don't use, we bank and they roll other into the following year. I don't know any daycare's in-homes or centers around us that still do anything like this. We frankly forget to use them unless we are going to take a vacation. We have two weeks banked right now and will get another 10 in January.

Typing this remind me how lucky we are to have the daycare that we do.

junebugrbig · October 2014

We've used an in home DCP for 6 years. It has gotten even more challenging with now my DS is in school. She will not care for him on his days off any longer (exceeds her max age). I have been trying to balance his days off, her days off and days we need to be off from work for appointments vacation etc. She has two weeks of paid leave plus 5 sick days (all paid) plus numerous late openings and closings for doctors appointments and such. This year she actually exceeded her contract leave time so now everything she takes off is unpaid and she has already notified us of additional days she is taking off in December. It has gotten to the point that it is unmanageable and we have lost all of our backup care, so we are looking for a center to find a more stable schedule. It makes me sad thought because she is great. The unfortunate downside of in home DCP I suppose.

kimberlybethh · October 2014

At our old in-home daycare they took two full weeks of vacation a year plus multiple days off around the holidays that aren't traditional employer recognized vacation days (July 5th, Dec 30th, Easter Monday, etc.). We loved the provider but it was a pain to arrange for alternate care.

We moved about seven months ago and enrolled our kids in another in-home daycare. Per her contract, she has one full week of vacation a year but she prefers to take days off one at a time rather than a whole week. In the event that she does take a whole week off we do not have to pay for that week or she will pro-rate the week if she takes two or more consecutive days off. She also gives a month's notice for any vacation time and will usually try to take off a different day if the original day doesn't work with one of the parents.

If we are gone on vacation for a whole week we only have to pay 50% of the weekly rate. This is only for one week a year though. I feel really lucky we found someone that is so reliable but do feel a little guilty sometimes that she doesn't have more breaks.

EllebyLove · September 2017

Good Afternoon. This is all new to me and I am curious about something. If someone could assist me in understanding how this works with In Home Daycares. Aren't they considered to be self employed? With that being the case, why would I being paying for their vacation...? I am currently having this argument with another provider because I don't care how you place it, it doesn't make sense to me at all. I have to pay double because you, being self employed, decide to take a vacation. um.. no... you pay yourself for your vacation. I didn't employ you. I am paying for a service that you are providing, so why would I have to pay for 3 weeks out of a year when the service is not being provided because of YOUR absents??? #HelpMeUnderstand

lovesclimbing · December 2017

EllebyLove said:

Good Afternoon. This is all new to me and I am curious about something. If someone could assist me in understanding how this works with In Home Daycares. Aren't they considered to be self employed? With that being the case, why would I being paying for their vacation...? I am currently having this argument with another provider because I don't care how you place it, it doesn't make sense to me at all. I have to pay double because you, being self employed, decide to take a vacation. um.. no... you pay yourself for your vacation. I didn't employ you. I am paying for a service that you are providing, so why would I have to pay for 3 weeks out of a year when the service is not being provided because of YOUR absents??? #HelpMeUnderstand

First off, people are free to charge whatever they want for their services. They don't have to change their payment structure just because you think they should.

Second, self-employed people DO charge for their vacation, I don't care what they or you say. They can do it one of two ways. They can either charge you for the days they're gone, or they can raise their rates for the days they're there.

If someone is "not charging you" for their days off, trust me, they are. They just have the cost for that built into their regular rate. It may make the customer feel better, but the customer is still paying for it. If you paying for their vacation that way makes you feel better, find a different daycare provider that structures their fees that way.

In the last place my husband and I rented, we didn't pay for electricity, water or heating fuel. We paid one lump sum to the landlord. Guess what? Just because we didn't see the bills or pay the individual bills doesn't mean we didn't still pay for our utilities. We did. It was just built into the rental cost.

mcgeeva · July 2018

It’s the norm that some close down for week vacations. My friends that go to other home daycares do that but mine was run by two sisters who never closed ever. One would go to Peru for a month every year but a lady Mary would come in her place so it was always open and running. Paying double stinks but honestly it wouldn’t even be different at a bigger Center. They take teacher work days instead.

knottie25bab040292fce6a · August 2024

I am a daycare provider and have been for 30 years. Why do I not deserve a paid vacation just because I am self employed and work at home? You may want to stay home with your child because you will find daycares do take vacations and days off with pay and it’s well deserved. If you really like who you chose instead of complaining why not practice saying to yourself this person is taking care of the most precious important person in my life. She deserves to spend some time with her family and I understand she needs to recharge. If you can’t think about that and think wow this kind of makes sense then you need to stay home with your child. Maybe open a daycare so you can work while raising your child.

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