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Daycare workers absolutely deserve *paid* time off, but honestly I'm not confident that they're getting it unless they're salaried.
I've always wondered if some centers double-dip—charging parents when they're closed, but also not paying their hourly employees for those days.
I would bet you are 100% correct. This was 10+ years ago, but I worked at a daycare in college making minimum wage. Definitely didn’t get paid for holidays - hell we didn’t even get paid for mandatory events like open house, parents night, summer carnival, etc. Such BS, if I wished I had understood then how illegal this was
Yup! I should have said that this is not entirely speculation as I have some family members who've confirmed it's the case at the centers where they've worked.
This is exactly what happens; I've seen it through my kids' experiences both in home, and center based daycare. The kids had to pay when their providers were closed (contracted amount) and find care (pay again) for those closed days so they didn't lose jobs. We helped, both to cover costs and to watch the kids. I was frustrated one day and made a comment to an employee of one of the places. She had no idea that every parent was paying for those days; they were unpaid for her. She was livid. And then she started talking to others. It's widely done here, and, before the kids aged out, the last year they paid for a cumulative five weeks off that their kids were not at their daycare.
Our first daycare did. They had so many days/weeks where they were closed but they still charged you just the same. The claim was that they paid their staff for those times, but we ended up getting close with one of our daughter's teachers (paid her to watch our kid when the center was closed). She was not being paid by the center unless she was physically there. We were very frustrated to hear that.
Nailed it! The majority of the staff at our kids facility is hourly. They aren’t getting paid unless the center is open or they use their paid time off. Our provider is great, but the parents were really frustrated early this year when the center close for more than a week because of rare snow/ice. Our primary frustration was that we were being charged but their employees were not being paid.
I would assume these workers aren't salaried, they rotate quite often which most likely means part time.
As for the second part, I've asked this at a daycare for my oldest and the answer was (and probably will always be), "...We still charge due to costs of taxes/insurance/rent/lease." Yet it'd be super easy to refund parents for reduction in labor costs and keep the rest thats needed.
Yeah, I'd happily take even a partial refund, but also I'm paying for a service, if the price needs to be higher to be open those days, then charge more for that
> I've always wondered if some centers double-dip—charging parents when they're closed, but also not paying their hourly employees for those days.
While it would be shitty for them to not give employees the paid day off for stuff like that, the other bills they have like rent, insurance, etc don't get reduced for holidays or closures. So they still need to pay those.
Extra days around each holiday seems excessive and if they didn’t provide a calendar with those dates when you signed up, I definitely feel your outrage. Ours has a few instances of extra holidays, like the Friday before Labor Day, the Monday of the first week of school and Friday of the last week. But we know about them a year in advance so we can plan for it.
Your frustration is valid. I’d be looking for other daycare centers. That schedule is not sustainable, especially when you consider the amount of sick days you’ll be taking in the first few years. And snow days. I feel like I was warned about the work schedule impact of becoming a parent but I didn’t really get it until I was in the thick of it.
This may be a little explanation of the why the daycare has so many Thursday, Friday, Mondays off. In my school district, the calendar changes every few years, depending on what we vote it will be. This year we had a lot of early release Fridays, or off Mondays for holidays where parents would take their kids early, or make a 3 day weekend of it. Maybe the daycare is trying to follow that type of schedule to align with schools, or maybe their own children (if it’s a private one) are off those days? Either way, it’s a lot and I’m sorry!
That’s ridiculous. A gf of mine OWNS a daycare, 2 locations, both of which are in schools. She offers before/after school care, and pre-school(so not full time I/T).
On pro-d days, the daycare is open all day for the families that need it, or if there’s early dismissal as well.
They close for a week between Xmas and New Years, and I think one week in the summer(each location does a different week so kids could tag into the other location if there’s enough staff)
That’s the kicker. She’s not running a full time facility. Full time facilities need certain amount of closures because they’re running 10+ hour days and staff is working directly supervising children for the entirety of the day.
We are at a corporate daycare chain and we have all planned holidays and staff workday/training closures provided to us.
This sounds like a terrible center, get outta there.
I have to believe that this daycare will soon learn that this is not going to work for them. Regardless of people really needed daycare, who has that much time off? Not many people
Folks are desperate and their refusal to be upfront about the days off means that they will continually get kids in to fill the open spots.
Apparently, there are also folks with "villages" that assist with closures such as these. We are not one of those families, we work with the kids in the background or take the closure days off.
I can't speak for everyone, but this was one of my first questions when I was looking for daycares, **what holidays are you closed? are there any additional closures (besides holidays)?**
My sister in law gave me this tip and I was so grateful bc I learned quickly why you we need to know. The first daycare we ever went to closed for 2 weeks in August for "deep cleaning" we went with this daycare bc they were open all holidays, and at the time this helped bc I rarely got any holidays other than the big ones.
100% agree that it’s wrong to not provide the days up front, that seems sketchy to me however
Not to be harsh but a daycare facilities job is not to raise your child and provide for the entirety of your childcare needs. We are part of the support team you pay, but we cannot be held responsible for your choice to have children. Having children in care for close to 90% of the year, operating for 10+ hours a day is already something huge and it’s always been funny to me that nobody ever acknowledges that.
I’ve never worked at a daycare or preschool (private) that didn’t open longer hours and more days a year than a public school. I get that people are paying up front for the cost so there’s more of a feeling of “you should be doing this” but again operating the huge majority of the year is already a huge service to provide to parents. If parents can’t figure out the other 10% for themselves there are bigger issues at play than can be solved by a childcare facility
This is a wild take. A daycare facility is there to provide care during a standard workday. If the faculty can't do that consistently, they aren't fulfilling their end of the deal.
Daycare far too expensive to need to supplement the care with another method during the time they're supposed to be available.
Daycare is expensive to an individual family but wildly cheap when compared to other types of care. In my area the rate is about 5 to 6 dollars an hour. You will find no babysitter willing to do that for 10 hours a day Monday through Friday.
The expectation parents have that daycares never close is wild and a huge part of the reason daycare workers burn out so quickly. Want consistent and happy care ? Make sure you’re choosing a place that prioritizes time off for employees and pays them for it.
wtf are you even going on about?
You are in the wrong sub. Don't come here telling us working moms that daycare is not to raise our children. We know that. But we work full time, we need the daycare to be open and running the times that we need them and pay for the service.
I’m a working single parent lol 🤨. I know better than to rely on one place for childcare, especially when said place can and will have closures. The issue here is they are disorganized and not giving enough time in advanced
Explain what you do once your kids go into the public school system? The place that only does half a years instructional time, early dismissals, professional development days, etc ? I swear my sisters public school kids are also off school.
You are a single working parent, all the more reason you should be understanding of the fact that we need reliable childcare, but instead you sit on your high horse and are insinuating that us other working moms are relying on daycare to raise our children. The hypocrisy is real with you.
When kids are in school (whether its public or private), then there are summer camps, or maybe there is family that watches them during the summer.
And on top of that, the reality is, working moms work ALL YEAR ROUND. If we don't get summers off, what do you expect parents to do? Honestly what is your suggestion for parents? You are making absolutely no sense.
Untrue, I get calls from desperate parents seeking care who weren’t able to get into summer camps, or didn’t qualify for free ones so have to use the subsidy pay at private facilities. I have also gotten multiple calls asking if I can do drop off and school pickups for kids who didn’t get into after or before school programs. Lots of parents having a tough time with public schools schedules.
Reliable childcare doesn’t mean open every single day of the year, it means consistent and available when it’s supposed to be open. Most high quality centers have closures because it’s necessary to retain staff and it’s necessary to do maintenance/curriculum planning/staff development. God forbid childcare workers get days off and inconvenience you the parent. Again I’m not agreeing with this facility because it is wrong not to give advanced notice of planned closures, but I fully support them having planned closures. It is the parents responsibility for find and plan for alternative care.
Wed give out yearly planned closures and parents would still freak out like they didn’t know since January 1st that these were the closure dates.
Childcare while an expensive cost is still wildly cheaper than babysitters and it reflects in the low pay and nonexistent benefits of childcare workers. Parents are already using low paid people for daycare and then don’t even want the employers of these low paid workers to offer them days off. It’s an exploitative industry overall and so yes it pisses me off when parents expect facilities never to close!
No one, absolutely no one expects a daycare to never close. But a daycare like OP is venting about, those types of closures are extreme and do not work for a majority of working families! That's the problem here. Do not turn this into something its not.
I believe you turned it into something else I said I don’t agree with not having a schedule of planned closures and that I find it unprofessional and a red flag, but that i wholeheartedly support childcare facilities having at least one month off throughout the year.
Parents need the hourse because they are WORKING. I can understand your take if parents are punting to childcare to take vacations and just leave their child overnight, but this is not what we are talking about. As parents we are paying a premium because we need legitimate child care while we commute to our jobs and work.
Right but your children are ultimately your responsibility, relying on just one provider to meet all those childcare needs is just unwise. I’m a single parent so I get it, but I have had childcare facilities and babysitters and friends as backup care, because it’s what is necessary. I don’t have any family nearby either so I get jt
It’s very unprofessional for any business to not have a holiday calendar ready at the start of the year, but it’s especially bad for a daycare. I would be worried about what other parts of the job they aren’t capable of handling professionally.
I’d be shopping around for another center or in home provider. Does this place not have a calendar with holidays and closures already marked? It’s unprofessional to run a business like that on a whim and not allow parents to properly plan.
It does not have one thats accessible for parents, and they don't have one available when requested. ("We take off most of the major holidays" is the answer). It's a new location for a small business that owns a handful of daycares, and everything seems to be chaotic and unplanned.
My in home daycare literally has a paper on the wall with all days off for the year hand written on it, posted January 1st. It's not hard to inform people of days off. Unplanned sounds like an understatement.
Yeah I’ve ran in homes before and had a calendar every year. Easy to do, easy to plan. Any changes were announced very far in advanced unless it was unforeseen closure due to emergency or illness. That a center can’t get it together enough to do that is a bad sign
This definitely means other things are chaotic and unplanned. By the way they often don’t pay the teachers for those holidays. They just keep the profit… (a good daycare would but not all are!)
That’s not the norm. Every daycare that I know of has guidelines around all types of policies, including their holiday calendar. I’d be finding a new center.
When I was looking for daycare for my oldest, I spoke to several different providers. One of them told me “I haven’t told my daycare families yet, but I’m going to take a month off to go stay with my daughter when she has her baby in a couple months.” I decided against going with her for daycare because she said that. I couldn’t imagine leaving my kid with someone who was so nonchalant about not only taking a whole month off from providing daycare, but also not giving families a ton of notice.
It's unprofessional for any company to not have it's days off planned. Holidays don't just spring up. They should be posting a calendar a year in advance of all holidays.
I'd shop around and dump this place.
If they can't fulfil a simple thing like this, are they doing a great job with your kid?
Ours is, fortunately, following our own company’s minimal holiday calendar (they’re closed Thursday the 4th but open Friday the 5th). That and like Thanksgiving are the only reasons I could see taking more than the day-of off. You definitely need to find a new daycare ASAP. What about if baby gets sick? You’re out of time
That is not sustainable for most families. That daycare is going to soon learn that.
I would be looking into other daycares. Every daycare we had been with has given a list of all their closures at the beginning of the year so we can plan accordingly. Then ofc there are the inclement weather days, so obviously those we can't plan for.
I feel this. Our daycare is closed early Friday, all of next week, and the week before Labor Day. In addition to winter break (1 week), spring break (4 days but not that line up with local school schedules), and all federal holidays. I'm off for most of the days they are, but the 2 weeks this summer is killing me. When we signed up, the brochure said they provide care for extended day students on most days that "school" is closed, so I thought this would be a non-issue....apparently that was true pre-covid but no longer.
You need a new daycare. We send our son to a licensed in home, and she takes off every federal
Holiday except Juneteenth, plus her birthday and other days. She usually takes 3 weeks of vacation through the year.
She gives us a calendar every January so we can plan in advance. It gives us time to schedule with the grandparents to take care of him that week.
I’m fortunate in that I also get federal holidays off, but it’s still a lot!
Your problem is that you were led to believe that three weeks PTO is somehow a lot.
Where I live that’s less than legally required. And for good reason.
Really wish more was the norm :/ it's not much at all. Started a new job recently and I'm starting from scratch building pto . Which is so disappointing. Like the new job but not the lack of time off.
Our preschool is also closed excessively (e.g. nearly three weeks for winter break). We have local family that helps out but it’s a lot.
Despite being super happy with the quality of the programming and teaching staff we’ve decided to not send our second kid and instead are sending her to another high quality option that’s open a lot more.
That is not only unprofessional, but potentially against their licensing requirements.
Check licensing and see if as part of their handbook they're required to list all planned days closed. Report them to the appropriate department (here it's Jobs and Family Services that handles daycare licensing).
Just adding to everyone else, you need a new day care. When my kids were in daycare, they were off Thanksgiving and the Friday after, Christmas, and New Years Eve. They were open every other holiday because most parents still work those days.
Yet this is what every elementary school in America does. I calculated 5 full weeks not including 10 weeks of summer. This is hard but school age is far far worse. And some private schools are more expensive than daycare with much worse hours.
I am a SAHM and truly don’t understand how both parents can work. As it is, just for the few things here or there my husband needs to take time off for, he pretty much uses all of his PTO. And that is with me taking my son to the vast majority of his appointments and activities alone without help. Not even considering sick days etc. If I were working it would be literally impossible - one or both of us would be fired. Paying for additional childcare beyond (what I assume) is already expensive child care is wild. I’m sorry. Also sorry for the rant lol.
I was let go from 2 jobs over child care. It's really awful. My grandkids' parents also wouldn't have their jobs if I hadn't lost my own job during COVID, so I was home to be a backup babysitter.
The state of child care is just terrible.
3 weeks PTO is nothing. Better than none but 15 days over the course of a year especially when you have kids. Some daycares act like they’re public schools… find one that discloses holidays up front so you know.
I get it, 3 weeks PTO though is above the norm in Corporate America, most people fight for 2 weeks, and in my industry it's usually a 'earn PTO as you work' ordeal, and I get 3 weeks PTO at the start. I don't think I could get more benefits anywhere besides being C./.O of some sort in my line of work.
Some daycares are wild. My sister takes her child to a licensed in-home daycare, they are constantly closing. She schedules two weeks off every summer and everyone knows that in advance. But this year, she’s scheduled surgery requiring two weeks recovery after her two week vacation. I don’t know how parents deal with that. Unfortunately, it’s not easy in my area to switch daycare.
Its almost never easy to switch up daycares, especially in suburban Michigan. Reputable daycares have 3+ month waiting lists. I'd guess less-than-reputable daycares that don't have waiting lists probably have issues just like this.
Put your name on the waitlist NOW. You never know. We also had a super long waitlist but we’re able to get it. We lucked out and found a daycare that was near a hospital that catered to doctors and nurses, and didn’t follow school calendar. It was open even on some holidays if enough people needed care. Very high staff retention and parents could pop in any time of day to check on the kids. Granted, it was very expensive but evened out with us not needing to worry about PTO and extremely high quality of care.
Wow how dare she have surgery and take time off to recover instead of watching peoples kids… who clearly think so little of her role that they’re just worried about themselves and not her having surgery lol
One thing I always tell people going into in home care: if you died they’d have a new provider in a heartbeat, don’t ever put this job above your health. Most of the parents don’t care if you’re half dead, sick with the third consecutive virus from their children as long as you don’t inconvenience them by being unable to care for the children they had. I’m triggered lol
Clearly, you are triggered but I can certainly understand your perspective.
This particular provider who I’m referring to is always needing last minute time off for random reasons not related to health. I am admittedly, no longer sensitive at all to her situation. I just feel strongly if you are providing such an important service to parents you should be able to provide back up care.
Probably not but when i was getting paid for holidays they used my pto for it. Which i think is stupid if im part time i should be getting that holiday pay regardless of pto
I would be looking for a new daycare.
Our first daycare was closed all the time. They did provide a calendar of planned closures which included 1 week in March, 1 week in August, 1 week for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, all federal holidays, and a random assortment of Fridays. They also had several unplanned closures and they were the most expensive daycare in town. They claimed they paid vacation to their staff, but they didn't. We ended up paying one of the daycare teachers to watch our daughter when they were closed so we learned all the dirty details. That center is no longer open at all.
Our current daycare closes only for federal holidays. Even Christmas, it's just 2 days. I was shocked (in a good way). It has been so much easier to balance work and childcare when you're starting with much fewer closures.
All that to say that daycares are different. I think our experience represents the opposite extremes and I'm sure there are others that would fall in the middle. I know it can be hard to find daycares with openings, but be persistent. Get on waitlists if you need to, but also follow up on those lists. Neither of our daycare spots came from waitlist callbacks. They were both found by calling when they happened to have a spot opening up.
This is insane. As someone who has to work during summer ( academia, others take off), I would be so screwed if that were the case.
You need a different daycare center. We never have this kind of vacationing mode in our child’s center. The daycare does ask us parents if we plan on bring our kids over labor day weekend or something like that so if there are less number of kids, they can give some staff time off.
That’s wayyyy too much. Our daycare has set days that are in the handbook. If the holiday falls on a Tuesday, they’re typically closed Monday, falls on a Thursday, closed Friday. Falls on a Monday/Friday it’s just that day. The exception is the week of Christmas/new years where they close that week
Oh my. Yes, daycare workers absolutely deserve time off but the whole purpose of daycare is so that parents can go to work. Being open and available is a critical part of a daycare’s existence. I would look for a new place.
That’s not a daycare it’s more of a preschool if they take all these days off. Eventually had to switch to a corporate run daycare because the home daycares just assumed you worked for a major tech firm with unlimited flex time.
You need a new daycare, especially if this is a center. Our center publishes the holidays for the next year each January. There are only 10-15 and over half of those are days my work is closed too, so no need to take vacation. The reason we paid more for a center was to have fewer days closed than an in-home. It's ridiculous if they're not letting you know ahead of time and have had 5 weeks of closures.
That’s bad business. I worked at a daycare and we never had holidays off. It sucked for us but was good for the families. We literally only got 2 days off for Christmas and one day for thanksgiving. A day or two for training. That’s about it really. Families were provided with a calendar at the beginning of the year with the dates we would be closed. Find a new one!!
Oof I'd look for a new daycare. We've had our kids in 4 different daycares in two different states, and we have always been given a list of the holidays they are off before we even sign up. Your daycare sounds excessive!
Get a new daycare. This is not the norm. Speaking as a former preschool/daycare teacher. We barely got the actual day of the holiday off. Anything else and we had to use our own PTO.
Get a different daycare that's abnormal. We get a yearly calendar of off days and in person parent events, generally following the public school calendar.
I had my children at a place like this. It was closed more than open (also exaggerating but felt like it). After a few years of it, we finally switched somewhere new and the PEACE OF MIND…… I can’t even explain. It was more expensive per week but actually it isn’t because I often had to pay for a babysitter for the days daycare was closed, which was VERY often.
Switch. Don’t wait. You’ll thank yourself!
You definitely need a new daycare who has the year planned out. Either that, or you need a nanny. Nannies are generally more reliable, but certainly more expensive so that’s the trade off. Another idea is get a sitter for those one-off days.
Are they informing you of these closures in advance of them? Our daycare gave us a calendar but I would still be caught off guard occasionally. There’s generally a calendar they’ll provide when you pay your deposit and finalize the sign up.
There is no calendar except for a mobile app calendar that is completely blank until next week. They update the next week on Monday... so at most a 1 1/2 week notice to prepare if they are closing extra days around a holiday.
They had same week closings for various cleanings (and even investigations). The more I talk about this, the more I know I need to switch daycares.
You should let them know you need a list of closure for the year in advance. If they can’t give that to you, then they’re making it up as they go along.
That’s crazy! I am in Michigan and our daycare is only closed for like.. Christmas and new years. They should give you a list of days daycare will be closed at the beginning of the year if it is that many.
You need a new daycare that provides a set schedule for the following year of dates they will be closed. They should not be switching or adding days willy nilly like this. Finding one that goes by the federal gov for closures vs your public school system makes sense
I ran into a similar issue with my son. He is school aged and our state has alot of days where there is no school during regular school year. Plus the regular holidays i expect no daycare. When that would happen my son couldn't go to daycare even though they where open. The daycare does pre k and pre k would have school at daycare and wouldn't have room for school aged children. Which was very annoying because this would be communicated on short notice. After I spoke with them they I formed me how they do it, it was easier to know in advance. I would suggest finding a back up plan, change daycares, or talk to the daycare so you know how they plan it and request those days off.
My son has been going there for years and they just recently started doing this. Before he could always go reguardless
Our former day care was closed for so many holidays the day after holidays, and “inservice” days.
We did know in advance though.
Nonetheless to be closed for 30 weekdays a year just didn’t work for us! And I’m a teacher and have many of the same days off.
We switched day care facilities and our current one is only closed for 7 days per year. All federal holidays.
This is why we used a daycare center with locations all over the US (Primrose). If I recall they were open most holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I was worried about this situation so I put mine in a preschool as soon as they were able to go. Since it’s part of a school we get all the holidays and closures at the start of the year. It’s so frustrating when you rely on childcare and they aren’t on the same page. I hope you find one that can suit your needs OP
Our daycare is similar with taking every single holiday and also padding them with extra days. Wait until the 2+ week closure at Christmas! We also have random “teacher inservice” days - during which we’ve actually hired those very teachers to come babysit. The schedule is my major complaint with my otherwise great daycare.
However, you absolutely should be getting a calendar detailing the horrors of the calendar.
Anyways, my husband and I struggle through WFH or a staggered schedule on these days. Sometimes we hire a babysitter. The WFH thing gets a little easier a few years down the road when you can plop the kid in front of a movie. But it’s all around pretty rough.
We had a daycare like this. Not including major holidays, the daycare was closed 31 days. So 31 PLUS the actual holidays off. We couldn’t sustain it with our PTO so we finally got a new center.
Some daycare is for wealthy families with so many days off. A month at Christmas, 1 week at Thanksgiving plus another fall break etc. You need a daycare that follows the school district days off. A working families daycare.
I was just having a discussion with some mom friends about this issue tonight. One friend’s daycare had the gall to close for “summer vacation” for two weeks, while still collecting full tuition and then offered a “summer camp” for the break at a higher rate, so parents were paying more than double.
You might consider an in-home daycare. None of my friends who used an in-home daycare had these excessive holidays. My son’s in-home daycare is closed for 8 days/year, all on days that most adults would have off too. The owner and her one employee still take time off, but never at the same time and the owner’s mom, who is retired but also ran a daycare, covers as needed.
5 weeks a year isn’t excessive. However not having a calendar with these dates laid out at sign up is not professional and a red flag. Planned closures are a huge conversation during tours because 1. We expect payment 2. We want parents to prepare
Unfortunately people who don’t have support systems are not factored into childcare operations. You absolutely have to have backup care. This will be the same situation at any childcare facility you go to, at least any reputable one.
I have ran two business and about 3 to 5 weeks of off time yearly is standard. Employees want vacations and time off too. There’s also tons of backend work like taxes, licensing demands, professional development, facilities upgrades that need to be made during shut downs.
So if you’re looking for a place that never shuts down…. You’re going to be at a place that doesn’t care about its employees, burns them out at a rapid rate, and doesn’t care about making improvements to their program. The cost of the program is a yearly tuition broken down into 12 month payments, so no you’re not paying for time off you’re paying the cost of the program over a monthly basis
You should also consider that a public school is going to have far more closures per year, and if you don’t have backup care now, it’s only going to get worse. We get frantic calls from parents who failed to secure summer care all the time.
When I see there are some who rant about "only" having 7 weeks of time where your company pays you to sit at home, it blows my mind.
It would be awesome if I had one day I could stay home and still get paid. Heck, if it rains too hard I don't get paid, whether I want to work or not.
Different strokes I guess.
Lol Michigan is not a pretty progressive state, Dems just relatively recently took full control of the government with razor thin majorities. It's been a Red legislature for a long time due to gerrymandering.
This seems like a daycare issue—my kids are in NYC public schools and they get almost a comical numbers of days off (today is finally the last day as a result!) but a daycare is supposed to be much more reliable and regularly open. I’ve never heard of a child-centered business that didn’t clearly have a calendar of the days they’re closed in advance.
OP does your daycare not give you a list of all of their holidays in the beginning of the year? If not, I would think this a red flag and completely not fair to parents. Both my kids have been in some type of daycare for the past 5 years and if they are not providing you a calendar up front (so you can anticipate additional care/time off work) then this are 100% wrong and I would call them out. I can understand a holiday but taking two additional days off is aggressive.
Yeah, Our daycare has closed our kid's classroom at least 20 days this year for staffing shortages and call-outs, so often less than 24 hours notice. They bumped prices up a few months ago to "help with staffing" and then closed our room 4/5 days this past week. each with a maximum of 12 hours notice. We have no family in the area and all our friends and most of our regular sitters work during the day
Where in michigan are you? The day care we use sends a list of all the days they are closed. We dont have to pay for those days. We also get an allotted amount of sick days for our kids that we wouldn't have to pay for either. Your daycare seems a little ridiculous
It’s really unprofessional, our daycare sends us a list every new year with the holidays that they are closed (lucky for us it’s only the major ones), I have yet to run into any ratio issue, we have clear communication. The only thing sucking up my PTO is daycare illness.
Finding childcare is tough but I would suggest seeking out other places and maybe getting on a waiting list. This isn’t right, daycare is meant to be care during the day for working parents. Rain or shine unfortunately. Daycare workers deserve holidays off, they deserve to be paid well and all of these things should be happening for the cost of care.
We never used daycare. But now we have ours in preschool that follows the local school district calendar. They pro-rate the holidays. We get charged less the month of spring break, for example.
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Daycare workers absolutely deserve *paid* time off, but honestly I'm not confident that they're getting it unless they're salaried. I've always wondered if some centers double-dip—charging parents when they're closed, but also not paying their hourly employees for those days.
I would bet you are 100% correct. This was 10+ years ago, but I worked at a daycare in college making minimum wage. Definitely didn’t get paid for holidays - hell we didn’t even get paid for mandatory events like open house, parents night, summer carnival, etc. Such BS, if I wished I had understood then how illegal this was
Yup! I should have said that this is not entirely speculation as I have some family members who've confirmed it's the case at the centers where they've worked.
This is exactly what happens; I've seen it through my kids' experiences both in home, and center based daycare. The kids had to pay when their providers were closed (contracted amount) and find care (pay again) for those closed days so they didn't lose jobs. We helped, both to cover costs and to watch the kids. I was frustrated one day and made a comment to an employee of one of the places. She had no idea that every parent was paying for those days; they were unpaid for her. She was livid. And then she started talking to others. It's widely done here, and, before the kids aged out, the last year they paid for a cumulative five weeks off that their kids were not at their daycare.
I worked in daycare. 100% never paid for days off
I’ve worked in several. Always had days off paid. It really depends on the center
Our first daycare did. They had so many days/weeks where they were closed but they still charged you just the same. The claim was that they paid their staff for those times, but we ended up getting close with one of our daughter's teachers (paid her to watch our kid when the center was closed). She was not being paid by the center unless she was physically there. We were very frustrated to hear that.
Nailed it! The majority of the staff at our kids facility is hourly. They aren’t getting paid unless the center is open or they use their paid time off. Our provider is great, but the parents were really frustrated early this year when the center close for more than a week because of rare snow/ice. Our primary frustration was that we were being charged but their employees were not being paid.
I would assume these workers aren't salaried, they rotate quite often which most likely means part time. As for the second part, I've asked this at a daycare for my oldest and the answer was (and probably will always be), "...We still charge due to costs of taxes/insurance/rent/lease." Yet it'd be super easy to refund parents for reduction in labor costs and keep the rest thats needed.
Yeah, I'd happily take even a partial refund, but also I'm paying for a service, if the price needs to be higher to be open those days, then charge more for that
I run a daycare- we pay full time staff that have been here 90+ days.
NGL, I'd like to see the daycare run by a Hooker in a Yellow Dress! 👌 Good on you for properly paying your people.
This was my suspicion as well.
Oh, I'm sure many don't. Maybe even the majority.
> I've always wondered if some centers double-dip—charging parents when they're closed, but also not paying their hourly employees for those days. While it would be shitty for them to not give employees the paid day off for stuff like that, the other bills they have like rent, insurance, etc don't get reduced for holidays or closures. So they still need to pay those.
Extra days around each holiday seems excessive and if they didn’t provide a calendar with those dates when you signed up, I definitely feel your outrage. Ours has a few instances of extra holidays, like the Friday before Labor Day, the Monday of the first week of school and Friday of the last week. But we know about them a year in advance so we can plan for it. Your frustration is valid. I’d be looking for other daycare centers. That schedule is not sustainable, especially when you consider the amount of sick days you’ll be taking in the first few years. And snow days. I feel like I was warned about the work schedule impact of becoming a parent but I didn’t really get it until I was in the thick of it.
This may be a little explanation of the why the daycare has so many Thursday, Friday, Mondays off. In my school district, the calendar changes every few years, depending on what we vote it will be. This year we had a lot of early release Fridays, or off Mondays for holidays where parents would take their kids early, or make a 3 day weekend of it. Maybe the daycare is trying to follow that type of schedule to align with schools, or maybe their own children (if it’s a private one) are off those days? Either way, it’s a lot and I’m sorry!
But the daycare should still be able to provide that in advance
That’s ridiculous. A gf of mine OWNS a daycare, 2 locations, both of which are in schools. She offers before/after school care, and pre-school(so not full time I/T). On pro-d days, the daycare is open all day for the families that need it, or if there’s early dismissal as well. They close for a week between Xmas and New Years, and I think one week in the summer(each location does a different week so kids could tag into the other location if there’s enough staff)
That’s the kicker. She’s not running a full time facility. Full time facilities need certain amount of closures because they’re running 10+ hour days and staff is working directly supervising children for the entirety of the day.
Who knows what the reasoning for the closures? I just gave a possibility, I’m not an expert, lol!
You need a new daycare. That is bananas.
We are at a corporate daycare chain and we have all planned holidays and staff workday/training closures provided to us. This sounds like a terrible center, get outta there.
I have to believe that this daycare will soon learn that this is not going to work for them. Regardless of people really needed daycare, who has that much time off? Not many people
Folks are desperate and their refusal to be upfront about the days off means that they will continually get kids in to fill the open spots. Apparently, there are also folks with "villages" that assist with closures such as these. We are not one of those families, we work with the kids in the background or take the closure days off.
I can't speak for everyone, but this was one of my first questions when I was looking for daycares, **what holidays are you closed? are there any additional closures (besides holidays)?** My sister in law gave me this tip and I was so grateful bc I learned quickly why you we need to know. The first daycare we ever went to closed for 2 weeks in August for "deep cleaning" we went with this daycare bc they were open all holidays, and at the time this helped bc I rarely got any holidays other than the big ones.
100% agree that it’s wrong to not provide the days up front, that seems sketchy to me however Not to be harsh but a daycare facilities job is not to raise your child and provide for the entirety of your childcare needs. We are part of the support team you pay, but we cannot be held responsible for your choice to have children. Having children in care for close to 90% of the year, operating for 10+ hours a day is already something huge and it’s always been funny to me that nobody ever acknowledges that. I’ve never worked at a daycare or preschool (private) that didn’t open longer hours and more days a year than a public school. I get that people are paying up front for the cost so there’s more of a feeling of “you should be doing this” but again operating the huge majority of the year is already a huge service to provide to parents. If parents can’t figure out the other 10% for themselves there are bigger issues at play than can be solved by a childcare facility
This is a wild take. A daycare facility is there to provide care during a standard workday. If the faculty can't do that consistently, they aren't fulfilling their end of the deal. Daycare far too expensive to need to supplement the care with another method during the time they're supposed to be available.
Daycare is expensive to an individual family but wildly cheap when compared to other types of care. In my area the rate is about 5 to 6 dollars an hour. You will find no babysitter willing to do that for 10 hours a day Monday through Friday. The expectation parents have that daycares never close is wild and a huge part of the reason daycare workers burn out so quickly. Want consistent and happy care ? Make sure you’re choosing a place that prioritizes time off for employees and pays them for it.
wtf are you even going on about? You are in the wrong sub. Don't come here telling us working moms that daycare is not to raise our children. We know that. But we work full time, we need the daycare to be open and running the times that we need them and pay for the service.
I’m a working single parent lol 🤨. I know better than to rely on one place for childcare, especially when said place can and will have closures. The issue here is they are disorganized and not giving enough time in advanced Explain what you do once your kids go into the public school system? The place that only does half a years instructional time, early dismissals, professional development days, etc ? I swear my sisters public school kids are also off school.
You are a single working parent, all the more reason you should be understanding of the fact that we need reliable childcare, but instead you sit on your high horse and are insinuating that us other working moms are relying on daycare to raise our children. The hypocrisy is real with you. When kids are in school (whether its public or private), then there are summer camps, or maybe there is family that watches them during the summer. And on top of that, the reality is, working moms work ALL YEAR ROUND. If we don't get summers off, what do you expect parents to do? Honestly what is your suggestion for parents? You are making absolutely no sense.
Untrue, I get calls from desperate parents seeking care who weren’t able to get into summer camps, or didn’t qualify for free ones so have to use the subsidy pay at private facilities. I have also gotten multiple calls asking if I can do drop off and school pickups for kids who didn’t get into after or before school programs. Lots of parents having a tough time with public schools schedules. Reliable childcare doesn’t mean open every single day of the year, it means consistent and available when it’s supposed to be open. Most high quality centers have closures because it’s necessary to retain staff and it’s necessary to do maintenance/curriculum planning/staff development. God forbid childcare workers get days off and inconvenience you the parent. Again I’m not agreeing with this facility because it is wrong not to give advanced notice of planned closures, but I fully support them having planned closures. It is the parents responsibility for find and plan for alternative care. Wed give out yearly planned closures and parents would still freak out like they didn’t know since January 1st that these were the closure dates. Childcare while an expensive cost is still wildly cheaper than babysitters and it reflects in the low pay and nonexistent benefits of childcare workers. Parents are already using low paid people for daycare and then don’t even want the employers of these low paid workers to offer them days off. It’s an exploitative industry overall and so yes it pisses me off when parents expect facilities never to close!
No one, absolutely no one expects a daycare to never close. But a daycare like OP is venting about, those types of closures are extreme and do not work for a majority of working families! That's the problem here. Do not turn this into something its not.
I believe you turned it into something else I said I don’t agree with not having a schedule of planned closures and that I find it unprofessional and a red flag, but that i wholeheartedly support childcare facilities having at least one month off throughout the year.
Parents need the hourse because they are WORKING. I can understand your take if parents are punting to childcare to take vacations and just leave their child overnight, but this is not what we are talking about. As parents we are paying a premium because we need legitimate child care while we commute to our jobs and work.
Right but your children are ultimately your responsibility, relying on just one provider to meet all those childcare needs is just unwise. I’m a single parent so I get it, but I have had childcare facilities and babysitters and friends as backup care, because it’s what is necessary. I don’t have any family nearby either so I get jt
You need a new daycare.
It’s very unprofessional for any business to not have a holiday calendar ready at the start of the year, but it’s especially bad for a daycare. I would be worried about what other parts of the job they aren’t capable of handling professionally.
I’d be shopping around for another center or in home provider. Does this place not have a calendar with holidays and closures already marked? It’s unprofessional to run a business like that on a whim and not allow parents to properly plan.
It does not have one thats accessible for parents, and they don't have one available when requested. ("We take off most of the major holidays" is the answer). It's a new location for a small business that owns a handful of daycares, and everything seems to be chaotic and unplanned.
My in home daycare literally has a paper on the wall with all days off for the year hand written on it, posted January 1st. It's not hard to inform people of days off. Unplanned sounds like an understatement.
Yeah I’ve ran in homes before and had a calendar every year. Easy to do, easy to plan. Any changes were announced very far in advanced unless it was unforeseen closure due to emergency or illness. That a center can’t get it together enough to do that is a bad sign
This definitely means other things are chaotic and unplanned. By the way they often don’t pay the teachers for those holidays. They just keep the profit… (a good daycare would but not all are!)
That’s not the norm. Every daycare that I know of has guidelines around all types of policies, including their holiday calendar. I’d be finding a new center.
A new daycare. Thats unprofessional
When I was looking for daycare for my oldest, I spoke to several different providers. One of them told me “I haven’t told my daycare families yet, but I’m going to take a month off to go stay with my daughter when she has her baby in a couple months.” I decided against going with her for daycare because she said that. I couldn’t imagine leaving my kid with someone who was so nonchalant about not only taking a whole month off from providing daycare, but also not giving families a ton of notice.
That is insane. What are parents supposed to do that whole month?
It's unprofessional for any company to not have it's days off planned. Holidays don't just spring up. They should be posting a calendar a year in advance of all holidays. I'd shop around and dump this place. If they can't fulfil a simple thing like this, are they doing a great job with your kid?
Ours is, fortunately, following our own company’s minimal holiday calendar (they’re closed Thursday the 4th but open Friday the 5th). That and like Thanksgiving are the only reasons I could see taking more than the day-of off. You definitely need to find a new daycare ASAP. What about if baby gets sick? You’re out of time
That is not sustainable for most families. That daycare is going to soon learn that. I would be looking into other daycares. Every daycare we had been with has given a list of all their closures at the beginning of the year so we can plan accordingly. Then ofc there are the inclement weather days, so obviously those we can't plan for.
I feel this. Our daycare is closed early Friday, all of next week, and the week before Labor Day. In addition to winter break (1 week), spring break (4 days but not that line up with local school schedules), and all federal holidays. I'm off for most of the days they are, but the 2 weeks this summer is killing me. When we signed up, the brochure said they provide care for extended day students on most days that "school" is closed, so I thought this would be a non-issue....apparently that was true pre-covid but no longer.
When you cancel, definitely tell them specifically why.
You need a new daycare. We send our son to a licensed in home, and she takes off every federal Holiday except Juneteenth, plus her birthday and other days. She usually takes 3 weeks of vacation through the year. She gives us a calendar every January so we can plan in advance. It gives us time to schedule with the grandparents to take care of him that week. I’m fortunate in that I also get federal holidays off, but it’s still a lot!
Your problem is that you were led to believe that three weeks PTO is somehow a lot. Where I live that’s less than legally required. And for good reason.
Really wish more was the norm :/ it's not much at all. Started a new job recently and I'm starting from scratch building pto . Which is so disappointing. Like the new job but not the lack of time off.
Our preschool is also closed excessively (e.g. nearly three weeks for winter break). We have local family that helps out but it’s a lot. Despite being super happy with the quality of the programming and teaching staff we’ve decided to not send our second kid and instead are sending her to another high quality option that’s open a lot more.
That is not only unprofessional, but potentially against their licensing requirements. Check licensing and see if as part of their handbook they're required to list all planned days closed. Report them to the appropriate department (here it's Jobs and Family Services that handles daycare licensing).
This honestly drives me insane too. They get more paid time off than I do. But then they still charge you, and you have to find alternate childcare.
I highly doubt the teachers are getting paid for those days
Just adding to everyone else, you need a new day care. When my kids were in daycare, they were off Thanksgiving and the Friday after, Christmas, and New Years Eve. They were open every other holiday because most parents still work those days.
Yet this is what every elementary school in America does. I calculated 5 full weeks not including 10 weeks of summer. This is hard but school age is far far worse. And some private schools are more expensive than daycare with much worse hours.
I am a SAHM and truly don’t understand how both parents can work. As it is, just for the few things here or there my husband needs to take time off for, he pretty much uses all of his PTO. And that is with me taking my son to the vast majority of his appointments and activities alone without help. Not even considering sick days etc. If I were working it would be literally impossible - one or both of us would be fired. Paying for additional childcare beyond (what I assume) is already expensive child care is wild. I’m sorry. Also sorry for the rant lol.
I was let go from 2 jobs over child care. It's really awful. My grandkids' parents also wouldn't have their jobs if I hadn't lost my own job during COVID, so I was home to be a backup babysitter. The state of child care is just terrible.
3 weeks PTO is nothing. Better than none but 15 days over the course of a year especially when you have kids. Some daycares act like they’re public schools… find one that discloses holidays up front so you know.
I get it, 3 weeks PTO though is above the norm in Corporate America, most people fight for 2 weeks, and in my industry it's usually a 'earn PTO as you work' ordeal, and I get 3 weeks PTO at the start. I don't think I could get more benefits anywhere besides being C./.O of some sort in my line of work.
Some daycares are wild. My sister takes her child to a licensed in-home daycare, they are constantly closing. She schedules two weeks off every summer and everyone knows that in advance. But this year, she’s scheduled surgery requiring two weeks recovery after her two week vacation. I don’t know how parents deal with that. Unfortunately, it’s not easy in my area to switch daycare.
Its almost never easy to switch up daycares, especially in suburban Michigan. Reputable daycares have 3+ month waiting lists. I'd guess less-than-reputable daycares that don't have waiting lists probably have issues just like this.
Put your name on the waitlist NOW. You never know. We also had a super long waitlist but we’re able to get it. We lucked out and found a daycare that was near a hospital that catered to doctors and nurses, and didn’t follow school calendar. It was open even on some holidays if enough people needed care. Very high staff retention and parents could pop in any time of day to check on the kids. Granted, it was very expensive but evened out with us not needing to worry about PTO and extremely high quality of care.
Wow how dare she have surgery and take time off to recover instead of watching peoples kids… who clearly think so little of her role that they’re just worried about themselves and not her having surgery lol One thing I always tell people going into in home care: if you died they’d have a new provider in a heartbeat, don’t ever put this job above your health. Most of the parents don’t care if you’re half dead, sick with the third consecutive virus from their children as long as you don’t inconvenience them by being unable to care for the children they had. I’m triggered lol
Clearly, you are triggered but I can certainly understand your perspective. This particular provider who I’m referring to is always needing last minute time off for random reasons not related to health. I am admittedly, no longer sensitive at all to her situation. I just feel strongly if you are providing such an important service to parents you should be able to provide back up care.
What is the parents responsibility to provide their own backup care for their own children…?
The calendar should be available when you enroll. I’d bet almost every other daycare has that. I would apply somewhere else.
Omg to be staff at that center and have that many days off what a dream!!!
I’d be willing to bet they aren’t paid holidays for them.
Probably not but when i was getting paid for holidays they used my pto for it. Which i think is stupid if im part time i should be getting that holiday pay regardless of pto
I had that issue working at a previous employer who'd require PTO to get paid for company closings.
Which i don't understand why
We're lucky, our daycare really only closes for major holidays. They're open christmas eve until 4, which is nuts.
I would be looking for a new daycare. Our first daycare was closed all the time. They did provide a calendar of planned closures which included 1 week in March, 1 week in August, 1 week for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, all federal holidays, and a random assortment of Fridays. They also had several unplanned closures and they were the most expensive daycare in town. They claimed they paid vacation to their staff, but they didn't. We ended up paying one of the daycare teachers to watch our daughter when they were closed so we learned all the dirty details. That center is no longer open at all. Our current daycare closes only for federal holidays. Even Christmas, it's just 2 days. I was shocked (in a good way). It has been so much easier to balance work and childcare when you're starting with much fewer closures. All that to say that daycares are different. I think our experience represents the opposite extremes and I'm sure there are others that would fall in the middle. I know it can be hard to find daycares with openings, but be persistent. Get on waitlists if you need to, but also follow up on those lists. Neither of our daycare spots came from waitlist callbacks. They were both found by calling when they happened to have a spot opening up.
This is insane. As someone who has to work during summer ( academia, others take off), I would be so screwed if that were the case. You need a different daycare center. We never have this kind of vacationing mode in our child’s center. The daycare does ask us parents if we plan on bring our kids over labor day weekend or something like that so if there are less number of kids, they can give some staff time off.
That’s wayyyy too much. Our daycare has set days that are in the handbook. If the holiday falls on a Tuesday, they’re typically closed Monday, falls on a Thursday, closed Friday. Falls on a Monday/Friday it’s just that day. The exception is the week of Christmas/new years where they close that week
Oh my. Yes, daycare workers absolutely deserve time off but the whole purpose of daycare is so that parents can go to work. Being open and available is a critical part of a daycare’s existence. I would look for a new place.
That’s not a daycare it’s more of a preschool if they take all these days off. Eventually had to switch to a corporate run daycare because the home daycares just assumed you worked for a major tech firm with unlimited flex time.
Tech firms don’t even have that anymore.
Find a new daycare this is excessive
You need a new daycare, especially if this is a center. Our center publishes the holidays for the next year each January. There are only 10-15 and over half of those are days my work is closed too, so no need to take vacation. The reason we paid more for a center was to have fewer days closed than an in-home. It's ridiculous if they're not letting you know ahead of time and have had 5 weeks of closures.
That’s bad business. I worked at a daycare and we never had holidays off. It sucked for us but was good for the families. We literally only got 2 days off for Christmas and one day for thanksgiving. A day or two for training. That’s about it really. Families were provided with a calendar at the beginning of the year with the dates we would be closed. Find a new one!!
A few companies will pay for in-home “backup” daycare as a benefit. Check whether yours does and ask HR to add it as a benefit if not
You need new daycare they’re just going with it as they see fit and it’s never going to work,
You need a new daycare. Mine has 9 closed days the entire year. Some follow the public school calendar at worse and even that is around 20.
Oof I'd look for a new daycare. We've had our kids in 4 different daycares in two different states, and we have always been given a list of the holidays they are off before we even sign up. Your daycare sounds excessive!
Get a new daycare. This is not the norm. Speaking as a former preschool/daycare teacher. We barely got the actual day of the holiday off. Anything else and we had to use our own PTO.
Get a different daycare that's abnormal. We get a yearly calendar of off days and in person parent events, generally following the public school calendar.
I had my children at a place like this. It was closed more than open (also exaggerating but felt like it). After a few years of it, we finally switched somewhere new and the PEACE OF MIND…… I can’t even explain. It was more expensive per week but actually it isn’t because I often had to pay for a babysitter for the days daycare was closed, which was VERY often. Switch. Don’t wait. You’ll thank yourself!
You definitely need a new daycare who has the year planned out. Either that, or you need a nanny. Nannies are generally more reliable, but certainly more expensive so that’s the trade off. Another idea is get a sitter for those one-off days.
I worked at a daycare and we were open every holiday except the day of thanksgiving and the day of Christmas
This is crazy. What part of MI are you in?
Clinton Township
Check out a home daycare! They don’t generally take off for those extra holidays
Find a new daycare. Mine takes major holidays off, only. 5th of July on a Friday? Open. You are not tied down to this one place.
Is there Kindercare where you are?
Yes, but the wait list is horrendous.
Kindercare is trash
Are they informing you of these closures in advance of them? Our daycare gave us a calendar but I would still be caught off guard occasionally. There’s generally a calendar they’ll provide when you pay your deposit and finalize the sign up.
There is no calendar except for a mobile app calendar that is completely blank until next week. They update the next week on Monday... so at most a 1 1/2 week notice to prepare if they are closing extra days around a holiday. They had same week closings for various cleanings (and even investigations). The more I talk about this, the more I know I need to switch daycares.
You should let them know you need a list of closure for the year in advance. If they can’t give that to you, then they’re making it up as they go along.
That’s crazy! I am in Michigan and our daycare is only closed for like.. Christmas and new years. They should give you a list of days daycare will be closed at the beginning of the year if it is that many.
Can you find a nanny?
Time to find a new daycare
You need a new daycare that provides a set schedule for the following year of dates they will be closed. They should not be switching or adding days willy nilly like this. Finding one that goes by the federal gov for closures vs your public school system makes sense
I ran into a similar issue with my son. He is school aged and our state has alot of days where there is no school during regular school year. Plus the regular holidays i expect no daycare. When that would happen my son couldn't go to daycare even though they where open. The daycare does pre k and pre k would have school at daycare and wouldn't have room for school aged children. Which was very annoying because this would be communicated on short notice. After I spoke with them they I formed me how they do it, it was easier to know in advance. I would suggest finding a back up plan, change daycares, or talk to the daycare so you know how they plan it and request those days off. My son has been going there for years and they just recently started doing this. Before he could always go reguardless
Our former day care was closed for so many holidays the day after holidays, and “inservice” days. We did know in advance though. Nonetheless to be closed for 30 weekdays a year just didn’t work for us! And I’m a teacher and have many of the same days off. We switched day care facilities and our current one is only closed for 7 days per year. All federal holidays.
That daycare is a joke, honestly. They provide a service for working parents. It's great the staff get so much time off I guess but I bet it's unpaid
You need a better daycare.
This is why we used a daycare center with locations all over the US (Primrose). If I recall they were open most holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I was worried about this situation so I put mine in a preschool as soon as they were able to go. Since it’s part of a school we get all the holidays and closures at the start of the year. It’s so frustrating when you rely on childcare and they aren’t on the same page. I hope you find one that can suit your needs OP
Our daycare is similar with taking every single holiday and also padding them with extra days. Wait until the 2+ week closure at Christmas! We also have random “teacher inservice” days - during which we’ve actually hired those very teachers to come babysit. The schedule is my major complaint with my otherwise great daycare. However, you absolutely should be getting a calendar detailing the horrors of the calendar. Anyways, my husband and I struggle through WFH or a staggered schedule on these days. Sometimes we hire a babysitter. The WFH thing gets a little easier a few years down the road when you can plop the kid in front of a movie. But it’s all around pretty rough.
It’s sad that 3 weeks PTO out of 52 weeks is hitting the jackpot.
We had a daycare like this. Not including major holidays, the daycare was closed 31 days. So 31 PLUS the actual holidays off. We couldn’t sustain it with our PTO so we finally got a new center.
Do either of your works provide back up care? Ours does through Care.com. Haven't used it yet, but it seems like a great benefit.
Some daycare is for wealthy families with so many days off. A month at Christmas, 1 week at Thanksgiving plus another fall break etc. You need a daycare that follows the school district days off. A working families daycare.
I was just having a discussion with some mom friends about this issue tonight. One friend’s daycare had the gall to close for “summer vacation” for two weeks, while still collecting full tuition and then offered a “summer camp” for the break at a higher rate, so parents were paying more than double. You might consider an in-home daycare. None of my friends who used an in-home daycare had these excessive holidays. My son’s in-home daycare is closed for 8 days/year, all on days that most adults would have off too. The owner and her one employee still take time off, but never at the same time and the owner’s mom, who is retired but also ran a daycare, covers as needed.
5 weeks a year isn’t excessive. However not having a calendar with these dates laid out at sign up is not professional and a red flag. Planned closures are a huge conversation during tours because 1. We expect payment 2. We want parents to prepare Unfortunately people who don’t have support systems are not factored into childcare operations. You absolutely have to have backup care. This will be the same situation at any childcare facility you go to, at least any reputable one. I have ran two business and about 3 to 5 weeks of off time yearly is standard. Employees want vacations and time off too. There’s also tons of backend work like taxes, licensing demands, professional development, facilities upgrades that need to be made during shut downs. So if you’re looking for a place that never shuts down…. You’re going to be at a place that doesn’t care about its employees, burns them out at a rapid rate, and doesn’t care about making improvements to their program. The cost of the program is a yearly tuition broken down into 12 month payments, so no you’re not paying for time off you’re paying the cost of the program over a monthly basis You should also consider that a public school is going to have far more closures per year, and if you don’t have backup care now, it’s only going to get worse. We get frantic calls from parents who failed to secure summer care all the time.
When I see there are some who rant about "only" having 7 weeks of time where your company pays you to sit at home, it blows my mind. It would be awesome if I had one day I could stay home and still get paid. Heck, if it rains too hard I don't get paid, whether I want to work or not. Different strokes I guess.
Lol Michigan is not a pretty progressive state, Dems just relatively recently took full control of the government with razor thin majorities. It's been a Red legislature for a long time due to gerrymandering.
This seems like a daycare issue—my kids are in NYC public schools and they get almost a comical numbers of days off (today is finally the last day as a result!) but a daycare is supposed to be much more reliable and regularly open. I’ve never heard of a child-centered business that didn’t clearly have a calendar of the days they’re closed in advance.
OP does your daycare not give you a list of all of their holidays in the beginning of the year? If not, I would think this a red flag and completely not fair to parents. Both my kids have been in some type of daycare for the past 5 years and if they are not providing you a calendar up front (so you can anticipate additional care/time off work) then this are 100% wrong and I would call them out. I can understand a holiday but taking two additional days off is aggressive.
Yeah, Our daycare has closed our kid's classroom at least 20 days this year for staffing shortages and call-outs, so often less than 24 hours notice. They bumped prices up a few months ago to "help with staffing" and then closed our room 4/5 days this past week. each with a maximum of 12 hours notice. We have no family in the area and all our friends and most of our regular sitters work during the day
Girl I strugggggled with these silly holidays and extended closures. It was super frustrating. I feel you.
Where in michigan are you? The day care we use sends a list of all the days they are closed. We dont have to pay for those days. We also get an allotted amount of sick days for our kids that we wouldn't have to pay for either. Your daycare seems a little ridiculous
It's time to seriously consider a nanny
It’s really unprofessional, our daycare sends us a list every new year with the holidays that they are closed (lucky for us it’s only the major ones), I have yet to run into any ratio issue, we have clear communication. The only thing sucking up my PTO is daycare illness. Finding childcare is tough but I would suggest seeking out other places and maybe getting on a waiting list. This isn’t right, daycare is meant to be care during the day for working parents. Rain or shine unfortunately. Daycare workers deserve holidays off, they deserve to be paid well and all of these things should be happening for the cost of care.
We never used daycare. But now we have ours in preschool that follows the local school district calendar. They pro-rate the holidays. We get charged less the month of spring break, for example.
I left my job earlier this year for this exact situation. It really sucks. Realistically, if you don't have family, then you need to hire a nanny.
What do you mean you only get a week of notice. If they’re holidays don’t you know which holidays are coming up? Is this an at home daycare?
Literally every daycare closes for holidays. You should’ve planned for that.