Weekend daycare is a niche child care service that can help increase your enrollment. However, weekend care can cut into a child care provider’s time with their family and gives them almost no time to rest and rejuvenate from the week. It is something that many families don’t want to sacrifice, even if they need the money and the clients. Do you offer weekend daycare? If not, why not? We asked the fans of OwnADaycare on Facebook who are daycare owners for their opinions on this matter. Here are their best responses:
- I have one family that I keep 6 days a week. Saturdays are the only day that I will do and the children must be picked up by 6pm unless agreed upon in advance.
- I used to, but would never do it again. For one, I felt my own family was being neglected because we didn’t get any “family” time, plus after a short 3 months, I was completely burned out.
- No Way! I need some time with our 10 grandkids, and time to myself to “recharge” for the upcoming week! Those who do 24/7 care should rethink that too! I just DON’T think it’s very healthy for any daycare provider to do round the clock child care. Something has to suffer along the way!
- I have one child one Saturday a month and another family who works a few Saturdays a year. I wont take any full time weekends, because I need time to catch up on cleaning, planning, and family time.
- I used to, but I had to time for me or my own kids and no time to get errands done either. I was burned out fast staying open on the weekends. Not worth the extra money.
- Yes, I limit myself to one kid or one sibling set per weekend. The family agrees to pay time and a half and also has to sign over authority for me to cart their kids around the city by private vehicle and provide any car seats if necessary so that I can complete any weekend errands if necessary. I average 1 to 2 weekends a month.
- Never, that is family time. It is so precious to us. We don’t get much of it and with my daughter she wants special her time.
- I used to when I had my daycare open. I too would only keep one or two children and the parent would agree that I could take them shopping or whatever I needed to do. But never on Sundays. I had to have one day off. You will get burned out quickly if you work 24/7. And you need to have time just for your own family.
- No way it’s parent timed on weekends. They need to spend time with their kids. Be careful you will get burned out doing that. You need to enjoy your family and have time away from daycare time, and the kids to enjoy your life outside of daycare.
- I do. I used to work in stores and saw the problems people were having finding childcare on weekends. I close 1 weekend a month for my family time.
- I definitely do, that’s when most parents need me most! We just make them a part of our family and enjoin them in our family time/activities. Weekends time is packed full of fun picnics, cook-outs, holiday parties, and so on! The kids enjoy the activities, but most of all, they love belonging to the daycare family. The parents especially appreciate our flexibility. A lot of my parents are nurses who work 11a-11p, or 7a-7p weekends. I also have a parent who works at 5:30a and drops their child off at 4:15a. Being a childcare provider is who I am, not just what I do. The weekend experiences ENRICH our family time on the weekends, not take away from it.
- No, I need a life. I have a family and need time to mentally prepare myself for the week. You will experience burn out for sure. You can’t spend so much time taking care of other kids when you aren’t taking care of yourself and yours.
- No way. I need time to myself and time with my own kids and family. We are cooped up in the house 5 days a week. I would completely burn out if I was cooped up in the house 7 days a week, every week.
- Sometimes kids just don’t say it out loud but they would really like to have their parents especially their Mom just to themselves. I also did what you do when my kids were little and it was not until we had to have family counseling that I found out my kids really resented having to share me every day. My husband and I were really very sorry that we did that at that point. We were trying to show our kids that it was nice to help out other people, but it back fired. The reason we went to family counseling you ask is because our son started to act out because he wanted to just spend some time with just his family and not have to share us all the time. My kids are not spoiled our selfish, they have now grown up to be wonderful people and very good parents themselves but there can be a downside to what you are doing. Money is not everything. Just something to think about…
- I do and it’s rewarding only when if you have help because you need time off. Me and another provider only accept weekend kids if the parent agrees to alternate with us…so I work every other weekend! It works perfectly. If you take vouchers just have the parent add both providers to the voucher for alternate weekends!
- No way! When my son went to counseling w me, he vented on how he loved the kids that came here but felt shoved aside and that I didn’t spend enough time with just him! I felt horrible! Our children and our families need to always come first- even when it’s hard to say no!
- I used to but not anymore .I have a bad back and need time to recharge and hang out with grandkids. When I did they went everywhere with me and went to all family things. Most of them were single parent families and the kids loved being part of an extended family. My family treated them like family and they got presents like the rest did at Christmas & other holidays. Careful for burn out though.
- Like someone had mentioned, when providers do 24/7 care something else has to give along the way. My families can honor me by honoring my family time and I will honor them by providing the best care I can. They can and do this by, picking up earlier on Fridays, don’t be late and never request care on the weekend. I knew a provider who would do care on the weekend at a premium cost. She had a VERY high weekend rate (I believed it was $150/day per child). Family time is way too valuable. We often make sacrifices financially in our own family to cut down on my husband’s overtime so we can spend time with him. No amount of income can/will replace that time.
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