What’s With All The Day Care Openings?
Our profession is seeing and feeling the affects of an ever-changing world and it may cause us to do business differently. As I talk with other providers the same question keeps coming up. What’s happening and why?
Today’s mothers are staying in their professions longer and choosing to start their families later in life. This often provides financial security, which gives today’s women many choices that weren’t available to them had they started their families earlier in life. We now see how these choices are affecting our businesses.
Some mother’s of this generation are choosing to stay home with their babies while working out of the home so they still can be full time Moms. Some are job sharing with another person for their jobs and some are choosing to work only part time. Others are coordinating with their husbands or partners to work different shifts to eliminate day care costs completely.
What does this mean for us day care providers? First we have to plan out what we can and cannot afford, and what works with our lifestyle and commitments. We may have to tighten our budget and consider things to cut back on until we can find the right families to care for. We need to consider if we want to take the part-time children, and try to fill in the days they don’t use, or are we going to care for a family that wants a spot in your day care but will pay full time rate no matter if the child is there three days or five days.
We’re also competing against the ever-increasing number of big day care centers, before and after school programs for the school age children, and Nanny’s that come into the home. Knowing this we may want to consider what we can offer families, review how we run our day care, identify what parents are looking for and offer these things in our programs. If we had families leave, we have to stop and ask ourselves why they left. Asking parents who leave to fill out a exit survey is a great way to find out what they liked and disliked about your day care. It might surprise you.
We also need to consider the time of year we are trying to fill these spots; some months are just hard to get children. Big turn overs usually happen in May, July, August, and December and are related to school breaks or starts. If you want only full time spots don’t be afraid to explain this to parents. I’ve found that parents looking for part time spots will pay for full time if they want you. If you take a part timer, do you want to fill in the extra days and try to juggle schedules so you don’t overlap with the count of children?
Depending on what your family can afford and what you can handle will most likely be a deciding factor in making some of your decisions. Just remember the number of calls for care is out of our control. As a provider we have to choose the hours that works best for us, either full or part time or a combination of both, and go from there. Just don’t get frustrated if the plan doesn’t come together right away. The right family will come along eventually but if you have to take a part time family while waiting make sure you let them know up front that this is only a temporary situation.
Placing an advertisement in the local paper or putting a flyer in local stores (if allowed) is a good way to get your name out. Inform your day care parents that you have or will have an opening for a certain age group. Call your local day care association or your county referral line. Talk to your pastor and the volunteers in the church nursery too get your name out there. Ask other provider’s if they could give out your name if they are full. You can even check out day care postings on line with your computer but there may be a charge for the service. Also keep a file of phone numbers of people who want to be on your opening list.
Consider calling your local Crisis Nursery and working for them. They love day care providers. You fill in any days you have open and turn them down if you’re full. This can be a paid or a volunteer position. This is a very rewarding experience and you get to meet some really neat children who need our support. This extra wage could help a provider out until she is full.
With our profession we have to go with the flow and choose from what’s available. We don’t have control over who calls us or when. Sometimes we have to look at openings as a break and a good time to change things like rules and prices in our day care. I just had a family of two leave due children going to school in another school district. I’m choosing at this time in my life to cut back with my license and I’m really enjoying the slower pace so this was a great move for me. When school gets out and when my two little ones in day care are older, I will take on just one more child.
I hope some of these thoughts and ideas can help you get over some of the humps. Just remember, it’s out of our control. Good luck keeping your count of children where you want it!
Patti Jo Lawrenz
pjltips@aol.com
