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jen 04:08 PM 06-04-2011
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
You are absolutely right - the cost of tuition is a bit higher at the center than at the home daycare we were in. We had wanted to use the center from the start but felt we couldn't afford it. After we weren't happy with the home daycare situation, we started looking at the center again and when we crunched the numbers, we found that with the two free weeks, it was pretty much a wash.

I just think it's a tad silly for providers to complain about parents not keeping their kids at home, yet expect them to pay for days when the kids aren't there.
It's a two way street...I don't charge parent when I'm closed due to illness (2x in 10 years) or I'm on vacation (2 weeks per year). I have to pay the same expenses each and every month to keep daycare running....if I compromise my income, I am compromising the financial health of my business and my family. That doesn't help anyone.

I've had absentee parents in the past and they are without fail the parents who complain about fees. Fortunately, I have a really great group who use daycare as NECESSARY...who truly WANT to be with their kids. Now don't get me wrong, I do have parents that drop off here and there to get stuff done and I applaud them for doing it because the don't ALWAYS do it...they take vacation time with their kids AND take time for themselves. Heck, I keep one kid 15 minutes late so Dad can do golf league...no charge. Of course, they keep dcb home one day a week most weeks because Mom has that day off and she LOVES having the extra time with her child....she doesn't expect me to lower our standard of living to accomodate her work schedule nor does she lower quality time with her child simply because she has to pay daycare tuition.

Truthfully, I think the debate is one of socio-economic differences. Families who are less affluent feel entitled to discounts and are under economic strain, whereas more affluent families are accustomed to paying for high quality services and do so willingly.
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