Naptime

[Daycare Mommy]

Originally Posted by nannyde

Yes but if you have an assistant that is not in business with you then you have to PAY that assistant for nap. It would cost me a fortune to pay a staff assistant for 2.5 hours a day to one to one a kid. It would mean that I would have all of the childs salary JUST for nap time. I wouldn't have any money left over to pay that child's portion of the business expenses or my salary.

Having an assistant does not change how expensive it is to have a kid up at nap. Time is money in day care just like every other business. I don't provide service to children who do not NEED a full afternoon nap. If a parent would want that service it would cost about 25 dollars per day on top of their fee. By the time they pay my fee plus the extra fee for nap they might as well have a Nanny. Which is the point by the way. If you want care that results in one to one care for a number of hours a day then you must PAY for that service. I don't have that built into my fee. My fee is group care and the group takes a nap. I don't need a staff assistant during nap. I sure don't want to pay for one.

As a provider you are better off having a group of children where they all take a reasonable and fair amount of your individual time. If a child in a group is taking 2.5 hours of direct care every day JUST for nap you will loose money on that child.

Oh no. I wasn't telling anyone to hire an assistant specifically for kids like this. My point was just that it's easy for someone with an assistant to say, "Let them stay up. What's the big deal?" because maybe for them it isn't. It is a very big deal in my small house with paper thin walls and no assistant. If a 2-yr-old doesn't nap, none of the naptime work gets done and most or all of the kids will miss their nap because there's no way I can keep a kid that age quiet for 1.5-2 hours. If the parent's want a place to let him run til he passes out then they need to specify that in the interview process instead of telling the provider they will help him adjust and never follow through.