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wahmof3 09:14 AM 05-08-2012
How do all of you address sibling discount? I have a current DCM that has made reference to wanting another baby. DCM finally asked if I give a sibling discount. I currently do for a family but want to do away with the discount. The current family the oldest will start school in the fall. Therefore the sibling discount will "fall off".

If I tell her I no do not offer a sibling discount, I fear this family will leave and don't want to lose them completely.

So how many DCF have you lost due to not offering a sibling discount??
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Blackcat31 09:20 AM 05-08-2012
Sibling discounts aren't the norm here so it hasnt been a big issue but I can see how parents would really want (and sometimes expect) them.

Personally I would explain to the mom that the costs associated with providing care to siblings does not go down because they are related so I would not think the rates should be discounted.

Tell her you don't feed the second child half a sandwhich or give them half your supervision so why would you give them half the regualr rate? If you explain things in that concept, most (NOT all...LOL!) will completely understand.
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WDW 09:24 AM 05-08-2012
I currently only have one family with sibs... I give them a discount equal to about one free day a week for the 2nd kid... (for example - if my rate was $50/day (I WISH!!) that would be $250 a week... I take off the one day, so $200 and then divide that by 5 days a week. First kid would pay $50 a day, 2nd would pay $40.00.

I am happy to do it, but lately the mom has been complaining about wanting more vacation days, and this and that. So she kind of feels ungrateful... and honestly, all a sib discount is, is us being nice. We don't give them less care. However, in my small town, it is the norm, so I will probably continue to do it. I'm not sure I answered your question... but I tried.
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MarinaVanessa 09:34 AM 05-08-2012
I don't offer sibling discounts. I approach it like this:

"No sibling discounts are given at this time. Please understand that all children are given the same level of care therefore it would be unfair to our other clients of single children if we offered clients of multiple children a discount."
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Blackcat31 09:35 AM 05-08-2012
Nan had a great idea about sibling discounts. She said if your normal rate for one child is say $150 per week so two kids would be $300 per week, she said to tell the parents your rate is $175 per child and that you are willing to give a discount of $150 per child so they would get a "discounted" rate of $300 per week.


I don't know but seems to make sense to me.
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daycare123 09:37 AM 05-08-2012
I do not offer sibling discounts either. Siblings are just as much work if not more in most cases. Especially with the cost of everything rising i would not offer it.
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wdmmom 09:38 AM 05-08-2012
I offer a 10% sibling discount. It's equivalent to $10-15 dollars per week and since the infant is charged about $15-$25 more per week, it ends up equaling itself out.

Where do you think this DCM got the notion that there was a sibling discount in the first place? Did you used to offer one?

I would invite DCM to sit down and discuss the new childcare needs. At that time I would tell her that you don't offer a sibling discount and the new rate would be $____.
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wahmof3 10:21 AM 05-08-2012
Originally Posted by wdmmom:
I offer a 10% sibling discount. It's equivalent to $10-15 dollars per week and since the infant is charged about $15-$25 more per week, it ends up equaling itself out.

Where do you think this DCM got the notion that there was a sibling discount in the first place? Did you used to offer one?

I would invite DCM to sit down and discuss the new childcare needs. At that time I would tell her that you don't offer a sibling discount and the new rate would be $____.
I think she was just "asking" if I offer one. I hope she is just planning ahead. I do have one family that is currently on a sibling discount and I lose a hefty $50 per week because of it (not to mention my loss during the summer)
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snbauser 10:24 AM 05-08-2012
No sibling discount here and I have never lost a client by not offering one. I currently have one set of siblings and have younger siblings of 4 other currently enrolled children on my wait list.
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Solandia 10:34 AM 05-08-2012
No sib discount here. I have had many sibling sets in care over the years. When asked why? My answer: I provide a loving, stable, affordable environment for your child(ren). My fees are such that I cannot/willnot offer discounted care.

The real reason: Siblings, in general, are more work(play boundries between sibs, older sib being bossy, etc)& are riskier financially(it is easier to fill one opening than two/large amount of income from one family). Also, in general, parents of 2 or more in care tend to do more errands on the way home from work and use more daycare time than parents of one. I have never had anyone leave because of a lack of sibling discount (and it IS standard in home daycares in my area--about 10%). There has never been a benefit to me to offer a discount like this.
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Kim 10:37 AM 05-08-2012
Originally Posted by wahmof3:
How do all of you address sibling discount? I have a current DCM that has made reference to wanting another baby. DCM finally asked if I give a sibling discount. I currently do for a family but want to do away with the discount. The current family the oldest will start school in the fall. Therefore the sibling discount will "fall off".

If I tell her I no do not offer a sibling discount, I fear this family will leave and don't want to lose them completely.

So how many DCF have you lost due to not offering a sibling discount??
I'm glad you posted this. I was just thinking about this topic. I used to offer a sibling discount because it's the norm in my area and think I have decided not to offer it anymore. I haven't had to think about it too much but now that one of my current kids has a baby sister starting next month I'm waiting for the parents to ask about it.
My thinking is this- Just because two children come from one family doesn't mean they require any less care or use up any less resources than two kids from different families. I don't get a discount on my daycare insurance if two kids are from one family. After being burned by a family with 3 kids I really don't care for having more than one child from a family. It's like having all your eggs in one basket. When those 3 kids left with no notice it was half my income and I gave the family a sibling discount for the 3 yrs they were here. Add that 10% up over 3 years and it's a great deal of lost income for the same amount of work and cost on my end as non-siblings. I certainly hope not to lose families by not offering it but I felt taken advantage of when I did offer it.
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bgmeyers 10:41 AM 05-08-2012
I don't do a sibling discount.
If I were to offer this, I would have to make up the difference somewhere else.
What I would like to say when this is ever brought up:
I am not willing to budge on my healthy meals, fun crafts and certainly not on the clean, safe environment I provide. I guess I could just raise everybodies rate to make up for your "discount", but then they would be subsidizing you, and how is that fair?
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Heidi 10:42 AM 05-08-2012
I currently do one because I had a family join my group when with 4 children, and it was right when I was restarting my daycare after 10 years away, so I needed to get something going.

As they age out, I will no longer off the discount. This family may end up leaving over it, but like a pp said, they tend to want a lot of "special". Then there's the family dynamics (lots more work), the behavioral stuff (arrg), and the whole "there's a hoard invading my house every morning". lol
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wahmof3 11:11 AM 05-08-2012
Thanks for all of the great responses!!!

So can I play the "I have to charge this amount because the if the state found out they would reduce the rate they pay me" card???

Along with the fact that care isn't reduced etc, etc???
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MarinaVanessa 12:18 PM 05-08-2012
Originally Posted by wahmof3:
Thanks for all of the great responses!!!

So can I play the "I have to charge this amount because the if the state found out they would reduce the rate they pay me" card???

Along with the fact that care isn't reduced etc, etc???
Actually yes you can!!! (sorry for the excitement, this is like an ephiphany for me lol) You can't charge subsidy clients more than other clients so you can say that if you gave them a discount then you'd have to lower your subsidy clients fee also. This is a great point that I wouldn't have thought about. I'll make sure to add this to my list of reasons thanks
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cheerfuldom 01:41 PM 05-08-2012
I dont offer a sibling discount. I also have never taken care of siblings in my daycare before and I feel that is a main reason why. Still, i would rather not take the risk of having too many kids from one family because I only take 4 kids at a time right now.
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momma2girls 01:43 PM 05-10-2012
I used to do a $25.00 a week discount on the 2nd child. I stopped this about 3 yrs. ago. I do still give a $10.00 a week discount. There are only a few of us around here that give any sort of sibling disc. at all.
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Mydaycare 02:12 PM 05-10-2012
I'm in az and most providers in my area offer a discount for siblings and I do too. But reading all the replies I see a lot of good points that I will star explaining to the new parents.
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Ann B. 02:45 PM 05-10-2012
I would never ever ever offer a discount simply because you are bringing more than one child of yours to my daycare. The state dictates to me how many children I can care for at any one given time. That in turn dictates to me just how much money I can reasonably expect to make. If you have 3 children and you would like to enroll them with me I am more than happy to care for you child but why should I give a discount? If you take your children to the doctor or dentist do you get a discount because you brought more than one to them? I think not. Makes no sense to me to discount my hard earned service I provide!
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Countrygal 03:41 PM 05-10-2012
I do not give a sibling discount. I opted INSTEAD to give a prepay discount. I figured if I gave both I might as well watch the kids for free!

So, if the family pays on the first for the entire month, I give them a 25 dollar discount, which amounts to about 15 cents per hour for the second child. I felt that was fair, because paying ahead is more beneficial to both parties.
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Lucy 07:43 PM 05-10-2012
I quote a slightly higher price, then say "but I give a sibling discount, so your price will be X", which just happens to be my regular price. Win/Win
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Creek 07:49 PM 05-10-2012
I don't offer a sibling discount, and never will. My care would not be discounted for an additional child - be it a sibling; so my rate will not go down either. A space is a space. I have two siblings right now, the parents had no issue, and never even asked for a sibling discount. One of my other families will be placing their 12m old with me in 3 weeks - no discount there either.
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Christian Mother 09:04 PM 05-10-2012
Originally Posted by Ann B.:
I would never ever ever offer a discount simply because you are bringing more than one child of yours to my daycare. The state dictates to me how many children I can care for at any one given time. That in turn dictates to me just how much money I can reasonably expect to make. If you have 3 children and you would like to enroll them with me I am more than happy to care for you child but why should I give a discount? If you take your children to the doctor or dentist do you get a discount because you brought more than one to them? I think not. Makes no sense to me to discount my hard earned service I provide!
This exactly!! No sibling discounts here.
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3girls 09:25 PM 05-10-2012
Originally Posted by Countrygal:
So, if the family pays on the first for the entire month, I give them a 25 dollar discount, which amounts to about 15 cents per hour for the second child. I felt that was fair, because paying ahead is more beneficial to both parties.
This is what I do too. I love getting paid monthly Way less stress for me and less trying to skip out on payments because of absences. The other discount I offer is for servicemen/women.
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dEHmom 06:32 AM 05-11-2012
I would recommend not doing a discount. I actually could almost see there would be an additional fee to siblings instead of reduced. They are more of a liability of you losing your income. If they leave, you are sitting on more empty spaces.

I would simply say, that you cannot offer discounts on multiple spaces, as you are limited to the number of spaces, and they are using the space no matter what.
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