Discussions

For myself, I call it tuition or fees owed or payment owed. Doesn’t really matter to me what it’s called as long as it’s paid haha  
 
Most of us make $3-$3.50/hr/child. So for myself, mine works out to $12.80/hr. That’s before all deductions and expenses. I am private so I don’t receive any finances from the govt for supplies or whatever. Come income tax time all I can say is yes, after it’s all said and done, I make below the poverty line lol. However, there are perks to that as well. I don’t have to pay any tax usually, just both the employer and employee portions to CPP (which is still high but will be beneficial down the road) and yes, we get to write off portions of our household bills because our homes are our place of business.  
 
I’ve never taken the time to actually figure out my exact hourly wage after expenses. It definitely takes money to run my business but I don’t live paycheque to paycheque either. Everyone’s finances are different though. It’s for sure not a job you do to make money however. But it’s the career I chose and I am happy

For all those saying you are paying for a service not being provided...as an employee wherever you work, do you not get paid holidays??? In my opinion, you are then getting paid for not showing up to work. Everyone is entitled to paid holidays, whether you work for someone else or are self-employed. It is a time to recharge our batteries, spend time with our families, travel, and basically get some R&R. And as a provider, I can guarantee you that recharging my batteries is necessary. I ask for a measly one paid week per year. I take a second week unpaid. Like others have said, you are paying for your spot. Being a daycare provider, especially an in-home provider is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting just like many other jobs outside the home and the pay isn't the greatest. Would you rather drive your provider into the ground because she can't afford a week off without worrying about paying her bills and close the daycare entirely to work somewhere she's respected and given two weeks paid holidays, or suck it up and pay her what she deserves. You are entrusting her to spend more time with your child that basically you do. Not allowing her some much deserved R&R is a blatant lack of respect. I have been extremely fortunate to have amazing parents come through my daycare who have appreciated and respected me.

I disagree actually. Not everyone is entitled to paid holidays and many places of employment do not offer paid holidays. Paid holidays are a privilege, not a right.  
 
Self employment and working for someone else have different rules, benefits, disadvantages, pros and cons and can’t be compared to each other. Just because someone else receives paid holidays at their job doesn’t mean that everyone else should. Self employed get a lot of benefits that others don’t but they’re not trying to get the same as us. Different jobs, different benefits. We can’t have it all so we have to choose a job and benefits that work best for us.  
 
For example, My husband receives vacation pay on his paycheques but not paid holidays. It is up to him to save that money from his paycheques and put towards his holidays, if he takes any.  
 
If it’s in a providers contact, then so be it, people have the choice to go elsewhere if they don’t agree to it....but paid holidays for self employed is not the norm.

Home day care is self employed.  
 
They are not entitled to stats; their own sick days; or paid holidays.  
 
If they state in their contract that this is so and the parents sign it; then the parents have to abide to the contract. Saying that a contract is in place for that time period and can't be changed in the middle of the contract. Unless a written agreement between both parties.  
 
Now I do agree if the child can not attend for whatever reason then the fee must be paid. Whether it is being sick or the parents taking them for a holiday or any other reason.  
 
Actually if the child is sick the home day care is entitled to deny taking them that day so the other children in her care don't get sick. Not because the worker will get sick as that is irrelevant.  
 
All the expenses of the child care worker to do their job are put against their income. In self employment you are entitled to claim a part of your household regular expenses as well.  
 
please keep in mind though this is self employment and can not be compared to any other regular employment or any of their benefits.  
 
The fee to be charged is set by the self employed person. The parent either agrees to it in the contract or does not.  
 
Parents and Day care providers need to always have a written contract signed by both annually. Spelling out everything.  
 
Another side note; parents need to ask for and insist that criminal and voluntary checks are provided not just for the provider but all in their household.  
 
As to cellphones, I don't have a problem with that if just a occasional check but as there is notification notices that are made just checking isn't necessary. Remember also that many people don't have home phones land lines; they only have cell phones.  
 
Self employed is the key message to keep in mind.

Home daycare people could be considered contract employees as they should have a contract with the parent as to the terms of the care. This should i:nclude payment, hours, sick time, stat days and vacation days.  
 
My wife runs a home daycare and has a contract with each parent. She charges for two weeks of service. this eliminates the confusion of stat days and the like. You pay every two weeks for your spot, regardless if your child is there or not.  
 
She charges $300 every two weeks ($30/day) but takes 1 week paid vacation per year. In an earlier post, someone stated that her husband does not get vacation time but gets vacation pay that they put away for the time he takes off. My wife could increase her fees to cover that. The average charge for daycare right now is about $32/day. If she were to increase to that but take no paid vacation time, it would be more expensive for the parents for one year.  
 
Sick time is also something that she has in her contract. She has up to 5 days of sick time in her contract that she can use. She never has but it is there if she need it. Why you may ask. I'll tell you. Last year we had a family bring in foot and mouth disease into her daycare. She had to close down for 3 days because they also infected our own children and we didn't want it to spread. Who is responsible for her loss in wages? The family that brought it in, isn't going to pay for her lost wages so she built that in to protect her and her families (including her own).  
 
I guess what it boils down to is that there are many ways to be self employed/run a business. It is their business and can run it however they choose to. It is not up to you to tell them how they should be charging. If they want to be paid for some time off, they can put it in their contract and then it is up to you, as a parent, to decide if the terms of the contract fit you. If not, feel free to take your child to a daycare that suits your needs better. If this happened in my wife's daycare, she would wish them well and have their spot filled the next day from her waiting list.  
 
My wife has never had a problem with her parents on the terms of her contract because they see what quality care their children receive. Maybe you need to look what you are paying for.

With this same line of thinking of yours, it would be fair to say if you wanted children, you should have planned and saved to be able to afford them and their care. While I understand you said they should save up throughout the year like other jobs do, I bet if they increased rates instead of coming on here to complain about the paid holidays, you would be screaming bloody murder about not being able to pay the increased rates or how outrageous of an idea it is to do so when they already charge for days YOU decided to keep your children home. Just remember there is probably a minimum of 30 children on a waiting list full of parents willing and not bating an eyelash at the thought of paying for these 3 days of no service.  
 
Harsh words yes, but you made the decision to have children. It's not something anyone should go into blindly. I also am not assuming you did and I understand circumstances change and money only goes so far but your complaints in my opinion while are perfectly valid to you because you are the one in the situation and it's effecting you, it's difficult to take a step back and view the situation unbiased. You are trying to place the blame on your provider when it's your poor planning or situational factors effecting you this upcoming holidays. Be grateful your provider offered you a discount when they did not have to. Also, they probably would appreciate you not posting that publicly on a forum because I bet not one other parent is receiving that discount.  
 
Also Christmas doesn't have to be overally stressful to your finances, this again is a choice you make.  
 
I realize I came in like a wrecking ball at you but when you post things on a public forum, you might not always get the opinion in replies your looking for.

Another way to look at it with a bit of a positive spin would to look at it like insurance. While noone wants to pay car, house, or life insurance premiums, we do so that if anything happens the money is there to fix whatever needs fixing and more often then not, noone utilizes these services unless necessary. You pay out the butt monthly and receive nothing back in return the majority of the time. With your situation paying for these 3 days of holidays insures your child continues to receive the care from your provider.

Insurance or gym costs are not a comparison! If we don’t use it, it doesn’t cost us more to go somewhere else, we can wait and go when they are open.  
 
The guilt trip you are trying to place on the parent is ridiculous and says so much about your character. What you don’t seem to realize is that many people have to work two jobs to make ends meet. Some have subsidized spots that you are paid anyway but you’re still wanting parents to pay on top of that? That doesn’t sound like good business, It would be interesting to know how this works out come income tax time. I would make sure my tax preparer is aware of the stat days I had to pay and make a call to Revenue Canada.

If your provider is licensed and accepts subsidy they must follow different rules so paying for holidays is not an issue. This discussion is about private daycares that set their own rates and their own rules.  
 
Come income tax time providers are required to claim ALL income regardless if that income comes from stat pay, holiday pay or regular workday pay.

Private daycares are licensed too! If you’re not, how do people know if you have a criminal record check or a child abuse registry check? Or that anyone in your household may have a record? That would be reckless.  
 
I did not read that the OP was referring to an unlicensed daycare.

You can be private and unlicensed and still have all your criminal record checks and child abuse registry checks.  
 
Being licensed just changed the amount of kids you are allowed to have in your care and change the guidelines you have to follow as a provider in regards to following the Canada food guide. I am sure there are other rules too. But I would have to look into it.  
 
If your licensed and home based it's up to 8 kids in your care but your still have to follow the age rules as well.  
 
Unlicensed means only 4 kids allowed including any of your own.  
 
This discussion is about paid holidays....  
 
I am fortunate enough that if my provider takes holidays we don't pay her for those days and she gives us ample enough notice to find other arrangements so we are not paying for two places at once. I am also fortunate enough I was able to pick my own holidays this year so I took them at the same time she was away.  
 
I only pay her for stats.  
 
If she closes for sick days, she doesn't get paid. If I am sick or my kids are sick, I still pay because she is open.

In MB there are private and licensed home daycares. Private are all unlicensed. It is up to the provider to offer a criminal and child abuse check or the parent can ask as well! The only real regulation private have is their ratio’s

Of what this discussion is about. I am merely pointing out facts with regards to closing a service, charging the parents as well as expecting them to find and pay for alternative care for their child/children.  
 
It is clear that everyone operates however they want to but that doesn’t mean it’s agreeable from every standpoint.  
 
I realize that it is a very important role to be a caregiver and have respect for all who do it. We also have every right to question anything we are uncomfortable with.

when I have paid holidays I’ve paid into them through a deduction of my paycheck that lets me Aquire them. I didn’t have any holidays my whole first year until I had awuired them and after That I had two weeks. Now I have three weeks holidays. But I still pay for them the year before

Yes we do have every right to question anything we are uncomfortable with, I agree with you there. However, with this particular situation they should have questioned it back in June/July/August when they were notified of it in the summer time and agreed to do so instead of waiting and then first whining to the community on ebrandon about how unfair the situation is when it was approached in a completely logical and professional way(according to the OP, I actually have no facts here), when they should have questioned the provider in the first place and really the only place. Complaints like this are for close friends, not for community message boards. While the actual subject of questioning the morality of paying for a service without receiving it is legit, they made it personal. My aim is not to shame this person, it just drives me bonkers when people cannot accept responsibility for themselves or their mistakes and then blames the other party when they did their part to attempt to run a smooth business. While I understand what they are questioning morally because I don't want to pay for a service I am not receiving as well, they don't have a leg to stand on because they agreed to it months ago. It's also rather perturbing to see that this situation has just perpetuated the idea that if you make enough racket you just get what you want or part of what you want anyways and we as a society should not be rewarding that kind of behaviour. People should be held accountable when suittable. It would be different if they had approached their provider and explained their situation, my bet would be that they would probably empathize and offer the same deal or better.

As you so eloquently put it, parents don’t have a leg to stand on!  
 
According to the op this was all done through emails. I doubt that a read receipt is considered legally binding. Many of your choice words are clearly an open disregard to many parents who have every right to their own moral compass.  
 
I for one am pleased the op questioned this. In no way was she making a racket, as you put it. I think many people were/are unaware of the rules and regulations and how they differ dramatically in comparison. End of story