S/O childcare hours

[vanillacourage]

I wonder if it's prohibitively expensive to staff. Most of my kids' daycare teachers have been young women, most moms themselves. I think you'd have to pay them $$$ to work overnight shifts with regularity, and those costs would be passed on in the form of tuition. 

[oliviapope]

When I worked retail this was such a pain in the butt. There were very few (probably 2) that had overnight hours and they weren't anywhere I felt comfortable leaving my kid.

[ttt]

Aug 16, 2015 20:53:01 GMT -5 1234FIF! said:

It's puzzling to me that big cities such as DC, as far as I can tell from listening to my colleagues, don't have many facilities that are open at non-traditional hours and you cannot tell me that everyone in this city works 8a to 5 p. So if there is a need, why has no one stepped in to fill it? Those who need it the most make too little money and have too little time to lobby for it? I would invest in a daycare that served those who worked non-standard hours.

This right here. Daycares are expensive to operate, between salaries and facilities and liability insurance, and people who work non-traditional hours generally make less money and aren't a lucrative market to serve. The probably can't afford to pay the rates required to make the center break even, let alone be profitable. 

[ttt]

I found this article. It's about Minnesota and rural areas specifically, but I have a feeling it's applicable to most of the country. And this is just about daycare in general - it doesn't even address the shortage of facilities for those who work non-traditional hours, a group that skews low-income. 

www.startribune.com/day-care-squeeze-is-hitting-minnesota-rural-families-hard/272439181/

The market for child care in rural parts of the state, especially infant care — isn’t working. Profit margins in child care can be as low as 10 cents per child per hour in the Twin Cities, and rural child-care businesses often operate at a loss.

The new infant room in Montevideo, on its own, will lose money, Hering said. Even with $10,000 from the city to build and equip the room, it will run $2,125 negative per month at $140 a week per infant, she said.

“The need is so dramatic out here, that if there’s a way to make it happen, we’re going to make it happen,” she said.

Overall, the nonprofit will be able to break even. Hering is raising rates slightly on preschool children, who require less staff to care for. Also, the school district discounts Kinder Kare’s rent, while the city and county together will pay $18,000 of the $24,000 annual lease.

In Minnesota, about 186,000 children under 6 live outside the Twin Cities, where families pay about 75 percent of the going rate in the metropolitan area — $132 weekly for in-home infant care, compared to $175 per week in the metro area, according to Child Care Aware Minnesota. Workers in southwest Minnesota, however, earn only 61 percent of what the average worker in the Twin Cities earns — $661 weekly compared to $1,087 per week in the Cities.

“Parents can’t pay out of pocket any more than they are, providers can’t afford to charge any less than they are,” McCully said.

[twotrue]

When I wrote my business plan for a daycare I looked at non-traditional hours and frankly it was too costly. And there were so many more regulations involved in overnight care. Many daycares run on a thin margin. If my 3 and 5 year projections were accurate than after five years the daycare might have been able to financially take the risk on more hours.

[calmcosmo]

H is in the navy and the CDC (military daycare center) usually has 24 hour care. I remember reading an article about it and being fascinated.

hamptonroads.com/2010/05/military-parents-working-all-hours-day-care-isnt-enough

[Velar Fricative]

I think you are more likely to find in-home childcare providers (some licensed, some unlicensed) that are more willing to fill those gaps in supply.

While we do have mainly standard work schedules, I live in a part of NYC dominated by residents who work for the city with weirder hours - police, teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, etc. Plus many medical workers. Even with standard hours, we have many commuters into Manhattan and the commute is long despite still being part of NYC proper. I was stunned when we were looking and found very few daycare centers opened before 7:00 am (which we needed with DH's teacher hours and, at the time, my long commute), and luckily the one we chose that opens at 6:30 is a half-mile from home (from both our old home and our new current home) and our good friends love them. We wanted a center because we were concerned about backup care if an in-home provider or a nanny were sick or something. DD is almost 2 and has been at the center since 3 months old and things haven't changed in the area, which baffles me even though I know people who have family providing childcare. 

Essentially, we are lucky. Not everyone is. I feel horrible for BIL and SIL who live where we live and are searching for an option that not only accomodates their early hours (teacher and school admin), but can accommodate 8-week-old twins close to home so their long commutes don't become even longer.

[lexus]

I ran a licensed daycare for a little while when I had my dd. i considered doing nighttime daycare because it's so lucrative. However, there were a lot of drawbacks. It would interfer with the time we had together after my Dh got home from work. We also thought it would be disruptive to dd's sleep for people to be coming in and out of the house. Plus if I was working nights, when would I sleep? Most people (women) who run in homes are doing it to supplement another income and be at home with their own kids.

[jln]

Portland and Seattle both have daycare facilities that provide drop in care until about 11 or midnight. But it's fairly spendy by the hour so I don't imagine it'd be feasible for a low wage worker to afford.

[Deleted]

For me, rather than pay a higher daycare price- we got a nanny for the odd hours. Then your child wakes up at home, goes to bed in their own bed etx.
I could imagine most people that can afford higher priced long hours at daycare could also afford a nanny.
I think there is one daycare here that goes until 11pm.

[karinothing]

Aug 16, 2015 20:53:01 GMT -5 1234FIF! said:

It's puzzling to me that big cities such as DC, as far as I can tell from listening to my colleagues, don't have many facilities that are open at non-traditional hours and you cannot tell me that everyone in this city works 8a to 5 p. So if there is a need, why has no one stepped in to fill it? Those who need it the most make too little money and have too little time to lobby for it? I would invest in a daycare that served those who worked non-standard hours.

Daycare in the burbs is open later to accommodate commute. My friends in ashburn is open till 7. But I think in DC so many people work for the government on flex schedules. A lot of others with longer schedules have nannies. Of couse I am just discussing white collar workers

[FloFTW]

I'm in Cleveland and the only places we saw were in-home centers. Our first DCP for our son had extended hours and was used by a lot of nurses. She did not do overnight though. It seemed a partner was able to pick up at night. I think her hours were 4am-11pm.

I never thought about it until I mt her. I have no doubt this issue keepa people out of good, stable jobs.

[cville]

Staffing a daycare, especially for infants, is tricky. DC has some of the most stringent child/teacher ratios out there and centers lose money by buckets when they are way below ratio. The problem is as much about the fact that not all nontraditional hours look the same as it is nontraditional hours. If it was just that a ton of people needed care overnight, bam you'd have a center open 6pm-6am in a second.

In addition, if you need odd hours care, chances are those hours move around a lot so it's hard to nail down a schedule. Plus there are often regulations for how long any one individual child is in care (here I think it's 10 hours a day).

For the most part, it's just easier to go with more flexible in home care or a nannyshare to cut costs or whatever. My husband and I handled the fact that we needed loooong hours of care sometimes by splitting between ourselves. One would go in early and the other would drop the kids off later, then the early worker would leave earlier to pick up the kids and the later worker would stay late. And we have a home office and both worked at night again. And I know we had it good because we could work it out most every day.

[bears]

This is a very depressing, long, and triggering article about the lack of good options for daycare in the US and the choices many low-income families face for daycare:
www.newrepublic.com/article/112892/hell-american-day-care

[meshaliuknits]

In my area there are a few licensed, in home day cares that do off hours and weekends for the kids. IDK about actual centers, though.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Aug 16, 2015 21:19:40 GMT -5 ttt said:

I found this article. It's about Minnesota and rural areas specifically, but I have a feeling it's applicable to most of the country. And this is just about daycare in general - it doesn't even address the shortage of facilities for those who work non-traditional hours, a group that skews low-income. 

www.startribune.com/day-care-squeeze-is-hitting-minnesota-rural-families-hard/272439181/

The market for child care in rural parts of the state, especially infant care — isn’t working. Profit margins in child care can be as low as 10 cents per child per hour in the Twin Cities, and rural child-care businesses often operate at a loss.

The new infant room in Montevideo, on its own, will lose money, Hering said. Even with $10,000 from the city to build and equip the room, it will run $2,125 negative per month at $140 a week per infant, she said.

“The need is so dramatic out here, that if there’s a way to make it happen, we’re going to make it happen,” she said.

Overall, the nonprofit will be able to break even. Hering is raising rates slightly on preschool children, who require less staff to care for. Also, the school district discounts Kinder Kare’s rent, while the city and county together will pay $18,000 of the $24,000 annual lease.

In Minnesota, about 186,000 children under 6 live outside the Twin Cities, where families pay about 75 percent of the going rate in the metropolitan area — $132 weekly for in-home infant care, compared to $175 per week in the metro area, according to Child Care Aware Minnesota. Workers in southwest Minnesota, however, earn only 61 percent of what the average worker in the Twin Cities earns — $661 weekly compared to $1,087 per week in the Cities.

“Parents can’t pay out of pocket any more than they are, providers can’t afford to charge any less than they are,” McCully said.

I know this is completely missing the point but I can't get over $132/week for infant care.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Aug 17, 2015 12:59:12 GMT -5 1234FIF! said:

Aug 17, 2015 12:52:09 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I know this is completely missing the point but I can't get over $132/week for infant care.

Me either. I asked my colleague with three kids who sits next to me what she pays for daycare for her infant (she has a toddler in daycare, too, and a kid in school who needs aftercare) and she says it's $400/week. And I get it, you don't want to nickel and dime the person who is taking care of your kid but DAYUM

We paid around $325/350. I blocked out the exact amount. I love our daycare, but it really makes me wonder how people around here realistically afford multiple kids.

[laurenpetro]

Aug 17, 2015 12:59:12 GMT -5 1234FIF! said:

Aug 17, 2015 12:52:09 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I know this is completely missing the point but I can't get over $132/week for infant care.

Me either. I asked my colleague with three kids who sits next to me what she pays for daycare for her infant (she has a toddler in daycare, too, and a kid in school who needs aftercare) and she says it's $400/week. And I get it, you don't want to nickel and dime the person who is taking care of your kid but DAYUM

That's almost what I pay for the 2 boys per week (total). I live in the boonies.

[penguingrrl]

Daycare for non traditional hours really is a struggle from what I've seen. Life with kids really is set up around either a 9-5 job or a SAHP (or both). People needing inconsistent hours, varying days and/or overnight generally will have a lot of trouble finding formal care unless they work for a hospital that offers on-site daycare. Otherwise options are generally few and far between and incredibly expensive.

[auntie]

There is one near the hospital where a friend works that is pretty much 24/7. You kind of have to know someone and get referred in.