One down....

The pricing structure of the company I'm working for is interesting.
The parents pay monthly, and there are three different plans.

One is for care provided only on school days, either before or after school.
The second one provides care on school days, inservice days, conference days, but not during full week programs (Winter break, Spring break).
The third one covers everything (break programs, long breaks, summer camp) for the entire school year/summer.

The shorter programs (only a few days off from school) are held in my regular location with my smallish group of kids for the first time. Until this year, the kids have gone to a different location rather than have my site open for just a few kids.

I sort of insisted on it, although I think I'm sorry about that now. :) This week there is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and I'll be running a break program in my school. I have a great program planned, but only a few children attending, I still have no clue who will come and give me a break in the middle of the day, don't know how many hours I'll be working on those days and don't want to work those three days at all because I don't know those things. I don't know if they're sending someone competent, I don't know when that person will show up and how long I'll be on a break. I'd like to plan our activities around that so that I'm there for the things that only I know about... rather than having to get out supplies and explain everything to someone who not only doesn't want to be there (we're sort of waaaay out in the suburbs) but has no stake in making sure things are done right. And I don't like leaving my kids with someone who has no idea where to find stuff, either.

Pain in the ass all around.

Long programs will be in a different location, they combine many school programs in one place. That's where we're running into problems.

It's not easy to schedule a break program. Many schools use the breaks for floors to be polished or repairs to be made. Some don't have custodial staff during breaks. Some prefer not to have a bunch of strangers in their facility when the regular school staff isn't on site. There are many legitimate reasons why we don't know yet where our break programs will be held. I'm glad that I'm not trying to schedule the breaks, it would involve a lot of phone calls and hassle. I understand why it's not set in stone yet. I really do.

But...
Colette's mom has been calling our main office every week to find out where winter break will be held. She works in this area, and driving her child a long distance and then driving back out this direction and working all day and then driving downtown again isn't really a great option, either.

Some school locations work for her, some do not. And even though it's almost November, no one in our office can tell her where the program will be held for the two week break in December. It's not that she's trying to plan too far ahead and being unreasonable, either. If she needs to make other arrangements for her daughter, she needs to get them made now, because many programs in our area will be full by the second week in November.

She finally got tired of being told, "We'll get back to you."

So she's taking her daughter out of my program and sending her to a day care center instead. They will pick her up after school in a van and drive her there. Winter break, Spring break, summer program... they'll all be in the same location.

I don't blame her, I would do the same thing. I don't like uncertainty, and I wouldn't want to have to worry about where my child was going and whether or not it would work for me on top of all the other things a mom has to worry about.

I don't know how it will work out, the place is a little nuts and they have no gym and no playground. I actually applied for a job there a long time ago and saw the facility. It's a preschool, but they do school age care, too.

It's really not a great setup for active kids, but hopefully she won't hate the place.

So basically, I lost a kid from my program because people don't like uncertainty.

Neither do I.