Is paying for childminders holidays normal?

I charge full for parent's holiday because I'm still working the same hours but would get far less money if I didn't and as others have pointed out spaces are very limited.

I charge half fee for my holidays as I need time to re-charge my batteries for the welfare of the children as well as mine and I also use time off to do things like decorate the house, do accounts, sort toys, deep clean etc this job is a lot more than the hours I actually get paid for. I do give my holiday dates out for the year in January so that parents can either try to match mine.

I haven't put my prices up for 4 years and in that time the cost of petrol, food, toddler groups etc has increased. Also imo I offer more than some childminders who charge the same rates.

My CM charges when we choose not to bring dc for whatever reason, or can't because he is sick. She does not charge when she chooses not to work, that is, holiday/time off or if she can't work because she is sick.

She gives us enough notice for us to time our holidays with hers!

Our 'thing' is that I work Mondays, but have to pay for bank holidays!

But she was clear about all of it from the beginning, I really liked her, so I just sort of worked it out over the year and worked out how much it would cost and decided it was ok. And it is worth it because she is brilliant.

I think that if childminders expect paid holiday then they need to become nannies!

I think paying my cm when I have holiday is completely normal and reasonable. Paying when she is on holiday and I am not and I need to find alternate childcare and pay for it is not reasonable (to me). I can't choose my own holidays (teacher) so no chance of me arranging them to match cms. Fortunately, my cm doesn't charge for her holidays. Sensible IMO.

Some childminders insist on 52 week contracts. The child minder we had insisted on 4 weeks paid holiday.

Hence I use a day nursery and an after school club.

Aceandskill, it's certainly not unique to childminders to be paid when not working even if available.

I worked in the IT industry as a self-employed contractor. If we were contracted by a client and available for work, but the client didn't have any work for us to do, that was the client's problem, not ours. We were still paid for our time, even if we sat there doing nothing. I think you'll find your builder will expect the same. Both industries, incidently, are paid far in excess of childminders.

Can I just repeat what I've said previously? Whatever a childminder decides to charge is between that childminder and the parent(s). It's not for anyone to criticise the arrangement without full knowledge of the contract and service provided. It's not our place to criticise someone for charging for their holidays just because we may have a different arrangement with our clients.

If a tradesman agreed a price and a date to come and I didn't answer the door, I would still expect him to charge me his daily rate. If he charges a daily rate and only comes for half the day, he still charges. therefore the same as me (CM) - he charges for his availability. I charge when I am available and not when I am not available.

I suppose I am looking for a justification for charging when not working even if the space is available. The justification is to do with what looneytune said - the numbers are limited by an outside body (Ofsted) and therefore income is limited and the freedom of being self employed is limited by this as well... spaces are precious, and to earn decent money you need to have them paying out every day they are available. I think I get it. Thanks for the debate guys sorry if I annoyed anyone...

Oh sorry I misunderstood - I totally agree about being paid when available but the parent chooses not to use for whatever reason.

elterwater - but ace is saying that we shouldn't be paid when we ARE available. Because we can't fill that space due to that child coming back, we'd loose income for as long as the parnets wanted if we didn't charge. I personally couldn't afford for a parent to just take as much time off as they wanted and me not being paid. What if they took half the year off? I agree about all the we should only charge when we are available, TOTALLY agree but we are limited on the number of children we can have and we don't charge a big hourly rate per child so most of us really do need to 'fill' our vacancies for this job to work. I for one didn't choose to be self employed, I wanted to be a childminder and legally that's how we have to do it.

Ace - I agree; Ive been self employed too and if I didnt work I got nothing nor would expect to. I simply don't understand how some childminders think they should be classed as self employed and paid too when they are not available.

I charge full fee if I'm open and they're off through no fault of my own. I don't charge anything if I'm closed for whatever reason. If you'd have said you were paying full when she's on holiday then I'd say that's not fair (although totally up to her what she charges and down to you what you agree to - a lot of people do charge for their hols, I just don't personally agree with that), BUT, you said you pay half whoever is on hols, when to me that's equal to paying full for youe hols and nothing for hers. Some people prefer it that way, others don't.

Afraid you have no right to complain but you can decide to leave if you want to or discuss it with her.

I have been self employed for years in other capacities, it's not your right to be paid when not working even though you are willing and able to work. This is unique to the childminding business - unless anyone knows of a builder who is charging for sitting around being able and willing to work but having nothing to build at that time? Not sure the sky TV analogy wors either but can't think why not just yet....
As for parents being happy to pay - that's because they don't have a choice and it's firmly ingrained in the childminding ethos to charge for 'holding' spaces. Nurserys are probably to blame somehow...

I think most people accept you should pay for a place when you choose to take a holiday but the provider is open. It's paying when the service is not available that sticks in people's throats!

the reason that childminders charge when i child is not there even if a planned absence is becauce why should the childminder lose out on income due to no fault or her own she is in her house up ready to work. what if all the children took a holiday at the sametime thats one day maybe one full week with no income when you were actually quite happy to actually work. people still pay a months phone line rental or sky tv pack even though they go away on holiday for 1 week maybe 2 and get no use from it what so ever

yes ace, you are charging for holding the space as it's nearly impossible to get short term placements during holiday time and the CM still needs to get an income

It's up to you of course, how you charge

This does come up a lot. I am currently trying to work out what I should charge and can't square it morally with myself to charge when a child is not there, unless they are ill. If it's a planned absence, how can I charge? CMs charging for their own holiday i think is taking the p*. As a self employed person it makes more sense to adjust fees so that a decent living is made without having to charge for work that's not been done. Also, I really can't understand the concept of charging for 'holding' a place for someone e.g during school hols. Are you charging for not getting another mindee in to take over when they are there? Or just charging to keep their space on the sofa warm for when they get back?

Having said that, if you sign something that says you are happy to do this then you are legally obliged to pay and this is of course, fair enough.

Not all nurserys charge full fees when you choose to take a holiday. Mine doesn't - 1/2 fees only. Tis a boon!

It must seem very confusing because as you can see, each CM sets their own t and c

You can ask for a contract review to discuss this issue

Bear in mind that her hourly fees may be lower than a CM who does not charge for their hols and so you may end up paying more if you go elsewhere

If you are having trouble co-ordinating her hols and yours then ask for more notice of her holiday dates - eg I issue my holiday dates for the year starting January x x x x in the October of the previous year

When I was a childminder, I would charge full payment when they went on holiday, but no payment when I went away.

You must agree to all circumstances when you sign the contract.

Try also to arrange holidays at the same time, and if CM takes time off, ask if she knows anyone else who can CM for you while she is away, so you don't have to take additional time off.

I pay my CM when she has DD and only then.
I know I'm very lucky to have her.

In fact, she picked DD up from school a couple of weeks ago as I had an appointment, she lives 5 minutes from school and I was waiting for them when they got back. She didn't charge me at all for that as she'd not really looked after her.

I love my Childminder

I pay full fees whether I'm away and when she is too. It's normal round here. I synchronise my holidays with hers as much as possible.

It's pretty nice of her to charge only half fees when you're away. We pay our childminder her full fees when we are away.

I wouldn't be happy to pay when CM was away, but TBH financially it would be a better deal for me if we had the same fee structure as you describe.

This comes up so often I wonder why people don't talk things though properly at the beginning.

Some CM's want it all their own way. They want to be self-employed therefore they don't work for the parents but then they want holiday pay which self-employed people don't get.