Childminder's holidays

I took term time holiday this year. Parents split it between them and some decided mum would go in early and finish early dad would go in later and finish normal. They have an hour commute. They also did similar when I underwent chemo so I could have shorter days.....and because they all support me I support them so wen they are stuck and cant pick up sick child, need something collecting from the GP that shuts before they get there etc. I do my best to help. When their children go to senior school they are still welcome to come in for company chat or help and I wont be charging.

In 25 years I've never had more than 2 weeks family holiday all together and often only 1 or less. That's life with children.

Hey,
I'm not really sure what you want your CM to do, term time holidays are imo best as they don't let clients down for the whole day's care, and they mean the CM doesn't lose as much money.
Anyway I hope I can help you.
I'm not sure how far from your childminder you work. Or how flexible your work is, I'm also not a parent but I thought I'd advise you of the term time childcare arangements I made when I was caring for friends DCs for a short period of time last year without any wraparound provisions.
I worked fairly close to the pre school/school (12.5 miles) and they could be dropped from 0830, I was able to get to work for 0850, and Were to be picked up at 1530, meaning I left at 1510. With 20 minutes lunch, I was able to work six hours, a day, taking 1.2 days a week A/L I was able to then do some work in the evening for an hour maybe a tad more each night whilst DP was cooking dinner. Meaning I only had to take half a day A/L a week!
I did have a lovely flexible employer, who was happy to let me work at home, but even if you couldn't make up your hours it would only be 2 and a bit days of A/L between you and your DP for the duration of your CMs leave, meaning you'd only lose a day's holiday each :)
Hope this helps.

Sorry, just seen that you only want parents to reply as you don't find the CMs' posts constructive. Wonder why?!

I'm a CM and a single mum. I take some holiday during term time with my boyfriend, as my own DCs only need looking after for a few hours after school, so their dad can have them. If I went in the holidays their dad would have to take holiday to look after them all day.

As most of my customers are also school age, they only have to find cover for 2-3 hours as well, so can use after school club or grandparents.

If I go away with my school age DCs then it has to be during the holidays for obvious reasons. This means I miss out on the more lucrative holiday sessions at 8-10 hours a day instead of just mornings or just after school.

I do what works for my family - one o he perks of being self employed. If I wanted someone to dictate when I could take holiday I'd work for someone else and get holiday pay!

It's all in my T&Cs so if anyone doesn't like it they don't have to sign my contract.

One suggestion could be that the childminder explores other CM that have spaces to help with holiday cover. Could the parents look at using a nanny agency to care for all the DC during term time holidays?

You could alternate houses every 3/4 days?

My childminder chooses her own holidays. She takes Christmas but the rest can vary. We are lucky with family help.
Our school has breakfast club and after school care which I would use if I was stuck. Also the nursery my son went to offered breakfast and after school care.

If it's younger kids maybe nursery is a better option for you.

It is tough and I think it is important holidays are together as a family as often as possible. But also good childminder is very valuable it's hard to trust someone with your children. Balancing act. Don't envy you.

Another CM here who would give notice to a client trying to bully me/ tell me how to run my business.

Absolutely me too MeanAger!

Me too mean. I'd consider it a breakdown of our relationship.

I'm a childminder. I have 11 families on my books, with 6 preschool / babies and another 5 school aged children. It is impossible to balance the needs of all the families so I take my holidays to suit my family.

I am taking a week in term time next year because it is saving us quite a bit off our holiday. My parents understand that I work my arse off for them, am rediculously flexible to the extent that I've taken kids on family days out with us because the parents were stuck.

Me too!

I have to say if I was a Cmer and found out one of my clients was approaching my other clients to try and pressure me to change my business terms I would give them notice.

I'm sure between you and your husband taking a later start and an early finish for a week (or however long CMer is closed for) and making use of after school clubs, babysitters, other parents etc then you could manage it without taking annual leave for much of the time she is closed.

You dont need to take your child out of school you just need to be there to get your child to school and back!

You dont need to take 12 weeks holidays off work, you just need to take turns at covering her holidays! Same as every other parent in the land.
You seem to think that you are entitled to take your holidays just for you to go on holiday and that the cm should take hers when you decide she should.

You are paying for a service, you cannot go en masse with the other parents and confront the cm to try to bully her into taking holidays when it suits you!

OP why are you being so aggressive in your replies?

You say you are going to ask the other parents if they will pay more so that she can take her holidays in the school holidays ! You are paying for a service, you cannot dictate when she takes her holidays. If her set up does not work for you then find another provider.

She is running a business, those are her terms, either put up with them or move.

A cm may have many kids all at different ages and different times during the week.
Now say for instance she has 7 lots of parents. How in the world is she supposed to organise her holidays around all of them?

Its pretty standard to sort your holiday around the CM holidays. I give my parents plenty notice of what holidays I will have during the year and they book their holidays/alternative care for those times.

THe CM is self employed, she sets her own terms and conditions. You agreed to these when you signed the contract. You of course can leave giving the agreed notice but you cannot dictate to this or another cm when they take their own holidays. CM take holidays to suit their own families just the same as everyone else. Why shouldnt they? It will be easier to get cover from friends or school clubs/nurseries/other cms during term time than in the holidays surely?

Saying you havent had holidays due to covering Cm holidays, erm they are your kids, why is it so much of an effort to actually take care of them? The reality of parenthood is that your kids are your responsibility, when they are sick and when there is no other childcare. Millions of parents have to juggle their holidays to cover childcare you are not unusual in the slightest.

The cm probably didnt relish the thought of being in hospital either and its probably not going to happen every year.

You could ask if she has any arrangements with other cms to cover each other's holidays or if she would consider setting this up. Lots of cms have back ups of other local cms to step in if there is an emergency.
If not, she might know of someone looking to do some babysitting who could help out during holiday times.

I think is a question you need to ask from your childminder before you book your child in. I agree that she can do what she wants as its her business, but it doesn't sound like it makes business sense so presumably she will lose clients.

I'm a parent who uses a childminder.. I have no issues about when she takes her holidays because this is what I signed up for when I chose to use her rather than a nursery. I think you are being unreasonable in expecting to be able to dictate when she takes her holidays. If you are not happy you should look for an alternative arrangement..

I know you don't want to hear from CMs but ...

New parents I take on ask when I take my holidays. Nearly all the families I care for have school children and find it easier to find temporary care during the term time than during school holidays. I don't charge for my holidays (but charge full fee for parents holidays). I have taken a week during term time this year. Last year I took 10 days off during term time.

Parents are really happy I have been able to cover all the school holidays. I have booked a week in August next year and I am already being asked if I know anyone who can help them out.

It is a waste of annual leave to have to take it in term time when children are at school for most of the day if you could take it in the holidays and actually spend the time with your children.

OP - is there an after school club you could use instead?

Your problem is that you don't want to "waste" your annual leave on looking after your own children.

For the majority of families, they will only have a couple of weeks off together each year, the rest of annual leave is used for childcare.

This is the reality of being a parent.

You have consistently ignored the only possible solutions which are to leave this childminder and find alternative childcare permanently, or to cover the cm's holidays yourself or shared with other clients.

You want people to tell you that you are right and you should challenge the CM and you're cross that people aren't doing that, because you're wrong.

I'm a childminder and because all my families bar 1 have school age children (including me) stipulate that 4 weeks leave will be during school holidays. If I take time off term time it is unpaid (& rare - we're talking maybe 5 days in as many years and3 of those were booked 6 months in advance as I have an annual commitment). I think the problem is assumption of your behalf - not unfairly imo - but the best option is finding a cm who suits your needs better as 12 weeks holiday will be beyond most families reach. And of course op can find alternatives but not if she's paying her existing cm

I think that finding a new CM is the only way forward. It seems fairly reasonable to me to want your childcare arrangements to allow you to take family holidays. But if your arrangements aren't doing that then you need to rethink them. You aren't likely to change your CM's set up if it works for her. There isn't much point complaining about it on here as it's what you signed up for.

It is much easier round here to find a holiday club to cover school holidays than to find someone to collect children from school for a couple of weeks, so I get why the term time holidays don't work for you.

I found my ex CM's holidays / spa days/ early finishes unreasonable and would not use a CM again.