to think that even in this day and age Childminders are still regarded as 'glorified babysitters?' Long and ranty sorry!

[2anddone]

Hi I am a cm in the process of giving up, I currently work in the school holidays for one child who is nearly old enough to look after himself and have told the mother I will continue with him until she no longer needs me (he has been coming for almost 5 years and is like one of the family my dc love him coming) During term time I work as a deputy supervisor at a preschool. I had a parent approach me who I used to childmind for and ask me to have her dd back as she starts school in Sept so would only need before and after school care term time only. I said this would be fine and we agreed that it would be £10 per day regardless of hours and for this I would do before and after school care all I asked was that if the child was staying later than 5 to let me know in advance so I could make sure I had food in to cook her a meal with my dc and to make sure she had been collected by 6 as my dd goes to bed around then. All was fine and then the mother asked me if I would accept Busybee vouchers I declined as have a lot of trouble with them in the past and didn't want to go back, she then gave me a list of do's and don'ts as long as my arm what she was allowed to do, watch, eat etc. Last week the mother told me she would only need me to take her dd to school as she has now sorted alternative care for after school and could we negotiate a price as she didn't think I was good enough for the £10 daily rate we had agreed for just a morning WTF! So I pointed out that with the cost of childminder house insurance, business car insurance, public liability insurance, OFSTED registration and keeping uo to date with all my required courses all just to have her child and the local taxi charges £10 to get from my house to the school and that includes no period of actual care for the child I would not drop my price. She is now not coming to me at all. So AIBU to think that even in this day and age where childminders are qualified and run an actual business there are still parents out there thjat see us as nothing more than glorified babysitters?

YANBU

The parents I work with don't think this but the old image of doing a bit of light housework while the children watch telly does indeed still persist

All we can do is to continue to be utterly professional in our business and gradually nibble away the preconceptions

I am sorry that you have had a horrid experience

I have always thought that childminders are grossly underpaid. People pay their cleaners more than their CMS.

Sounds to me like you've had a bad experience there. I've had two fantastic childminders and as they are looking after the most precious things I have I utterly respect them and would never ever take advantage. Some people are just ignorant.

YANBU.
SMIL often asks me "so do you still babysitting then as a job"

oh that is a stab-worthy comment saltire

Actually, I don't think the mum was unreasonable to think that if you were only looking after her DD in the morning it would be cheaper than doing AM and PM afterschool care. It sounds as if you set the original price and why would you be taking a taxi to school if you have business car insurance? How long are you looking after her DD in the morning? If it is an hour then that would be different to 3 hours.

Also forgive my ignorance, but I didn't realise all childminders had to be qualified - as far as I was aware you only had to attend a local authority course as minimum.

YANBU at all. I run an OSC and during the holidays we charge £22 for 8am - 5:30pm. Even though I do say so myself we are recognised as one of the best playschemes in our borough.

It costs us a fortune to run as we invest heavily in staff training, resources, craft items, nice snacks, etc and we offer very flexible bookings. Yet today a mother came in to book her two children in for the rest of this week and as she handed over the payment she muttered "what a rip off". When I said "pardon?" she said "oh nothing".

I was so peed off and really wanted to tell her that if she thought she could get good quality childcare for less than £2.50 an hour elsewhere then trot on . But being the professional I am, of course I said nothing.

I know that CMs and OSCs are 'in competition' but I think we both give a great service in different ways and get so annoyed that (some) parents don't recognise just how hard a job it is and begrudge paying a living wage for the care of the most precious people in their lives.

Seems to me that you've had a lucky escape there as she was obviously looking for care on the cheap, even though you were already offering very generous terms.

YAB(A bit)U. Why did you say you'd charge £10 per day regardless of how many hours she'd need??? That IMO is just a license for the mum to disrespect you because you aren't behaving in a business-like way. You need to have a set hourly rate and stick to it! If you say £10 per day for before and after school care then it'd suggest that it'd be £5 per day for one or the other.

Also, if you're caring for the child for less than 2 hours pd, you don't need to be a registered childminder - so you in effect could just be a babysitter.

Bingtata I wouldn't have been using a taxi I was just interested to see what a taxi would charge so I rang them to ask for a quote from my house to school.
Leeloo I said it would be £10 regardless of what hours as I am usually £3.30 per hour but a minimum charge of £10 so therefore as I know her I siad I would only ever charge her the minimum charge regardless of whether she need more 'moneys worth'(3hours) of care than that each day.
Tidybush I can't believe she said it was a rip off, my local council has really pushed childminders and other holiday schemes out this summer by only charging 50p an activity but putting them on back to back so you can get a whole days care for some days for over 5's for as little as £2.50 depending on how long the activities are for!

I think childminders are grossly underpaid for the level of responsibility and paperwork they have. I did it briefly and would never do it again. I worked with a lovely family, so no complaints there, but it is hard work, for not much financial reward. Always stunned me that people wanted to pay less for childcare, than they would for a cleaner!

"my local council has really pushed childminders and other holiday schemes out this summer by only charging 50p an activity but putting them on back to back so you can get a whole days care for some days for over 5's for as little as £2.50 depending on how long the activities are for! "

2anddone this kind of thing really annoys me as it sets up such unrealistic expectations. My Borough did this kind of thing for 3 years and now that there is no money they have come bleating to those of us who managed to ride out such blatently unfair competition and asked us to 'work with them' to ensure that there is adequate provision across the Borough (but there's no money of course).

It's like the money that was put in place for extended schools. Because we were already up and running and sustainable the local schools just divvied up the money between themselves and no one has ever found out what they've done with it.

At the end of the day provision has to be sustainable in the long term. Offering heavily subsidised provision just kills the local market and then when funding is no longer available the powers that be wonder where all the other providers have gone .

We've only survived because of our reputation. Children have gone to other (cheaper) settings and hated it. They soon learn what a good deal they are getting from us and come back in the end.

Lol, in that case YANBU! :)