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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be pee'd off at nursery being closed for royal wedding?

70 replies

mrswee · 21/04/2011 12:47

AIBU to be pee'd off at nursery being closed for royal wedding? WITH ONLY TWO WEEKS NOTICE, of which the 'notice' was a hand written poster on the front door to read as you leave? No letter home, nothing.

My dd's nursery is lovely but very disorganised when it comes to invoicing and when it comes to important information like the above. I really really like all the staff and the owner but it's starting to get my goat and this time I'm really pisssed off about this holiday as they advertise themselves as ONLY closed at xmas and NY and I have had to tell my work at very short notice that I need the day off now, I feel this has left people at my work wondering if I really need the day off or if I'm trying to pull a fast one!

I don't know if I should complain to the nursery about the lack of information/total short notice or if I should just leave it and pick my battles!

OP posts:
worraliberty · 21/04/2011 13:15

I don't think 2 weeks is particularly short notice? Confused

Would you be this annoyed if your child woke up too ill to go to nursery one morning?

Original poster
mrswee · 21/04/2011 13:19

BIKERUNSKI... I read your post wrong and thought you said 'mountainbiking nude'! not nothing rude - opps, that says a lot about my mind!

OP posts:
Tangle · 21/04/2011 13:20

I think YANBU to be pissed off - but its unlikely they'll change anything now. I'd raise it with them. Not in a particularly confrontational way, but just stating that one of the reasons you use them is because they are open so much and giving you so little notice that they will be shut, unexpectedly, on the 29th has made life difficult for you at work. I'd imagine they've done it on the assumption parents won't be working as its a bank holiday and haven't considered the fact that bank holiday's don't apply to all jobs - and if people don't tell them they'll never realise...

Squinkle · 21/04/2011 13:21

The Royal Wedding Day was announed as a national Bank Holiday in November 2010... obviously there will be some people who are at work that day, but please remember that nursery staff deserve days off too!

Original poster
mrswee · 21/04/2011 13:21

worraliberty - obviously I would'nt be annoyed if my child woke up ill in the morning and I had to take her out of nursery - what a stupid question.

OP posts:
worraliberty · 21/04/2011 13:23

It's not a stupid question when you consider your post saying that people have now had to change their plans to cover for you to have the day off. Why don't you do whatever it is you do when your child is ill?

If you don't have any kind of back up plan at all, you can't blame the nursery for that.

Original poster
mrswee · 21/04/2011 13:26

Tangle - thanks, I probably should, I don't want to be a grump and look like I am denying them holidays. but....

Squinkle - I totally agree that they deserve days off, they are very very hard working and it will be lovely for them to have a day offf when they usually don't get bank holidays. BUT as they usually don't get bank holidays I would have hoped for more notice that they would very surprsiingly take this one rather than out of the blue and totally unexpected

OP posts:
EricNorthmansMistress · 21/04/2011 13:27

YANBU at all
If you don't get BHs off as standard then you will choose a nursery that is open on BHs. For them to arbitrarily decide to close on one out of the 9 with two weeks notice is not on. There isn't much you can do about that but you can certainly refuse to pay them for it! Tell them you will be working and as such you need to pay for alternative childcare for that day.

Original poster
mrswee · 21/04/2011 13:28

worraliberty- I take the day off when my child is ill, I have to call work and tell them I can't come in and it cause's everyone else to wave to work a lot harder in my absence, just like they will have to this bank holiday because it is unexpected and not concidered on the rota and staffed accordingly.

OP posts:
Quenelle · 21/04/2011 13:31

YANBU If they advertise only closing Christmas and New Year then they have let you down at short notice. And they are BU to charge you for it.

ThingOne · 21/04/2011 13:35

I think two weeks is short notice to arrange a full day childcare.

olibeansmummy · 21/04/2011 13:36

if they don't normally close on bank holidays then YANBU. they are definately being unreasonable expecting you to pay for it!

RunningOutOfIdeas · 21/04/2011 13:40

YANBU since your nursery is normallu open on bank holidays.

I have the opposite problem. DD's nursery closes for all bank holidays. This is fine for me since I don't have to work them. However for the 29th, they announced that they would be open and having a party. So I have to pay for a day I do not need.

If your DD will still be at the nursery next year for the Jubilee, it might be worth asking the nursery to state now what their poilicy will be about that extra bank holiday. Mine has agreed to review what they will do and tell us with more notice.

Original poster
mrswee · 21/04/2011 13:43

RunningOutOfIdeas - that's pretty annoying too! childcare isn't cheap and what if you'd made your own bank holiday plans?

Thanks for the heads up about next year.. I hadn't even thought about it!

OP posts:
CurrySpice · 21/04/2011 13:50

Being as lots of people have the day off, could someone else have your DD?

It sounds very annoying and YANBU

Tolalola · 21/04/2011 13:54

YADNBU. I think two weeks to organise bank holiday cover for work is not enough and definitely puts you in an embarrassing position. There are so many people in tons of jobs/industries who work bank holidays.

And to then ask you to pay is very wrong, when they advertise themselves specifically as not being shut on holidays. I would complain and ask if this represents an official, long-term change in their policy.

Groovee · 21/04/2011 13:55

The nursery I worked in before children, only closed Christmas and New Year 2 days each but in 1999 I talked them into closing Hogmanay as everyone else was getting it and I didn't particularly want to work it being 8 months pregnant, and also being the 6pm finish didn't want to be the one stuck there when a certain parent was late. I talked them into it in the October and they announced it in the November.

It was a one off but they aren't closed next week and my friend who is their manager says it's my fault cos I'm not there to play the "but everyone else is getting it off!" Card.

cat64 · 21/04/2011 13:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

exoticfruits · 21/04/2011 14:03

I would have thought that you would have asked when it was first announced that it was to be a Bank Holiday-I would think that nursery staff are just as entitled to the holiday as anyone else.

BikeRunSki · 21/04/2011 14:11

Apologies Mrswee for not reading your post properly. I would also be very annoyed if this had happened to me, I was just very surprised that your nursery was open on other BHs. DH and I have also both had jobs where we have worked BHs, nights and shifts, so I do understand your annoyance. Two weeks is certainly not enough notice!

I am not rally pissed off that DS will "ruin" our wedding anniversary, but nursery is the only child care we have have and it is nice to go out with DH just once a year.

bunjies · 21/04/2011 14:26

YANBU

Have they said why they are closing for the wedding bank holiday and not for others? If being open for other bank holidays is part of the contract I don't understand how they can now say they are going to close. I would ask for a written response why they made this decision and how they can now expect to be paid for it as well.

bunjies · 21/04/2011 14:28

To all those who say MrsWee should have asked about closures when the holiday was announced, don't you think the nursery should also have taken this attitude. i.e. made a decision about it months ago and not 2 WEEKS before the day??

Abr1de · 21/04/2011 14:28

YABU. The wedding date was announced months ago, as was the fact it was going to be a public holiday.

caughtinanet · 21/04/2011 14:36

I can see that maybe posters who said you should have checked have a point but why would you think you'd need to if the nursery is open on all bank holidays.

Seems odd that they would choose to close for a one off but maybe is something to do with the employment contracts and pay agreements for the staff, I don't suppose they will have been written to account for such an exceptional event.

I didn't know we were getting a Jubilee bank holiday, is that official?

Tolalola · 21/04/2011 14:43

But Abr1de, the OPs nursery does not close for public holidays. OP has said that is a reason why she chose that particular nursery.

And I'm amazed by how many people think that hardly anyone has to work on Bank Holidays. LOADS of people do, not just emergency/medical services! What about all those working in shops, supermarkets, pubs, restaurants, hotels, anything to do with public transport, anything touristy or in attractions/theme parks, any work with animals, television and radio people, industries like oil that are nonstop etc etc etc. There are so many!

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