to think £5 an hour for a childminder in the suburbs is a bit steep?

[HidinginaHardHat]

We were interviewing several childminders today and the average price was around £5 per hour, i'm more used to paying around £3 an hour.

I appreciate they have to earn a living like the rest of us but when their hourly rate is nearly the same as mine is that really fair?

I probably am BU really aren't I.

I pay my cleaner £7ph and am that CM's charge so little! YABU.

Do you use your cleaner for more than 40 hours per week?

Wow. Irs £10 per hour here

I agree with Andrewofgg
YABU. They will charge what the market will bear. Wouldn't you?

HardHat, I think most people do their jobs primarily for the money. Obviously some people really like what they do, but few people would work for free. If you experience a CM who is failing to do their job properly, then contact the LEA where they are registered - you will be doing parents a service.

Remember that this is their job, which to them is as important financially as yours is to you. They have no obligation to earn less than you, so that you can make a profit from your employment. You chose to have children and it is not up to others to supplement the cost by giving you cheap childcare.

It's not easy looking after someone else's children. I get the feeling sometimes that because CM's are at home with their own DC, that some people feel they are doing the CM a favour by using the CM's service and therefore the CM should work for a reduced rate. A CM is not just doing what they would be doing anyway but with someone else's child there too - there is a lot of paperwork and legal concerns that you don't have to deal with when you just have your own
DC at home. It is work and should be valued and paid as such.

To the person who said a teacher is paid 70p per hour, per child, it is a different job and not comparable.

Here childminders charge 3 to 3.50 an hour so they can compete with nurseries which are about 3 pound an hour. It does seem like a lot tbh but suppose it depends on the area

I don't £3 an hour is a lot for any job, certainly not for childminding.

If you put up prices more though then you wouldnt get any customers. Here its 3 pound an hour for nursery with 3 home cooked meals, all nappies, formula, trips and groups. If childminders charged more they wouldnt have as many children.

When DS was at a CM's we paid £3.50 an hour, although that was 7 years ago and that was the market rate around here.

I am looking for a specialist carer for DS2 for a couple of hours a week respite and the cost is £15.50 an hour

FFS it's not £5 ph X 3 Children = £15 ph. That's her GROSS income. What she EARNS is way less. Childminders have a lot of expenses.

Unless you want the person who cares for your child to not feed them, not have any resources, never take them anywhere and not have decent training, then you will have to pay for it.

I am tired of defending my costs. I work damn hard in a job with a very high level of responsabilty and I should earn a fair wage like anybody else.

It is a different job, but I think it is comparable, in that it too contains the same element of caring for children. I was not making the point to say that CM should be paid 70p per hour per child, but to show that the rate is the total rate for the total number of children being looked after. You could also argue that a parent should pay at least £6-7 ph if their child is the sole charge,as they will be getting one to one care, and that the rate should be lower if there are several.
I should also add that all the CM I know, do an amazing job and are worth every penny.

Everyone's hourly rate is pre tax...

Oh and everyone has overheads. Yours are toys and food, my family it's childcare and train fares. Swings and roundabouts really.

You also need to take into account the hours working while NOT caring for children. All training, paperwork, network meetings, accounting, some of the cleaning/prep has to be done when the kids aren't there. Should I not earn money for these hours then?

A nursery would employ a whole team of people to get all these jobs done during the time the kids are there. I have to do it single handedly.

I pay £5 an hour per child for after school care. When ds was at school nursery, it was £4.50 and hour and £4.75 the 2nd year and it's been £5 an hour since. I think I pay for quality childcare and my minder is very flexible for me to change my days etc when I have to switch due to when I get work. Most people round our way are £4.50ish for all day care and £5 for before/after school care.

I dont know anyone that works in a nursery that gets paid for meetings or courses. Paperwork is something that has to be done for free out of hours to ime.

Yes HidinginaHardHat everyone has overheads, and everyone has to charge enough to cover these. Surely childminders aren't expected to magic this food/toys/outing out of nowhere?

My eldest son is 15, almost 16 and babysits for pocket money. He charges Eu 6 per hour

I've done nursry work and the additional hours were nothing compared to what I put in now.

Can I just ask you hardhat, if you think it's so well paid and such a good little job, then why don't you do it? Then you won't have to pay anyone else to take care of yor DC!

Depends on the nursery I suppose. Our nursery pay is 6 pound to 6.55 including the manager who is responsible for the whole setting with 50 kids on role in a very deprived area. Childminders get paid a lot more than that for less work.

I must say I was a bit when I received my first bill from our new childminder. We had agreed on £4.25 per hour, she has her for 45mins before school 3 days a week, during which time she walks her to school across the road, so realistically dd is in her house for half an hour. She said she would provide breakfast of a bowl of cereal. When the bill arrived she had charged for the full hour (as expected) plus 75p for breakfast! I don't mind paying £5 for 45 minutes (well I do, but there's nothing I can do), but I feel it's imperative to be upfront about the cost. I don't like feeling like I'm being 'had' and it's left a bad taste in my mouth tbh and we're only talking about 75 bloody pence!!

Sorry, slightly OT but it's really annoyed me!!

As a parent i would expect to have to pay for a "big" day out or pay a small suppliment for an evening meal (my DC take a packed lunch) unless you take the children on "big" days out every day why is that included in the hourly rate?

I'm seriously not wanting to undermine the work CM's do because it's really an invaluable resource and a bloody hard job!

cupofteaplease i have to say the 'hidden' costs that appeared on bills without prior discussion used to rile me something rotten with my last childminder. It's par for the course though from my experience. The norm, again, from my experience has been half fee when i'm on holiday/don't need the care and no fee when they're on leave (unless sick then for some reason i'm expected to fund double fees...) but a few today wanted full fees irrespective of when we needed them. As we only need term time i found that a bit off too. I do not bedgrudge a half rate retainer for school holidays but it is cheeky to expect full fees when you're free to take on other children!

goinnowhere, to me it's not comparable because a teacher has the children from 9am until 3.30 (approx), there is no flexibility in that arrangement.A CM's time with the children is often longer. The teacher is also primarily an educator, with all resources provided. He/she isn't generally providing actual childcare (making food, changing nappies etc). A teacher gets regular breaks during the working day and has the support of a union, sick pay, holiday pay (not all CM's get these).

Obviously both do work once the children have gone home, so in that sense it is similar.

I've been both a CM and a teacher and I would honestly not be a CM again. A CM is solely responsible for the children in her care and gets very little financial reward for it and most people don't even think of it as a proper job. I was very fond of the children I looked after, but it changed the dynamic of my family home and the time with my own DC. It was hard and I'd never do it again.