... to think that the parents who moan about a summer holiday playscheme costing £20 for FIVE mornings are tight arses?

[sandyballs]

That works out at less than £5 per morning and the kids swim, paint t-shirts, paint mirrors, do tennis, gymnastics, go-karting on the field, a little circus comes in to show them tricks, an animal man comes in with reptiles etc, there's a disco ..... the list is endless and the kids have a great time.

I've joined the committee this year to help organise it and at yesterday's meeting they were trying to work out the figures and I suggested if money was a problem, they put it up slightly - another £1 or £2 per child, still great value in my mind. Well, the table went silent! A big no-no apparently as they get a lot of complaints that it costs as much as £20 already!

that is v cheap. i paid £15 for 8.30-1 at out of school club otday

Shocked at how cheap .

dmo,if you do stuff for free,people devalue you. You are mad to be paying for them out of your own pocket.

dmo- you should be charging for that- definitely.

And yep the parents in the OP are being tight wads. Ds2's holiday club is £16 a day.

oh just saw the expected to help thing, maybe not then. If you gave the parents a cost breakdown - the individual cost for each activity maybe that would help.

DMO: just wanted to say im a childminder and charge the same rate as you and i dont charge the parents for trips. I say that my mindee paretns recognise how great i am and are very grateful.

dmo £20 a day is nothing, you must get parents to pay for trips i always gave my childminder money for petrol and lunch as well as addmision whenever she took DS on outings, i never begrudged it. £20 for 5 mornings does sound good value although take others points about helping out.

can you be one of my parents naughtymummy

DMO: Maybe you could introduce a once a month "trips" charge eg £10 per month and then let people know how it has been spent. I know that you probably spend more than this but you can't carry on goign completely out of pocket.

thats a good idea
normally only spend lots in the school hols in the term time its normally only toddler groups which i pay for
but i will keep this in mind for easter