Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

To think childminder should still open in the snow

125 replies

OliviaLondon · 01/03/2018 17:28

Am I being unreasonable to think this is shit? Childminder announced she was closing early today due to bad weather conditions - there’s a few cm of snow outside. She has told me she is only open for one child whose mum has to go to work. I work from home so have been informed that I can’t send my child in but the day is still paid for as usual. She doesn’t rely on other staff; there’s no risk travelling to get to / from her house as roads are safe / gritted. Why can’t she open? She says there’s no point opening as the other kids she has are all in the PM and as local schools are shut she doesn’t have these school kids tomo.

OP posts:

Ellendegeneres · 02/03/2018 18:01

Hope you come back op to let us know what happened.
I’d be looking at changing cm personally

GinDoll · 02/03/2018 18:05

My ex cm said she was closing one year due to snow and not wanting people to venture outside. When I pointed out I was only round the corner and would walk round she was really put out and all but hung up on me. I think she was hoping for a duvet day which I wouldn't have minded but she was planning on charging me anyway. Our relationship never recovered.

PorkFlute · 02/03/2018 18:32

I’d just send her a polite message saying that you’ve checked your contract and as she isn’t closed tomorrow she needs to provide care. I’d even be annoyed at being refunded tbh since you need to work and there’s absolutely no reason she can’t have your dd. If she maintains that she can’t provide care I’d look for an alternative cm in your position.

TheCrossKeys · 02/03/2018 18:45

I’d just send her a polite message saying that you’ve checked your contract and as she isn’t closed tomorrow she needs to provide care

Also terrible advice. The CM is not an employee, the OP can't tell her that she needs to provide care if the CM has chosen not to. She can ask the CM if she is open and can she make use of her service but there's not much she can do in the immediate term if the CM says no to either of those questions (yes, OP can look for a new CM but this takes time and she would also need to check her contract to see what it says about termination, notice periods, and fees during notice periods).

PorkFlute · 02/03/2018 18:49

She doesn’t need to ask the cm if she’s open. She is providing care for another child so she is open. If the cm isn’t fulfilling her her part of the contract then the notice period wouldn’t apply.
The cm cannot make the op pay wen she isn’t closed ‘for reasons beyond her control’. She isn’t closed at all!

Redland12 · 02/03/2018 20:49

I agree with princess Scarlett, I to am a childminder and would not be charging if I cancelled a day. So unprofessional. Sounds like she wanted the day off.

Notagainmun · 02/03/2018 21:08

If a parent said I have decided not to pay a childminder but still bring the child, the childminder is then within her rights to refuse care, yes? So then if a childminder decides not to provide care for a particular child, who is not ill, why should the parent pay?

TheCrossKeys · 02/03/2018 22:02

So then if a childminder decides not to provide care for a particular child, who is not ill, why should the parent pay?

Because it depends what the terms and conditions of that particular CM are. If the terms and conditions state something along the lines of "in extreme weather conditions I reserve the right to withdraw or partially withdraw my services, normal fees will apply in these circumstances as this situation is beyond my control" then a parent withholding payment because they don't agree with the terms and conditions, which they'll have had sight of and signed agreement to at the start of the contract, will very quickly find that they are given notice by the CM.

PorkFlute · 02/03/2018 22:07

The op has said that all it says in the contract is that the parent still has to pay if the cm has to close due to reasons beyond her control. She isn’t closed!!!

TheCrossKeys · 02/03/2018 22:18

Which is why OP needs to discuss it with the CM to find out the exact circumstances.

Could it be the CM decided to close after the other child had already arrived but before OP's child arrived and the other child was there waiting to be collected?

This has actually happened to me before. Mindees-A and B were dropped off, around an hour later DS vomited everywhere. Mindee-C was due to arrive at midday so I rang Mindee-C's parent to say "please don't attend, I'm closed". I also rang Mindee-A and B's parent to come get their children however Mindee-A and B's parent was by that point on a train and many miles away so it took her several hours to get back. For all intents and purposes it would look like I was open as I had two mindees on the premesis however I had refused care to a third mindee who had not arrived yet.

OP needs to speak to the CM to clarify it rather than listening to people on MN giving duff advice like "don't pay her"/"correct the invoice" and asking "is she thick?". I'm surprised no one has implied that the CM might also be neglectful as that's usually the next trope trotted out on these threads.

myrtleWilson · 02/03/2018 22:22

Except Cross Keys - I think the OP is talking about tomorrow (well today at the time of her posting) so the CM was saying she was open to a particular child but not others?

ladystarkers · 02/03/2018 22:30

Wow what a let down.

PrincessScarlett · 02/03/2018 22:30

Yes, CM told OP that she was open to one child as that child's mum had to go to work but not to OP's child as OP works from home.

OP, you definitely need a chat with your CM and tell her that you are not happy with the way she is treating you and your child.

Notagainmun · 02/03/2018 22:36

Crossings, would you still have charged the parents of MindeeC though.

In the circumstances of the OP, whatever the contract stated, it seems very unfair and unprofessional of the childminder to charge for a service she is unwilling to provide.

Ski40 · 02/03/2018 22:38

Wow she is taking you for a ride... 😕

ja9r · 02/03/2018 22:43

Not read whole thread...but could it be anything to do with school closures so her own kids are at home so she exceeds her ratio??

Scrumymum · 02/03/2018 23:21

No, OP already stated CM doesn't have kids so it's not a ratio thing....

SavvyBlancBlonde · 02/03/2018 23:47

IF she’s open for one child then her contractual argument that she’s closed due to circumstances beyond her control is a complete farce. Either she’s open or she’s not. As she’s taking another child and not yours, I would refuse to pay.

PorkFlute · 03/03/2018 00:39

The CM told her this the day before so not a case if one child Norbert being dropped off. The reason she gave was that the op worked from home. That isn’t a reason that she ant take the child that is beyond her control.
Of course you don’t pay someone for a service they are refusing to provide for no good reason! Like I said I’d be annoyed enough that they had just landed me without childcare without charging for the privilege.

Tanith · 03/03/2018 08:06

No, the childminder hasn’t actually given a reason - Op simply said that she was open for a parent who had to go to work and that she herself worked from home.

CrossKeys is right. There’s too little information here for us to advise a course of action other than talking to the childminder and clarifying her reasons and situation.

Whatever we might do ourselves is irrelevant: Op’s contract and policies are with her childminder and not with us.
There may be a perfectly acceptable reason, there may not. Op won’t know until she has that discussion with the childminder.

Dungeondragon15 · 03/03/2018 14:24

Even if she hadn't taken another child I don't see how she can argue that she was "forced" to close because of poor weather conditions considering that she works at home. She has just chosen not to open. It doesn't really matter what it states in her contract as it is clearly an unfair term so not unenforceable.

Tanith · 03/03/2018 15:28

She hasn't argued that, and I don't see that you have any grounds for claiming that her contract, that you haven't even seen, is "clearly an unfair term" and not enforceable.

Ginger1982 · 03/03/2018 15:36

I think if she was accepting another child then she was open and OP should not have to pay. My dog daycare has been shut the last three days and I won't be paying them.

Dungeondragon15 · 03/03/2018 17:01

She hasn't argued that, and I don't see that you have any grounds for claiming that her contract, that you haven't even seen, is "clearly an unfair term" and not enforceable.

If there is anything in her contract that allows her to shut without good reason (and bad weather isn't good reason if she works at home and has heating/lighting) and still charge it is an unfair term. The fact that she is accepting some children demonstrates that she isn't forced to close at all.

Dungeondragon15 · 03/03/2018 17:05

OP says that the contract states she can be "shut" if she can't open due to circumstances beyond her control but that isn't the case here- bad weather would not prevent her from childminding, as demonstrated by the fact that she is accepting one child.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5