To charge my sister for childcare?

[ThatThingYouDo]

Really after some advice and different points of view on this.

My sister has told me she is pregnant. I currently work from home part time in a job that is very flexible and fits around looking after my own children.

My sister would want to go back to work full time after the maternity leave. We previously discussed me possibly looking after any potential future children due to my work flexibility, but no actual in depth details were ever really discussed.

I would feel so awkward taking money from my sister for childcare, to look after my niece or nephew. She is an amazing sister and is so supportive and wonderful to me, and I love her very much.

I would be looking after the baby 7 hours a day Monday to Friday for the next 5 years.

Is this madness?!

@ZogTheOrangeDragon Actually that is untrue ..if you are charging for childcare for more than 2 hours then you need to be registered, same goes for babysitters.. anyone including family cannot charge for childcare of more than 2 hours.

@Dvg [[https://www.oxford.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Registration-not-required1.pdf]] by OFSTED, point 2 on page 2, confirms relatives do not need register as a childminder. The whole paying a relative, especially if it is considered expenses rather than a comparable childminder fee, is a grey area but it would obviously always be in the OP’s best interest to pay tax on the money.

Personally I wouldn’t do it but I can see why you want to, especially bearing in mind how your sister has helped out when you needed it. The 1-2 days a week may work for you but you may want to put a time limit on it eg until baby is 12 months / 18 months / 2 years old with also an agreement that the arrangement can be ended by either of you with 1 months notice. That gives DSis time to sort out longer term childcare for when baby is older but allows her to know when she first returns to work baby is looked after (some of week) by someone who loves them unconditionally. That would seem a fair ‘pay back’ for what she has done for your children. Do a list of things that need to be supplied by her including nappies, bibs, toys, money for essentials or treats beyond what you consider you would provide as an aunt, cleaning products, nappy wipes and nappy sacks etc. If she wants washable nappies then how do you feel about that etc. Good luck (but again, personally I wouldn’t do it!)

A registered childminder (with public liability insurance/usually yearly inspections of the service/changes made to house like fireguard mains-powered smoke alarms etc) can't only look after children related to them unless they take on other, non-related children too.