Reducing childminder hours but still expected to pay?

[motherofboys10]

My two boys go to a lovely childminder, with the youngest going three full days a week. We would like to start him at pre-school (the same as his older brother) once a week, so we have raised the topic with the childminder. She has said that she would expect us to still pay her for that day, even though she won't be having him. There would be no wraparound hours, and we wont expect her to have him that day during the holidays, its just a (what I thought) relatively simple case of dropping a day. She says she can't afford to drop a day, and won't be able to fill it, as she will only be able to offer out a two day slot to another family (she currently already has one day free). My argument is - why is that my problem? She is suggesting that unless we agree to pay her for that day (which we won't ever use), we will have to pull the boys out altogether. Now I appreciate that this is her business and her rules. But we made our school choice based on the fact that she only does drop off and pick up at that one school (which is next to the pre-school). It wasn't the best school we saw, but it was good, and made most sense for making our lives easier. Now if we pull them out of her care, that decision seems pointless. We could have picked a BETTER school, and found a new childminder. Am I being unreasonable?? What would you do? I just can't bear the thought of paying for an extra day of childcare that we wont use!

Everyone seems to be assuming that the childminder is fully expecting the OP to say yes to paying for three days and only sending her child for two. I suspect she isn't: she actually both expects and wants her to either leave altogether (freeing the place) or to decide against the day at preschool and stick with the current arrangement.

Nope, not obvious. Mine don't tend to change.

And if they did, like the OP's childminder, I wouldn't accommodate a decrease in hours that didn't work for me.

"Can I put this to you another way?. If your employer told you that from now on you are only required to work 4 days instead of 5 , Would you happily take a pay cut?"

That happens though. When I started my job it was 25 hrs a week, highest it's been (not including temporary increases of a week or two) is 36. It's currently 32. It's dependant on funding as it's a charity.

If I'm not happy with that I'd have to look for another job.

It is clearly down to a case of supply and demand.

You could look at it that the CM will find it difficult to fill one day (though, OP's dc only there 3 days at the moment, so she isn't using a FT place even now), so you can understand why she wants to charge. Even though there are a lot of people that would like one day at a CMer.
or
You look at it (very much like the comparison to the cleaner some way back in this thread) that she is being unbelievably cheeky in trying to charge P for not doing any work one day a week (which equates to 1/3 of what OP is paying her ! )

You could say that the OP should 'suck it up' as good CMers are so valuable, but again, you could say that the CMer currently has a long term customer that (I'm going to presume) has always paid on time, picked up on time, and she'd be daft to risk losing out on not only this child, but the wrap around care for the other 2dc, by digging her heels in over this.

Depends if CMers in this area are few and far between, or if there are other options the OP realistically has.

NewAccount, I don't know because I've never been a CM or considered how their business model might work.

But I think as a general principle, someone who's self-employed and works with clients where change is highly possible (as children get older/work hours change/people move away/etc etc etc) needs to do something to try to hedge against all these possible changes and fluctuations.

darling nikita I've been a cm for many years, and yes you're right. Children grow up, go to pre school/nursery then school, so hours/days change.

We anticipate this, we discuss it with parents, we base our business model around it.

For example, I've got 2 children starting school in September and another one increasing hours at nursery. I already know this so am already looking for children to fill their spaces.

Am really surprised at smoggle responses.

Maybe it's regional Gotta - in some areas children stop going to CMs and start going to preschool. Just not common in my experience.

I find this odd too. I think your CM is being really unreasonable. Yes it's her business, her rules BUT if the acceptance of your kids going 3 days was a deal breaker for her, she should have made that clear in the beginning.

CMs know that situations can change and children go to nursery etc.

I really think she thinks she has you over a barrel and is trying to take advantage of your situation ie reliance on her re school OR she has an issue and is using this to get rid of you.

CMs should only charge for the spaces used, you have asked to change the contracted days and she's effectively refusing. I really think you need to call her bluff and walk away.

My close friend is s CM and has a minimum of 5 hours a day charge to make it worthwhile taking up a space and has a parent who even griped over paying one extra hour than she needs, despite it taking up a whole days space. This parent also tried to control payment terms and hours and will find themselves looking for another CM as soon as my friend gets busier.

Could you be one of those difficult parents?

so let’s say you hire a cleaner to clean your house for five hours a week, and you pay that cleaner £10 an hour. Then your circumstances change and you only need her for three hours a week,so you inform her that as of x date you only need her for three hours a week. Do you think then that the cleaner would be perfectly reasonable to say “erm no, you pay me £50 a week regardless of whether I clean for you for three or five hours a week, so the £50 charge stands,” thus making her hours payable at a higher rate now

But the cleaner could quite reasonably say I need a minimum of 5 hours a week, so you either pay me £50, even if I only do 3, or I’ll have to go and find someone who can offer me 5 hours. Effectively the same thing as the CM is saying, and not unreasonable IMO.