Childminders holidays

[MerryPerry88]

Hi all, grateful for opinions to get a sense of what is 'normal' (if any such thing). Our childminder is having 4 consecutive weeks off in the summer holidays. She's also having Easter week, Oct half term and Christmas. I understand the other holidays, but 4 weeks has been a pain as my husband and I can only take 2 weeks off at a time. This leaves us with no family time, and we also have an older child so would be nice to go away for a week. No family support we can rely on. I've found out that she did the same last summer. I would like to know if this is her usual pattern but she has evaded messages about it....I wanted something in writing to refer to. She's amazing and my DD is so settled, but it's making us consider nurseries for a bit more flexibility. I should say I plan to message again.

Yanbu- this is not standard practice
Yabu- part and parcel of going with a childminder.

My cousin is a childminder, she never has this amount of holiday, the most she has is 2 weeks if she’s going on holiday. She also has a week in September and has a week at Christmas. I would want to know if you are still expected to pay fees during these holiday periods, my Cousin never used to ask for payment on her holidays, but does now.

My childminder told me before I signed any contracts that in the summer she takes 2 weeks and 2 weeks at Christmas then some days in addition; I wouldn’t sign with someone who takes 4 weeks and I’d be annoyed about it being said after not many people can get 4 weeks off work. I’ve used 4 childminders over the years and none have taken more than 2 weeks consecutively

My childminder used to have 4 weeks off a year (two in the summer holidays). She gave us the exact dates at the beginning of the year and if we asked would ask one of the other local childminders to take them for those weeks if needed. The childminder I had when mine was on maternity leave took 6 weeks holiday but still gave advance warning and would help find cover.

She didn’t tell you about her holiday schedule before you signed on? That is odd.

To me that sounds excessive. 4 consecutive weeks in the summer holiday would be hard for us to cover if our childminder did this. 3 alone would be a stretch. The fact she has been evasive about discussing it shows that she knows that she is taking the piss. If it’s all fine and dandy then why isn’t she upfront?

It's not uncommon but should be made clear before you enter into the contract so you can decline if, like you, you can't accommodate that.

My CM stated 4 weeks holiday per year with 6 months notice...she would take 2 weeks in summer and we planned our family holiday for the same time.
But yes nursery is more flexible.

Are you keen to keep in with her for school pick up in future?

I originally voted YABU and I suspect some did too thinking this was for a primary aged child. My kids’ childminder never took many but when she did, it’s always during school holidays and I booked a holiday club.

If this is about a preschool child, it’s BVU by the childminder. I used a nursery for preschool and it opened all year round except Christmas.

I wouldn't expect to pay for a service I wasn't receiving.a CM is not an employee.
They should factor I'm their own holiday pay into what they charge per day the rest of the year.
So if they want to earn £24k (for simplicity!) for 52 weeks, but take 4 weeks holiday over the course of the year. They should charge a combined £500 per month.
Any holiday weeks not charged for.

What does your contract say? I think it's unreasonable to take 4 weeks all at once

Heck your contract as it should state how many weeks holidays she has each year and whether you pay or not.

I took all the school holidays off, but only worked for teachers etc and didn't charge for those days

Normally they tell you before you sign. Our local takes two at Christmas and two in summer plus a couple random to make long weekends. Although last year she broke her leg and was told she couldn’t work for six weeks! Amazing women though actually did the school run after breaking it before going to hospital and finding out it was broken.

She seems to be a "term time only" childminder. They do exist for people like teachers who don't want to pay year round, but this should have been made clear to you on signing up.

We met a cm who was up front about this - essentially they’re a term time only cm. We went for a nursery instead.

This is why people pay more for nurseries.

Very unusual for anyone to have 7 weeks off. We had a childminder for 8 years and average holiday was 4 weeks in addition to bank Holidays.
What does you contract say regarding leave? Ours always took a week over Christmas and the other 3 were flexible and always shared in advance. Only a few times did they fall in August

Ah no I should have said DD is 14 months. I will check the contract...I know we definitely don't pay for her holiday time, the cost is averaged out across a few months period (6 months I think). I meant to say in my OP, I know another mum through a friend of a friend as she's pissed off as apparently CM did it last year and said it was a one off! She also has my eldest before and after school some days so it's really handy. Not a problem with my eldest so much due to holiday clubs. She's also had quite a but if sick leave so all in all not looking great 😕

Sounds like she has her kids so takes time off to spend time With her own kids?
I would ask this outright as you need to know for holidays.

No she's not 'term time only', but it's only the Feb half term and 2 weeks of the summer hol that she is working 😖

Sod that for a game of soldiers.
When we used a childminder, she took 2 weeks in the school hols, once ours were at School, we just took the same weeks. I think you would be better doing nursery tbh.

I generally have a week at Easter, 2 in summer and 2 over Xmas.
Last year I took 3 weeks over summer as we needed to redecorate the main room, it wasn't ideal for some of my families but I helped them sort cover and we made it work. I think 4 weeks every summer would be a huge inconvenience for some, but there are CMs who do it, this should have been made clear at the start though as it can be a deal breaker for some!

Thanks all. Nothing in the contract specifying how many weeks annual leave she takes. I am going to bring this up with her again on Monday as we need to know what's what. Glad the general consensus is that this is not standard though for a full time placement. I think we're better to move DD while she's still young enough to be able to adapt. It's also the frequent sick days (hers) which I know she can't help, but ultimately we need reliable childcare.

So this is why I didn't go back to my eldest childminder when I had my twins. It used to p me off royally and to be honest I started to resent it - she insisted on being paid fully for holidays by the way!
I went term time only with twins (not a teacher) and just sacrificed having the same annual leave as their dad for a few years - we bought annual leave and then covered all holidays

So she only works a bit more than term time?

This is exactly why we used a nursery, even though our next door neighbour was a childminder.

So it seems! She was definitely not upfront about it though. Although I was remiss not to check I suppose when we signed contracts.

Im a childminder and I tell parents upfront that I take 6-7 weeks holidays per year. I Parents pay nothing during these and they are all in school holidays. Therefore I attract a lot of term time only people. I can easily fill their places in the hols when I'm open. Childminders are self employed and the one benefit of being self employed is that you can take as many or as little hols as you want. When my kids get older I'll probably take fewer hols. I'd be really surprised if the childminder was not upfront about this in contract or verbally when visiting. If she wasn't then that's not great practice and not good for her business as people will just leave.