Childminder terminating contract

[hoolahoolay]

Surely I'm not being unreasonable. So my son is due to start with a childminder next week when I go back to work after maternity leave. We have settling in sessions this week

So she sent the invoice for January out early December and she said to let her know if there were any errors, the due date on the invoice was 1st January. For one reason or another we haven't paid it and instead of reminding us she has messaged this morning to say she's terminated contract as invoice is 5 days late.
Surely she could have sent a payment reminder.

WTF can I do now?

You've made a bad first impression. She doesn't want to be chasing you every month for invoices.

A growing number of hours are being underpaid by the government in funding which is very underpaid we are told to make up the shortfall by not charging top ups but hiding it as charges for other things then we get audited and are told it can't include paint, paper, cleaning etc....so basically food how many parents would pay £40 a week for food?
If a parent is too busy to pay the small percentage they now have to pay what is the cm supposed to do for her own family and the things the job needs? ...some parents are billed between 10 and 50% of the full bill then claim back 85% of that and still can't be bothered to pay on time. Funding has cost my friend £3000 a year in reduced fees from mindees. The work load isn't less.

She's only met my son once so I doubt that.

OP would have been getting themselves sorted for going back to work, seen their DC most, if not everyday since the invoice was first sent out but not once did any of this remind them to think "yikes, haven't paid the CM best do it now"

WHY did you not pay OP?

How many customers do you have over a year? If you only had 3 and 50% of their invoices was already paid late (funded payments are often in arrears) then the remaining payments were paid late as well how would you survive as a business? Add to that the 50% paid by the government has been forced on you at a rate of 15 to 20% less than you normally charge your not eating.

The eternal question.........

Along with, Did you apologise?!

I think she should of reminded you but if she’s got a waiting list/ in demand she’s probably thinking she doesn’t want to deal with people who don’t pay (especially seeing as it’s the first payment). You sound very casual about not paying, she needs the money, it’s her business.

I haven't read all of the thread but the amount of people who think it's OK to pay an invoice late and need a reminder is astonishing. I do contract work (not childminding) and I cancel contracts that pay late too with good reason and long hard experience.

I spend my time and expertise to perform a contract and then I have to nanny someone who can't get their shit together enough to spend 5 minutes paying by BACs. Fuck that for a game of soldiers. Even just bidding on a job or speaking to a client is my time, my expertise and my money flying out the window because I obviously don't charge for that, for them to not pay on time is dismissing my time, money and expertise, it's a big Fuck You stamp from you to businesses you want to perform a service.

You don't need a reminder, you have received an invoice.

I spent far too much time having to go round asking for payment in the early days and being ignored. It costs money to do that, it raises the contract fees for everyone. I was even kind to one business which was having money worries and worked for 3 months without payment because I knew the guy well. 5 months later they still hadn't paid and I was at that point having to write letters suggesting payment now or small claims court. Never again, the work I had to do to get paid ate into the profit I would have made, I wouldn't do that again never ever again.

If you don't pay on time businesses like childminders will consider you really flaky and won't want to work for you. The reputation gets around and you end up with a worse service for it. Your children are worth more than that. The payment would have taken you just short time to sort, you were really dismissive of the worth of this childminders time, money and expertise.

This is a good point.

If not, I'd be really intrigued op by your opening line 'surely im not unreasonable.'

Why wouldn't you think you only have yourself to blame?

If a person has genuinely done this, the op would have been worded 'oh fuckety fuck I've fucked up. Help me please word a grovelling apology.'

Not - how can a business possibly expect payment on time, that's absurd.

WTF can I do now?

Find another childminder and pay them on time! Lots of childminders know each other so don't be surprised if word gets around that you didn't bother to pay on time! Good childminders are like gold dust round her so they have the pick of clients and obviously don't want people who don't pay on time given any sort of choice.

This isn't a reverse, is it?!

Yes I did apologise and say I didn't realise it needed to be paid the 1st but also said she should have reminded me and I would have paid.
Communication would help!

I'm not a stupid FTM btw I have 2 others who went to nursery not a childminder.

I just assumed payment was needed before my baby started, why would it need to be paid before?

Anyway we'll see what she says.

Why should she have had to remind you?
You're a grown adult take responsibility, you forgot and it isn't her job to remind you.
Hopefully for you she will let this time slide, but remember next time, as an adult, it is your job to remember not someone else's job to remind you.

Yes I did apologise and say I didn't realise it needed to be paid the 1st but also said she should have reminded me and I would have paid.

😂😂😂 you've blown your cover now op. Definitely a reverse. If you do call her, please let her know she's absolutely bat shit from all of us.

Way to go op with the " Waah. You should have reminded me" rubbish. You should have taken complete ownership of this rather than try to attribute blame onto the childminder. She offered to call you back after work which is more than many would do, but you may well have blown it now (again 🙄)

I think if someone tried to suggest that I was at fault for not reminding them to pay me, I’d give them pretty short shrift. You’ve got some face on you OP!

I just assumed payment was needed before my baby started, why would it need to be paid before?

That doesn't make sense!!

If you assumed it was needed before hour baby started, why haven't you paid it?

Did you read the contract? Did your nursery just let you pay at the door? Most nurseries around me take a month's deposit and a sign up fee then want a month up front paid before the 1st.

Why on earth should she have to remind you @hoolahoolay ?

This is entirely on you.

You didn’t… you did a I’m sorry but it’s your fault really.

I mean as long as it was paid before he started. I don't get why it needed to be paid earlier that. Yes invoice said 1st but I thought that was just the generic date on it. My child is starting on 13th of month so starting later if you understand me. Yes I should have paid it but the Christmas period is expensive and we've had lots on and it just hasn't been priority. Lesson learnt!

If you're not a "stupid" FTM (BTW, that's really not on to call FTMs stupid), and you assumed payment was needed before your baby started (and you read the invoice with the payment due date, the contract etc)....then why didn't you realise that it needed to be paid promptly?

I'm a mum of 2DC and I'm finding this one hard to figure out. The nursery that my two went to (many years ago now) expected payment upfront. The CM that they went to also expected payment upfront. Ergo, I paid promptly...even when I was a "stupid" FTM.

Entirely your own fault. I don’t personally run my business like this however, you are the one to blame for not having childcare now not her.

Yeah, you really should. I'm sure she has a lot on too and you have treated her very disrespectfully.

Let's hope for your sake she's not on Mumsnet.

It 's been expensive for the CM too

When in a hole. stop digging