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?

She had a month to pay and went last week for settling in sessions! How much more time is needed to make her consider that the woman is running a business not a charity. Surely going to the childminders would make you think 'oh I need to pay that bill to ensure my place', especially as even paying at the end of last week would make the payment late. The OP could have mentioned to the childminder last week if there was an issue with payment but instead sounds rather dismissive about why she didn't pay on time as if it's not an issue. I bet other clients pay on time and as soon as the bill is received.

You should have paid up

We have 2 carers managing the care of our DS and we pay them on the dot every single time. Why? Because managing DS care is the top priority so uppermost in our heads. Also, we don't believe in prioritising our financial affairs to the detriment of those of our carers, who also have bills to pay etc. They probably have stayed with us because in years we have never missed or been late with a payment.

This is entirely on you. As other posters have pointed out, your best bet is probably to give the childminder a grovelling apology and assure her this is a one off. Then again probably not as it is evident from your post that you are not sorry at all and only care about your own convenience, so any apology wouldn't be sincere.

That's probably fine if OP had been a client who had a history of paying on time. The CM probably has enough experience to know that people who aren't on time with the first invoice are likely to be unreliable. I can't blame her.

Would you be happy if you had to remind your employer to pay you op?

YABU and what a silly thing to do!

Us childminders have bills to pay you know- we don't do it just for a bit of pocket money! Paying your first invoice late is a red flag- she probably wondered if you were going to be the same every month. It takes 2 minutes to pay online.

I'd be grovelling big time a d offering to pay a month up front

Yabu

she’s a child minder not a adult minder.

You missed your very first payment because you thought it should be her job to remind you to pay her ready to look after your child.

She would be wondering if your this bad on the first payment how would you be later on and what other issues may she get with you.

I don't blame her. She has no relationship with you yet. You didn't pay. She probably got a huge waiting list and can easily fill the place. Why deal with a none of late payer. Yabu.

No. I would expect the OP to pay on time, every time, going forward.

I absolutely agree that OP was at fault. I just think that one reminder would have sorted this situation out.

I work in childcare and if I have to chase clients for money they get terminated. But I would have given a reminder to be fair to you.

As an ex-Childminder I’m sorry but I have to agree with her. People would mess me around regarding payment all the time when I first started - I was too kind and people saw me as a pushover, payments got later and later, people asked for “favours” eg looking after their child at short notice, picking them up much later than planned, asking if I could work on my day off etc. In the end I had to be really firm - I added late payment fees, I added double time rates for picking up their child late, I gave notice to people who took the piss out of me. I had a waiting list of people wanting a space, why would I stick with anyone who was messing me around.

I often had people come look around for a visit who showed red flags, who took ages to fill out their contracts/paperwork to sign up……….. and then were shocked and angry a week later when I told them that unfortunately I’d given the space to someone else.

Would you be happy chasing your employers for your paycheque, having to send them reminders to be paid, having to call your mortgage company and ask for an extension because you hadn’t been paid on the 1st as expected? Or would you look for a job that paid you when promised and didn’t mess you around?

So you didn’t pay her and now you think she’s unreasonable for not wanting to work for you. Hilarious.

Of course yabu.

And while it would be nice for her to send a reminder - she presumably is busy looking after the children of parents that don't need a reminder to fulfil their part of the deal. If you don't pay your very first bill on time (it's very easy to set up a future payment in your banking app as soon as you get your bill. That's what I do, because I know I'll forget nearer the time and I know how important it is for self employed people to get paid on time) then there's a very good chance that there will be problems with close to every payment. It's not usually a one off.

Good luck finding someone at this short notice.

Fair enough. You've Team Childminder. I'm not. It's just a difference of opinion. Tis all 😚

It’s harsh but it’s not unfair.

The CM has no way of knowing that you’re not going to do this every month. They still have bills to pay.

You could easily have set up a DD or an online banking payment for before the payment was due if you couldn’t pay it as soon as you got the invoice. Instead you did nothing which is so disrespectful.

i hope you get something sorted, but i hope that you also learn a big lesson from this.

Round here you usually pay a month in advance.

Same at breakfast and after school club at my children's school. They used to charge at the end of the month but so many people just didn't pay up and took advantage of the system.
Now you have to pay upfront for any booked sessions, no payment, no childcare.

YABU, this is her livelihood. She doesn’t know if this is unusual for you as it’s the first invoice. She might well have sent more reminders/spoken to you if you were a customer with a history of paying on time, but all she knows of you and your reliability is this. Apologise profusely and explain (come up with something better than “one thing or another) and perhaps she’ll give you another chance.

I would apologise profusely, tell her the reason you are late, and say still want the place and will be able to transfer the money immediately if she is still able to have your son. Then see what she says.

But that's exactly what the childminder has asked for. Payment on 1st December for work which will not be carried out until January.

Very few other self-employed businesses work on that basis. You don't get paid by your employer today for February.

Obviously if that's her terms and conditiions then OP is in the wrong here, but the whole business model is off.

You clearly don’t run a business.
I do.

I do not want clients who need reminding. It’s too much work, and we have to do absolutely everything else in our business. It is too much.

And this is the very first bill. A reminder to someone who has been paying on time for 6 months would be fine, I’d do that. But someone who didn’t bother to pay the very first bill on time? And needs reminding? No. I won’t work with them. Way too much hassle, too untrustworthy, too uncertain. They’ve shown me who they are and how they value my service, so I won’t provide it to them.

I am with the childminder on this one. I am a freelancer, chasing clients is the only thing which makes me very unhappy about the job, otherwise it is my dream job. Chasing payment or not receiving payment on time makes one feel so unappreciated and humiliated that it is damaging, physically damaging. It is a personal insult - you personally are not getting paid and it is not like a large company's a/c department had a glitch and your large company's a/c department is still processing it. It is awful. Hopefully you will learn to respect professionals when you find a new childminder.

Yabu. This is a business and a nursery would request full months payment or at least a large deposit. I'd message and apologise profusely and pay it.

Very few other self employed businesses except for this business in this industry where it’s the norm.