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?

Childminders talk. Try and find another one after pulling that 😂

what costs? She hasn't paid! That's the point.

I agree, who hasn't missed a deadline before especially around Christmas

You must live a very sheltered life indeed.

I pay all my kid’s clubs and hobbies a month in advance. Their music tuition is paid in 10 week blocks in advance. Their after school club was booked and paid monthly in advance. Nursery (10 years ago) was paid in advance (invoiced for set days in advance and any extra ad hoc days would be added to the next invoice).
I can’t think of anything related to my children that isn’t paid in advance. Their chess club is paid for each session individually on the night and if you don’t go, you don’t pay but it’s really informal and just somewhere to go play chess and the coach is a lovely old man who only charges £1.50 per kid and doesn’t really care! But that’s the only one.

I also book and pay for my regular sports massage in advance. Plenty of other “personal care” things are paid in advance when booking online.

I’m a jeweller. When you order jewellery from me, you pay me in advance of receiving it so I don’t make stuff if I haven’t been paid for it, or if the deposit to cover materials on bigger commissions hasn’t been paid.

I paid for childcare at the end of the month when I got an invoice. I have never been asked to pay for work in advance.

She probably doesn't want to have to keep chasing payment and took it as a bad sign that you were late with the very first one. She shouldn't have to chase, it's up to you to remember and make sure you have the money available.

People who pay their bills on time?

You pay childminders in advance. You do the same for nurseries, after school care, children's clubs and music lessons aswell. They need to ensure they are paid because they have other expensives they need to cover. No payment means no service

Was it a full month’s fees OP? I think I might have had to pay a retention fee to my CM before my kid started or to cover settling in but it wasn’t a full month

Good on her. Childminders are really in demand, why would she want to take on a flaky payer

I’m with the childminder on this. She’s probably very busy herself and having clients that need reminders to be sent is a pain in the butt. I can’t just dump my late payers as it would affect my business but she probably has sufficient demand that she can.

This is worth a shot. Maybe pay 3 months upfront if you can afford to.

It's really irrelevant whether you think payment should be in advance or not. If people don't want to pay upfront, they shouldn't sign contracts that require then to. I set my terms, up to you if you wish to commit to them.

What can you do? Look for a new child minder!

30+ years ago we paid our childminder monthly in advance. Childminders have bills to pay and require cash flow the same as everybody else. Very poor to just not pay her for one reason or another.

She received the bill in early December

Payment in advance isn't really so unusual - Netflix, Amazon Prime, Tesco delivery saver, gym memberships, mobile phone contracts can be, car insurance -- hell the local soft play is not 'pay on your way out'. That's just services, goods are always payment in advance.

Don't pay, don't get the service. Maybe it is just a misogynistic thing, just one women business - sod her, I'll pay her when I choose to.

Don't take it personally: she will have been messed around endlessly over the years by parents picking up kids late and arguing about paying late fees, saying it's been Christmas and can they pay half as they're low on funds and all sorts of other tiresome nonsense by people taking the piss. She's playing hardball as CM places are usually in high demand so she doesn't need to pander to CFs and the disorganised. Someone else will take your place. All you can do is call her, apologise profusely and see if your space is still available. If not she may know someone with capacity but if not you may need to take annual leave whilst you sort out an alternative.

When that deadline is for an essential service, such as childcare to enable you to return to work, you make sure it's paid.

As a new parent, going back to work after maternity leave for the first time, I would have had no idea that the ban hammer would come down so heavy from a childminder.
Everyone is human and slips up sometimes. Regardless of the reason why OP missed this bill, if the childminder was going direct to canceling the contract, it would have been a decent thing to do, to drop her a message to say 'as a new parent, you may have overlooked...'. Give her a single chance to rectify and then make sure she knows it was one chance only.

As for what to do now. Call her. Ask for grace on this occasion. If it is given, pay immediately and then pay all future invoices on receipt.

On one hand she should have given one reminder to pay but on the other paying almost a month late is unreasonable. How come you forgot? The latest I have been paying nursery is a week but I never forget. It was not having any money until the end of the week.

The costs of last minute alternative child care. So the difference between that cost and the original fees. I suspect it’ll be in the contact. Childminders often download a template and then adjust. I know the last one I signed specifically said that no childcare would be provided if payment wasn’t made.

All childcare/education related activities round here are paid for in advance. If my children want to go to dance, football, music lessons even the local leisure centre classes these all need payment at the start of the term. You don't pay after the event!

As I mentioned, my children's school used to invoice at the end of the month, but I assume too many people didn't pay up for the service they had used on time, still continued to book in for childcare resulting in large amounts of hours unpaid for. This causes issues when paying staff and even knowing staffing levels if some parents take the mic and didn't turn up at the time booked until.

Zero sympathy from me you should have paid your bill in a timely fashion. You had a warning she is most certainly not obligated to give you another. The problem is now yours in the making why should she have to chase you for payment?

A childminder may well be receiving universal credit to top up their earnings. No doubt we've all heard the stories about people being paid late, the payment being taken into account for the next assessment period, and the calculation to adjust for their earnings being skewed as if they'd been paid twice in one month, meaning they lose a lot or all of their expected UC payment? Paying 5 days late could cost someone more than just time.
Even if this wasn't the case, a childminder is an individual and will budget according to her expected earnings.

Suggesting she's unreasonable for not chasing you for payment is a bit hypocritical when you could have simply been reasonable and paid on time.

As it's the first payment I'd assume you were likely to be unreliable and would probably need chasing or have excuses every month. Easier for her to just find someone else who isn't going to mess her about. You've caused the problem, she's not unreasonable.