Turned away from breakfast club! AIBU

[Mumsgotaheadache01]

So every 2 weeks I book and pay for blocks of breakfast club for my child. She goes every morning as I work. I turned up as usual at 7.50 this morning and popped her into her school reception and checked her in. Only to be told that she wasn't booked in on the list this morning. I questioned it and the receptionist said that it had been cancelled by payer. I then checked on my parentpay app and it said that my payments were cancelled! So that's obviously why it had removed my child from her bookings. I had certainly not cancelled her chilcare. I have over £50 loaded onto parentpay. So have absolutely no idea why this has happened. I was told that my little one could not come into breakfast club. So I had to sit in the car with a grumpy cold child who had had no breakfast, be late for work and wait for normal school drop off time. Am I being unreasonable to be upset by this . And wonder why parentpay would just cancel my booking like that. And to be really worried and anxious that this might happen again for no reason.

i think its more the implication by the OP that they had an hour of pure torture waiting for school to open.. when in fact, apart from the OP probably being late for work it really was 'no biggie'

OP has not helped herself in this situation

ParentPay is utterly useless and archaic. SIMS has been dreadful since Capita sold it (because it was already ancient) in 2020. I can only imagine schools still use it because they're tied into contracts. I'd have been a bit shell-shocked too. But I am surprised the breakfast club supervisor didn't take her and let you login and pay there and then. Were they full? In my experience, breakfast club supervisors are up there with childminders in the hero stakes!

The aggro is because she rather implied she sat in the cold car for an hour with a hungry child and did nothing about the hunger ... when actually it turns out they sat in a warm car, ate some food and played games...

That's really unkind of the school, I know for certain if that happened to me and my children, they would let them in and say pay later.

I would have however gone and got my children some breakfast somewhere else if they could not go in, why let them sit freezing in the car hungry?

Maybe OP is one of those parents that never pays their subs. Or the school is full of parents that never pay, so are zero tolerance.

A nice warm cafe would have been better.

This. It’s the contradicting herself that’s the problem. Saying she had such an issue this morning and the next minute making out everything was absolutely fine and wonderful.

@mollymazda maybe. But I just read it as a general stressed out mum trying to add some humour.

I saw a parent threatening staff with a bat before Christmas so OP grumping to other parents about being in a car peaking in windows is much more civilised

Oh, come on, she wouldn't have got that cold in the few minutes she was out of the car, and the car would have still been warm.
.

Are you suggesting there were no shops within a 20 minute drive of school? That sounds like you're very remote.

If there wasn't space then it's fair enough that you couldn't take her in. I've had it before that I didn't confirm the payment, but luckily not for a club so I was chased up. I'm not sure why you're blaming breakfast club for a payment error, sounds like one of those things that's really annoying but won't happen again.

Not sure of the age of the child, but ratios for the younger years and still lower than the older year groups. (As the poster mentions them getting a snack I am assuming they are younger as they are given free fruit).

Unfortunately if the club is full they can't just magic up a spot, even if the child often attends that session. Maybe if they had been turning up midway through breakfast club they might have been able to find someone else willing to step in as an additional adult, but to be honest mornings are busy and teachers are not likely to be able to help out unless it was a real emergency situation.

For what it's worth at least they were fed, but maybe we are lucky where we live and there is a supermarket close by so I would have perhaps gone and got a bit more (though one of my children would have been fine with the two things the poster offered).

I've always had over £30 in mtly account. Payed immediately and never missed a payment, same with brownies, dance , swimming etc. I always make sure everything is paid up. I'm a single mum who works 5 days a week and it is really hard to juggle everything. I am just peed off because we were cold and for all the school cared she didn't have any breakfast when she went in to class this morning. it's not what I expected this morning through no fault of my own. The system just seems flawed.

@fanaticalfairy yes could be

They have ratios they are legally obliged to adhere to.

strangly enough I have been a generally stressed out mum! the OP very intentionally wrote her post to make everyone feel oh so sorry for her and her child and it back fired! you can call it pearl cluthching all you like, my childrens health and well being always came first!

Then you accept that you are going to be late back to school. Rather a late mark than an unfed child.

It wasn’t the schools fault either if it was a parent pay issue. The school didn’t have space for her and left her in the care of her mother who is responsible for keeping her fed and warm.

But yeah parent pay is crap at times.

It's just another one of the mum load things.

When twins started primary one I got a call to say I hadn't ordered lunch.

I sent the school, precious first school photos of parent pay as I freaked out in Lidl.

OP did the work, sorted it out, and technology fails.

I'm all for moving systems on but when it doesn't work it's just another headache for working mums

But they did not say no space.

They just said payment failed

Then why say in your op you had a grumpy cold child who had no breakfast

heating was on so not cold

you fed her so had breakfast

A banana and a breakfast bar is not unfed! Probably a better breakfast than many kids have at breakfast club. My DD used to be given honey on white toast at the breakfast club (which we only used once or twice).

This

They had space. I asked. They said that the booking had been cancelled. I said I hadn't cancelled it and they checked and said that they could see i had plenty of credit on there. I work In a different school and needed to be in to take my own class of children in at 8.45. And we would never turn a child away from breakfast club.

Oh behave, stop being so dramatic... the school knew she was with her mother, had arrived in and was going back to a warm car and had the mother had the ability to get food for her child (even if it meant going home to get the food and the child eating it in the car in the way back).

Blimey, slow cap. A banana and a cereal bar is perfectly fine for a small child who is going to have snacks later on.

That's really annoying OP, and I'm amazed the focus has somehow switched to your apparent shortcomings as a parent. I very much hope you are flagellating yourself and booking yourself onto a parenting course as we speak.