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.

You obviously don't know how these things work.

However, they should be more flexible.

It seems harsh that the school didn’t let your child in, especially when you’re a regular user of breakfast club. It seems unreasonable to me but maybe it’s to do with staff/child ratios needing to be arranged the night before.

Everyone has problems with ParentPay at some time although they're a little better than they used to be! 🙄
The entire site used to 'go down' so nothing was happening or accessible and nobody could ever get a straight answer to what the problem was!! 😡

This 👆 system gremlins happen, but you made the choice to sit in a cold car with your child and then send her into school with hungry, when you could have driven to the nearest cafe/MacDonalds/coffee shop, or even back home for a warm environment and some food before school. Why did you choose to do that?

This is actually what you said 🙄
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.
So your child sat in a cold car without breakfast!

That's annoying but sometimes the best system fails.
I'd have gone home for breakfast though?

Tokittyornottokitty
No not drumming up business clearly as its a school breakfast club . We are extremely proud of what we provide .

It was a lighthearted joke due to the random amount of detail provided as it wasn’t particularly relevant. Obviously you weren’t drumming up business because you didn’t name the place. I can tell you’re proud of it though

If you're a regular, the school could have taken her and sorted the payment issue later. Our school will do that, not every day obviously, but if you use them a lot they know you're good for the money

Most of your replies are coming across as a bit arseholey.
you asked, the masses disagree with you. Is this your first rodeo on the internet?

I would have taken her home or out for breakfast. Speak to parent pay

To be fair, she did get plenty of arsey comments!

Any need to be patronising though?

My child's primary starts at 8:50

Your posts are actually quite arsey and patronising too. I've noticed you on other threads doing the same thing.

You say? How interesting 🙄

I can't say I have noticed you at all.

What did parent pay say? I’d be snarky and asks if they think they should send comms to all parents who use them to explain they always need to carry breakfast on them in case their child is suddenly rejected, as with this practice and no warning you and other parents would hold them fully responsible for their child missing breakfast.

Poor wee soul. She sat in the car having had no breakfast! No wonder she was grumpy! How could she be expected to concentrate in class on an empty tummy! If you were making some kind of a point,your child was the only one to feel it! What a shame!

About as fair as her arseholey replies I should imagine 😌

ParentPay is rubbish, and it has done weird things with my account before. To prevent this happening again, perhaps speak to whoever runs Breakfast Club at school, and tell them for future reference you'd like your DC to attend everyday, and if your PP account ever suggests otherwise, please either ignore, or perhaps they could contact you if this were to happen again.

YANBU to be pissed of that this happened, I would be too - but your frustration shouldn't be aimed at the school. Your DC (for whatever reason) was not booked in, and there are strict rules on capacity, and ratio of kids/adults.

Also, a banana & granola bar are fine for their breakfast and probably much healthier than many other kids' breakfasts - ignore those ones suggesting otherwise. There was absolutely no need to go out for breakfast, or home & back again! NOTHING about your post suggests you're a bad parent... perhaps a little dramatic- but no harm in that, I am too ha ha!

Just reading your responses & can’t believe all the flak you got! There are a lot of sanctimonious people on here it would seem

I'm sorry you have had to waste time responding to that. I got what you meant and sympathise. They could’ve/should’ve let your child in after they informed you so you could get it resolved for the next day. The whole point of BC is that parents need it to be able to get to work on time & that your child wouldn’t have had breakfast. Also, your alternative breakfast was absolutely fine. Good luck OP & ignore the moaning Minnies

If they had space it's just plain stupid that they didn't fudge the booking and let her in

What’s the point in having a number /limited if you would never turn a child away

assume you haven’t told parents this or you would be over run with children

say 10 turned up extra. You wouldn’t have enough staff to cover them

Try & speak with Parent Pay to find out what went wrong & why your booking was cancelled. It might be worth asking the school if it happens again can they take your little one as you have work to get to & your child needs breakfast, If you pay on time usually I'm sure they can accommodate in an emergency. It might be worth having an emergency breakfast box in the car that can be left in the boot in case it ever happens again or even if you ever breakdown. If you have drinks in the box make sure they're in glass bottles as you're not meant to leave drinks in plastic bottles for any length of time in a car. Also leave a spare throw in the boot so if it's cold you can wrap your child up so they don't get too cold.