Is it cheeky to ask to be paid over the holidays?

[Dogswimmingcompetition]

I work as a tutor. I work for three different families.
Over the summer holidays, one family like me to keep working, one family don’t have tutoring at all over the summer, but pay me year round. The final family is the family I work with the most, I’ve taught their child for almost three years. For the first year it was year round, last year they went away last minute for summer (I didn’t realise this was the plan) and I wasn’t paid all summer. I get the majority of my income from them and found it a real struggle for a couple of months.
Their child finishes their exams in a couple of weeks and mentioned something about our last lesson being in a couple of weeks (much earlier than I expected) This will leave me without pay for 3 months, which will set me back a lot.
I’m unable to commit to other families who have asked for tutoring as they would want all the time, not just in the holidays.
Would it be cheeky to put this to the father and ask if there’s any way they can pay me over the holidays and explain the situation?
I enjoy working with this family and would rather stay with them if possible, I know that i’m valued there also as the mum has told me in the past that they’re keen to keep me/continue with me.

Every childminder in the world does, so why not a tutor ?

2023 thread, very similar, theme, might be worth having a look at

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4826811-whats-the-protocol-for-paying-tutors-over-the-holiday-periods

Moving forwards you need to be really clear with notice periods/how many lessons they can miss and with what cancellation period… I used to be really flexible until I realised that some people were taking the p completely (eg cancelling the lesson with an hour to go but still expecting me to catch it up!)
I give my terms and conditions at the beginning of each year and get everyone to sign it.I am also looking at asking people to set up standing orders to pay monthly (eg 35 weeks x my lesson fee divided between ten months) so that I know what to expect each month

As someone who is self employed you don’t get paid for non work. Thoroughly review your contracts for future if you want to adjust this but many won’t pay for sessions they aren’t having. As someone self employed I save to have sufficient to cover when we are away or clients need less work.

Can you advertise for tutoring over the summer eg perhaps offer a summer camp so support kids that need help? You may get little demand depending where you are, but just an idea. If you’re DBS checked etc maybe there is holiday work at kids clubs etc.

Unless you teach a subject that is also of interest to adults you are going to struggle filling that space over the summer.
I teach languages and I teach adults and children. The adults carry on over the summer. I'm not reliant on the children. With the children some do some don't and it's usually agreed in advance what will happen. If they don't want lessons in the summer I ask for a deposit for September as payment in advance. But you can't force people to pay for work you're not doing. This is why the rate needs to be calculated properly. You need to work out realistically how many weeks you will be able to earn.
The reality is new students don't start tuition in September. They often start after the first parents evening etc when any weaknesses are highlighted. I can always tell when it's parent eve as the phone never stops!
It's all very well saying have a contract but how enforceable is this?
My after school places have a waiting list. I have 3 year 11 students who are in the last few weeks and 2 of those are filled already. I have a y6 who is stopping due to moving to secondary and that space is already filled.
You need to tell your family that you cannot guarantee their slot in September. If that means you lose them you start again with someone else and you make it clear from the start whether or not you work in the holidays. But you can't expect someone not to be away because you need to earn.

Well when you speak to the parents, lead with this.

You were expecting another 7ish weeks?

Maybe it's time to write in something in your contract about retainer fees and notice periods for extended breaks in tuition.

Sounds like they aren't short of cash if they can spend several months of summer in multiple locations?

Haven't trawled through the thread, but in my experience with childminders who are self employed educators like yourself, they charge from the week you take your place until the week you give up your place, and they neither work bank holidays nor any of their weeks of, which they take 4-6 weeks over the year. So you end up paying them and also for backup childcare for the weeks they are off. And of course we pay for weeks that we skip as normal.
None of it's cheap either, it's literally hundreds of pounds a week commitment.
I assume all that is to keep a consistent income rather than be at the whims of parents.
If you're worried about people not wanting holidays you can always offer a term time only contract at higher rates, and a year round one at lower rates. Then save some money from the term time to "pay" yourself in the holidays.

My childminder has never billed me for her holidays! She hasn't provided me with her services then so why would I pay her? I pay her when I go on holiday/skip a day of course. She's available and providing her services, I'm choosing not to take them. We have a contract which makes her terms clear.

You're a CF. I'm self-employed myself and would never expect people to pay me for not actually providing them with a service. Do what other self-employed tutors or even teachers do - get second jobs for the summer holidays. Hospitality, catering, events, extra work, there's lots of short-term work available in the summer holidays.

I also pay other self-employed people for their services and there's no way would I expect to have to pay when I am not receiving the service. In fact one of their colleagues expected their client to keep paying them for the year that they were unable to work due to covid, the client told them to catch themselves on! It wasn't up to the client to keep paying them £1500 per month for a service they weren't receiving!! Honestly some people are total CFers!

This is the risk we take being self-employed. It's up to you to get a proper contract in place with terms you are happy with or be responsible for yourself by getting additional income from elsewhere.

Or they could have made that clear in the OP.

You should have agreed a notice period. Have you not talked about that?

I think you need to have a think and decide what your system is going forward and tell them exactly this. You need to refine your terms and conditions and stick to it, you cant have a child deciding when you are going to be paid for the lessons.

Im not sure why you'd be expecting to tutor her after her exams?

Do you have contracts? If not don't expect any pay. If you are looking to be paid you probably need some form of contract including notice periods, payment for cancelled lessons or holidays. That's the only way to guarantee pay

unless it was in an original contract you can’t expect them to pay. explain you will use their slot for someone else over the holidays so cannot guarantee a space for them.

Also everyone is bring up exams because you called it end of exams in your original post!

You don’t have a contact with them though, so they don’t need to give any notice at all. A simple, “Last session this week and we’ll contact you in September” is all they need to do.

You can have any rules you like, but they need to be in a contract which the parents sign. You can have them pay by term, or by month. You can say they need to give a month’s notice or a term’s notice. Whatever. But it needs to be feasible and you don’t want parents thinking it’s too much.

As you’re self employed, you need to draw up a business plan to work out how much income you’re likely to earn over the year in order to ensure you have enough money to live on, pay all your bills inc. tax and pension payments etc.

Secondly, you must issue a contract for the families who book your services where you specify the terms of engagement inc. whether any retainer has to be paid during the summer months.

This is very basic business planning and it sounds like you’re just winging it at the moment?

You should get a summer job

I don't know any childminders that charge for their own holidays 🤷🏻‍♀️

OP, why are you repeatedly avoiding the issue of what your contract says? It's very telling.

I do. They can. As a self employed person, they can choose to charge for X number of days holiday a year. The few I know who do it are super popular with wait lists, and they have it something like they can take 2 weeks a year but have to give the parents 8 weeks notice or something like that. They all do it a little differently but same principle.

It’s up to the parents whether they find that acceptable and choose to use them or don’t like it so go elsewhere.

Hi OP

unfortunately as a self employed person you need to spread your money so to speak, over the entire 52 weeks to account for holidays etc

I think speaking to them and asking if they want to keep you on, they need to pay a retainer if they dont want you to fill their slot with someone else

But if they do not, you need to find more work

I do. These are not formal exams, as I stated, just end of year, but my student is very keen to get good results, which she does.

Yeah that wasn’t in your OP.

They’re very wealthy and v laidback

Thank you, yes i’m going to ask this and see what they say. I know that they want to keep me (as mum has said a few times) and their Dd does and has a lot of sway in their decisions I think.
What would you say as the retainer fee and how would you explain it?