One of my best friends is a childminder, and used to have ds1 for a day a week. The going rate where we live is £30 ish per day - cheap I know compared to the London area, but my friend charged us £40 plus meals, nappies, paid holidays etc. I didn't mind paying the extra, because she is great with the children. She didn't get any other customers at that rate, and has since dropped her prices to £30(!)
Just asked her to have ds2 for 3 hours on a couple of mornings so i can do a bit of work in dh's office (she doesn't have any other child on these days, and doesn't want a full day's work either as she has her own l.o's). The idea was that I'd hand ds2 over to her as we both drop our eldest off at preschool, and then collect as we pick up 3 hours later.
I kind of assumed she'd charge us at her hourly rate, £3.50 per hour, as a good 40 mins of the 3hrs she'll have him will be spent in the car anyway. When I asked her today, she said it would be her full morning rate of £15, even though I won't be using almost 2 hours of paid time.
I know it's not a huge sum of money, and she is great with ds2, but it barely makes it worth me going back to work, as I'd probably only earn £20-25 for a couple of hours in the office. I can kind of see that if she's blocking off her time for us then we need to pay for the whole morning, and especially if she had other customers lined up, but I think if it had been me I'd have offered her the hourly rate, especially given we're such good friends.
Opinions please, am fully prepared to be told iabu, and there is no way I would ever risk a friendship over this, as technically she is going by the book, I just wondered either way what people thought.