CM-Why are my parents complaining!

[gardenpixies32]

Hi, I am a relatively new CM. I have 5 children at the moment. Most the parents are lovely and just get on with things, however, 2 parents are starting to irritate me with their complaining!

Parent 1 has now threatened to withdraw her son if I start charging her the hours he is at playgroup! I collect him in the morning, bring him home, give him breakfast, wait for my other mindees to arrive. Take all three of them in the car to drop the little boy at school. I also collect him at 3pm. This is three days a week. Obviously, I cannot fill the morning space and I have told his mother I need to start charging for his space while he is at playgroup. She has now threatened to withdraw him from my care. It is not worth my while for 3.75 an hour! By the time I take off my petrol cost I am making the grand sum of about 1.25 for that morning hour! I explained that if she wasnt happy to pay for the time he was at school, I wouldn't be able to drop him at playgroup in the mornings and I would advertise the morning vacancy.

Parent 1 has also moaned about her April bill as it is almost 100 pounds more than normal. I explained to her that if she wants me to care for him (additional hours) over the Easter holidays while playgroup is closed, it will cost more! I cant see why she doesnt understand this!

Parent 2 has now moaned to me about the fact that I want to charge her for the settling in period. I have offered her 2 free hours of settling in and the rest of the hours will be charged for. She said that nurseries don't charge a settling in fee. She has chosen to have 24 hours of settling in, surely she doesnt expect me to work for free for 24 hours!? I presume that when she goes back to work after maternity leave, her employers are going to pay her for the first 24 hours she is back at work!

I am starting to get fed up of some parents thinking I am some sort of Mary Poppins free babysitting service! I am trying to make a living like any other person out there!

What do other childminders out there think?

New2cm, what did you charge per hour for the settling in? I have only had older children who didn't need settling in as they already knew me.

I had a call today off a parent who wanted childcare for his 18 month old. I charge by the day £28 which includes breakfast, lunch and all tots groups' fees(£1.50 per session) which I think is reasonable for Greater Manchester area. It also covers my diesel costs to get children to and from school in the morning and afternoon and to various parks in the holidays.

I will probably do what you do and have a no committal clause in my policy if the child would not settle for any reason.

Another parent here.

Of course you need to charge for the space for the morning if you are taking child 1 to playgroup.

How do you propose to charge for the afternoon, just from 3.00pm or all the afternoon. If the latter then again of course you should charge for the extra hours when playgroup is closed.

Re settling in. My two went to nursery and settling in was free. It consisted of 1 hour with me there, then 2 hours with me leaving them, then a morning (3 hours including lunch) so 6 hours in total.

I charge the hourly rate for settling in and with parent 1 the hourly rate from 3pm-6pm. I dont think I am being unreasonable but I am being made to think that I am ripping them off! I have explained that it is standard practice with most childminders but that doesnt seem to make a difference with them.

I had settling in at nursery over a month but this was exceptional and a lot of it was with me or another member of family present so we weren't affecting the ratio. While settling in you couldn't have them there full time so the idea was to get both parent and child happy with the nursery and then you'd be happier with them in the long term. It was a lovely nursery.

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. If parent 1 employed a nanny they couldn't refuse to pay them for hours while dc is at playgroup/school and this is effectively the same thing.

I never had a settling in period with my cm (when we switched to one for a couple of days a week). We went round for tea one sunday so ds could meet her daughters and her and that was it. It wouldn't have crossed my mind to ask for one as she's obviously paid by the hour.

I don't do free settling in periods, if I have sole charge of a child then I should be paid for it, what has settling in got to do with it, I've still worked those hours thus should get paid for them!!

I allow the parent to come to mine for coffee and a playmate as often as they like to settle the child in, as I am not solely in charge of their child I obviously don't charge. I will then offer a half day/reduced hours if they would like it and calculate for the hours used rather than my normal daily rate.

I also wonder what is to be gained with having a free settling in period? You can't necissarily see in 8hrs whether a child will be happy at your setting, if they are upset or young if can easily take 2 weeks before they are comfortable. I suppose it is nice for parents to think they are getting something for nothing but I see no reason for it to be free of charge if the parent isn't on site. I have the first month as no notice needed from either side to terminate the contract, but I assumed everyone did that?