Childminders and Bank Holidays

[ChitChattingWithKids]

I'm changing days with my CM, and one of the days will be Mondays - only have DC with her 2 days a week. Up until now the CM has never worked on Mondays (as a CM, anyway), so this hasn't come up before.

But not quite sure what would be fair with regard to charges. Up to now she has never charged for her leave, but charged for ours. (To make sure she has an even amount of money spread out over the year we multiply the weekly fee by 48 and divide by 12 and I pay it monthly, so she doesn't have a drop in income over holidays.)

But not sure what to do with the many Bank Holiday Mondays. Over the next 12 months there are 6 Bank Holiday Mondays, and to me that feels a heck of a lot. CM has floated the idea of charging half fees for Bank Holidays, but that still doesn't seem fair to me. I am fairly flexible as to which 2 days we use her, and SHE chose the days because they are 2 days she doesn't have other children to collect from school (so could collect my DS from his school which is not her local one) and also enabled her to take on another child 2 full days a week.

Now I know she is self employed and can set whatever fees she wants, but it would seem a bit odd to pay her for Bank Holidays when I don't pay her for her own holidays. What do people think, are they usually paired? (Ie pay for both BH and own holidays, or not pay for either).

I did a lot of juggling to change things to keep using her as a CM once DS1 started school, and don't want to start feeling resentful over it, but neither do I want to create ill feeling between myself and CM.

You will get a variety of answers for this. One important question is - can she work bank holidays if you want her to?

Some cm charge full fee and then extra if they work. Some charge and don't work. Some don't charge.

I wont work Bank Holidays, therefore if Im not open for business I dont charge.
But as HSMM says others do even if theyre not available.

Is she open for business on those days?
as HSMM - Can she work if you need her?

Do you work BH's?
Will you need care at all on those days?
Is the answer is yes to any of them, especially last 3, I think you do need to pay her, yes, as she will be holding a space for you that could be difficult to fill at the last moment IYSWIM.

No, she doesn't want to work on Bank Holidays. I won't be working Bank Holidays either, and wouldn't need care unless completely out of the ordinary. (She has babysat for us, once at hers, once at ours, when we were stuck for a sitter, but just like with any other babysitter there was absolutely no obligation for her to say yes and she only said yes because it suited her and her family.)

I will still need to do the work, but have to do it at home in my own time. CM won't be able to take DC for extra ad hoc days as she is now (sort of) full. So changing days wasn't absolutely ideal for me, but was willing to do it to keep using her.

She's incredibly brilliant and helpful to me. When I've needed a babysitter to look after the DC after a day with her she was willing to bring them to our house, get them settled and then hand them over to the babysitter (they know the babysitter well) so that I didn't have to pick DC up, get them settled with babysitter and go back into London.

TBH using a CM isn't the best solution for me, but she is so great with my DC and a genuinely lovely and helpful person, and her DC are wonderful friends with mine as a result of this care (roughly the same age) that I want to keep them with her if I can.

But... if it gets too expensive it just won't be worth it, especially since come January DS2 will start nursery part time and so I will be paying for both the CM and the nursery for part of the day until he becomes entitled to a free space next September. Completely understand and support the fact that CM needs to charge for these hours, but boy does it start getting pricey!

Also, part of changing days enabled her to take on another client who she would otherwise have turned down.

well i suggest as you feel like this now i would organise something new for January

you say the cm has changed days to a monday to be able to pick your other child up from school which is not the local one so i assume shw will use her car for this, i think the cm has bent over to help you but if you feel paying her for 6 mondays a yr you wont be using grates you change now

I'm perfectly willing to take the extra hit for the nursery fees. I don't HAVE to send DS2 to nursery and as it's my choice have no quibbles about it. So it's not January that would be the tipping point for me.

Yes, CM will be using her car to pick DS up, but it's only a few more minutes down the road from her local school (where her daughter goes) so don't particularly feel is anything out of the ordinary. She has collected him from the nursery right next to the school for a year!

CM doesn't tend to charge for all her available hours with any of her mindees. She only charges for the hours used - has some young children starting with her soon who will only be there for a few hours a day and is only charging for those hours which I think is very generous of her. But she went a few months with only my 2 DSs a day a week (the 2 days a week only started a couple of months ago) which hit her hard. I feel I was very supportive of her during that period of time - paid her early when she went overdrawn in her account, asked if she wanted to take the babysitting shifts that I would otherwise have given to one of my 2 regular babysitters, picked up early one day when she needed to go somewhere and used those hours as 'banked' hours on her request.

I do think I am nice parent to deal with, hence why this has me feeling so confused. If it was any one else I would have just said 'No, won't change to Mondays'!!!!!

I don't work bank holidays but I still charge for them. I don't charge for my own 4 weeks of holiday. If a bank holiday falls within a week when I am on holiday then as a good will gesture I ususally don't charge even though my contract states that I do. So far my parents have not had a problem with this.

Are most of your parents full time mamamaisie? I don't think I'd query it at all if I used her full time. Perhaps half fees or 2/5ths would be fair here, as that would be more of a pro-rata position. But then how could she justify charging others who dont' have a Monday??!!

I have never worked b.h s. Would consider if necessary but would charge a £1 extra per hour. One of my mindees use to come on Mondays. If it was a bank hol I did not charge for them if they did not want me to work them.

Dont work done charge.

DS previous nursery did charge for bank hols but they were usually open for business (except Xmas & new year) so it was my decision whether to keep DS at home or not.
Current CM isn't open on bhols and doesn't charge.
If the service is available then I don't mind paying but if closed then I'd feel hard done by to be charged.