What are cms doing about charging on wednesday after scool if they won't have mindees due to the strike and parents not needing them ?

[foors]

2 of my parents have asked me to have their DC in the morning instead as they will take the afternoon off work to look after their DC. I had plans in the morning but am willing to cancel them at the chance of earning an extra 5 hours work (times are hard) so have said that I can childmind for the morning. The thing is that parents never seem to want to acknowledge that this will be 'extra' time and seem to think that I will just 'swap' the hours instead.

It makes me feel mean and greedy when in fact it's written in the very small print in the contracts that any time not used is still paid for and any other hours are 'additional'. GRRRR

Thanks

It's probably a bit late now but if someone asked me to work the morning as an extra session, I think I would have asked were they sure they didn't want to make a whole day of it as they already have the after school slot booked and paid for anyway. Like you, I don't swap hours, only offer additional ones if required.

I have offered both my Wednesday after-schoolers the option of being dropped off here at 3.15 or paying for the extra hours to make it up to a full day. One is coming for the day, one not at all (though they did seriously consider the option of dropping here for two hours and would have done if the transport costs and logistics hadn't made it a bit silly!).

I'm just charging my normal hourly rate, the only one I've got extra is off as the school nursery is shut I normally have her before and after.

Thanks minderjiinx. How do you reply when you're asked to 'swap' hours or days ? I always find it hard to verbalize. They pay a month in advance, but I don't think they ever expect me to add 'additions' on to the next invoice. How do you explain in as few words as poss that childminders don't 'swap' days ?

I would say 'I don't swap hours but if you need me to, I can rearrange some things to mind your children in the morning, but they'll be in addition to the contracted afternoon hours. So that will be £X for the morning, you can pop the money in when you drop DC off'

Sorry only half read the op I would just say the space is still available for the usual hours and they can use if needed but the morning will be extra as other people could need the place , none of mine have questioned it though (yet!).

Any reason why none of you CMs would swap? My CM would probably offer to swap in such a situation. But then I have swapped for her on occasion too, so that she wouldn't be out of pocket by not being available on a normal CMing day.

Ex CM here - in this kind of emergency/out of the ordinary situation I would have swapped the usual hours to the morning and then added on any extra hours after at normal rate.

Why I don't swap hours is because by entering into a regular hours contract the family has reserved my availability for specific hours and denied me the opportunity to offer those hours to someone else. As I am fairly full on the days I work, if folk wanted to change to different times then it would probably entail me working at times when I would otherwise be off (or doing housework or paperwork) and so I would be working more hours for the same money - in fact working for very little both for the hours they originally booked and the extra hours. So whilst working an extra session is something I might do to be helpful, it's not something I would want to do for free. Another consideration is that agreeing to swap a session or two might be the thin end of the wedge, and I might end up with complete mayhem on the planning front!

How I explain my charging regime (admittedly not in very few words) is that I offer regular hours contracts - in which you pay me to reserve a place for certain fixed days or hours every week and of course pay for those hours whether you use them or choose not to, because you are reserving a place which I cannot offer to anyone else. I also offer ad hoc and emergency care (on a first come first served basis) on days or hours where I am not full with children on regular hours contracts. My hourly rate for ad hoc/emergency care is higher, but parents who already have a regular contract can book extra sessions at their usual contract rate. So "regular" parents understand that they are getting an extra session at a lower rate than I would charge a stranger. I think that is more than fair.

Of course that doesn't stop plenty of parents asking if they can "reserve" childcare pretty much 24/7 but only pay for the hours they use. A lot of people seem to struggle with the notion that not sending their own child for whatever reason does not equal a day off for the childminder, and that even if that were the case, there are still bills to pay.

its your business do what suits you, i would try to accommadate if it suited me, if not then no.

i would charge if parents didnt use the space as I am open and so working and cant afford to be down on my money.

Oh I forgot to say that I wouldn't wait for the next month to raise the question of payment. If they asked for an extra session (and assuming I could do it) I would just give them an ad hoc session booking form to complete and return with payment.

ok, thanks all for your advice. Very helpful

I like the sound of minderjinx 'ad hoc session booking form', because it makes it clear they are booking 'extra' time and not swapping hours.