School holidays, teachers & Childminders

[Notreadyquiteyet]

I have been wandering around these forums as am massively broody at the moment, however don't have any children of my own yet, only step children who live with their mum most of the week.

In my broodiness i have been looking seriously at childcare and how much having a child is going to cost on that front. We have a large mortgage and i think i will have to go back to work after 6 months, so will be looking for a childminder/nursery.

Is it unreasonable to ask if they would be prepared to take DC for term ttime only, are there childminders that do for teachers?

I do appriciate that they would not be unreasonable to say no, i know our local nursery would not do it and have a very strict contract on what days can/can't be claimed back (even charge you for days when they can't open!)

Hope someone can come and sooth worries!

I know if i wait till i can afford a child, i won't have one, but i do need to ensure that we will not bankrupt ourselves!!

I am a Cm and term time only children are very welcome

I'm a term time only worker and have used two childminders who were happy to have my children term time only :) they often have school age kids full time in the school holidays so not having yours then isn't a problem

I'm in the process of registering but when I do i will offer term time only and spread the yearly cost equally over 12 months to make sure I'm not going the whole month of August with no income. This might be something to suggest to a potential childminder who is worried about this aspect...

I am in the process of registering as a childminder and plan to have term-time only children so that it doesn't affect my own children so much.

That makes me feel much better as it exactly what i am looking for, I am more than happy to spread payments over 12 months as that is how i am paid anyway!

I had thought of childminders taking other children in the holidays, but hadn't thought of those with school aged children of their own.

Thank you for the reassurance!

I look after seven cm kids. Only one comes during hols.

Most of the kids are with family during hols. I like it this way.

I charge a half fee retainer during school holidays for thoses wanting term time only.

Thank you for your replies, I think it will be one of the factors that affects my choice. Other things come first but I think being able to hold a space and spend time with LO in the time I do get off.

I'm a childminder who offers term time only contracts. I charge half fees for holidays .

I take term time only mindees but charge a slightly higher hourly rate than for full timers.

I really like term time only contracts. I work it out over 12 months so I still get a monthly wage (also works better for parents) and I get time off over the holidays without loosing loads of pay. I do say to the parents that I'm willing to work the odd day but won' t do full weeks if I can help it. It works really well for my family.

I only pay my (wonderful!) cm during term time. She only has term timers and says it suits her as she likes to have the school holidays with her own children.

I work .5 and DS is at cm's 8am-1pm each day. It works out at about £400 a month on average which at the point on the payscale I'm on is about a third of what I take home. HTH

My children are below school age and I only take children of that age group, so I won't do term-time only contracts - I can't afford to, essentially.