childminders club- are you paid enough?

[Isyhan]

Whilst my cute little dd is asleep I want to start a contentious thread! I must be in that mood! Do you think childminders charge enough i dont! Having worked in the NHS and care homes sector a while I think parents actually get alot for their money out of childminders. If anyone was looking for a place for their elderly parent they would be paying £350 per week for residential care and that is for a fit and active person with no nursing needs. If a person was receiving one-one care in the NHS I dread to estimate the cost yet parents want one-one full time care of their child it seems for less than £150 per week, they want you to be trained, to be flexible and the rest. If this was a male profession I dont think it would be this way. Im a trained nurse who wants to childmind, I think Ill enjoy it but can I afford to do it? Im not sure?

She obviously doesnt need the money then Crunchie shes just doing it for the love of it.

yep thats right do the job to the highest ofsted standard and dont need the money. Hey maybe i should stop charging altogether.

I suspect many are not paid enough for what they do. However it is a choice you make when you decide upon that career path I guess, like with most other jobs.

I looked into it (briefly) as an alternative career after I had DD and wanted out of teaching. However, even with DH's pay rise and me having no childcare for DD, I couldn't have earned enough to keep my current way of living, and we were planning on moving, etc too. So I decided against it and made alternative plans again.

In my first year of childminding I had a trunover of £10K and a loss of £800 (my DH & I work predominantly part time - maybe 30 hrs each)

In my second year I had a turnover of £20K and a profit fo about £6K (My DH & I working for about 50 hrs a week each)

In my third year my turnover will be higher but my expenses will also as I am only working about40 hrs Childminding and DH is down to about 30 (he's been medically retired for over 10 yrs) - but the loss in income is better than meeting myself coming all over the place (I still put in about 20 - 25 hrs background work each week)

So no I will never become rich doing it But I think 50 or so hrs is a sensible limit for me (I also have a health problem)

However I'm so in it for the money

If I don't make enough - we don't eat
never mind little hings like clothes/petrol/car Ins/school trips etc

Pookey - you say that you have to go to work to pay your bills. This is exactly what I am doing, except that I am home-based.

Ayla99 - love your expenses list. Would like to add the cost of buying my minibus to my expenses but, unfortunately, it is not tax-deductable. Neither is the cost of my chiropractor for some heavy-duty back injuries caused by years of lugging double buggies and children around.

As self-employed people, we also lose out when it comes to sick pay, maternity benefits, unemployment benefits, pensions etc.

I find some of the attitudes to childminders astounding. The fact that some people(not particularly on this thread) still think that childminders are nothing more than glorified babysitters is annoying to say the least. There is a lot more to the job than what is first seen. We are self employed people and that have all the paperwork and legalities that go with that. Not to mention we are bound by all the regulations (rightly so) that OFSTED require. Not to mention that we are ALL too well aware that we are looking after the physical, emotional,social and even in some cases educational well being of a parents most precious gift in the world. The pressures are amazing and yet we do it with a smile because we love working with families.

I was a qualified deputy manager of a nursery in inner London before i went on maternity leave. I chose to go down the childminding route not only because i wanted to be at home with my son but also if i did go back to work and paid for childcare myself i would have been left with £38 a month!!! I Hope to get a little more than that as a childminder but i doubt it will be that much more.

Well thats my take on it all

Well said, nzshar! If we charge too much, we're only in it for the money; if we charge too little, then we can't be very good; if we have too many mindees, then we are unprofessional and (again) money-grabbing. We can't win.

I have to be up and ready at 7.30am tomorrow morning (Saturday) having worked all week from 7.30am - 6.00pm, for an all-day training session. Giving up one day of my weekend isn't particularly the issue, but still being thought of as unprofessional is!

I have attended (so far this year)

2 days first aid (saturdays)
2 days SN (so I had to employ staff to cover)
1 evening (7-10) Baby signing
2 evenings (7-9) NVQ
1 day Network Workshop (Saturday0

and it's not even Feb yet!!!

How's that for unprofessional?

Oh Katymac, that's not nearly enough!

I love working with kids and always want to, but I hate working from home, I'd much rather do my job elsewhere.

I don't think we get paid too little... even if I just looked after one child I think that £3 plus the £3 I save looking after ds myself = £6 which is an okay hourly rate.

I do think we are given a lack of respect, but I put this down mostly to working from home.

I suppose I am relatively cheap, I charge between £3 and £3.40 depending on circumstances. Most people in my area charge around £3.40 fulltime and £3.50 full time. I suppose 50p doesn't make too much of a difference but there are other things to take into consideration. I consider myself full, even though technically I'm not, and I'm happy with my earnings. I do feel overworked, and a little stressed, which I don't think childminders are ever given credit for. I don't think the average sane single parent would choose to have six kids! And they'd probably get in benefits what I get paid Yet for some reason for 40 - 50 hours a week I'm in sole charge!

Isyhan - I agree that parents get good value for money from the childcare I provide. But their children do not receive one-to-one care as at the very least I will also have my own 3yr old to care for alongside theirs.
I don't think childminding is limited to one sex as a profession either. Lots of couples successfully run childminding businesses.
As a nurse you probably won't be able to earn the same wage as you do now through childminding unless you do significantly more actual minding hours than you do now for the NHS. And then you will have to factor in on top the time factor of very many extra unpaid hours of training/paperwork/preparation/cleaning etc.
The huge benefits of pension/holiday pay/sick pay that you get now will be lost and the work is unpredictable.
I still work for the NHS on a part time basis as well as enjoying the freedom and satisfaction of running my childminding business - which I love. But if you already have a dd - who will limit your earning capacity - I wouldn't go into it for purely financial reasons if you already have a secure career you enjoy with the NHS.
It is possible to enjoy the benefits of both. My ds goes to his own childminder when I go out to the NHS to work for example. Maybe this would be a safer option for you too.

Goosey no Im definately not considering it for financial reasons as although Im a nurse I was earning very good money as a senior manager in NHS but lifes too short to turn round in 5 years time and realise you didnt see your child grow up as I did with my first daughter. I could probably do bank/agency nursing and be fine but I want to childmind but I am just finding it frustrating that some childminders undervalue themselves and then wonder why people think they are untrained and sit kids in front of TVs all day (as on another thread).

i think it would be nice if we could get a minimum wage per hour. in my area cm's charge between £2.50 and £3.00 which i dont really think it that much especially as the government will fund most of that through WFTC.
Even with all the expenses etc im still looking forward to starting

Working in the job I do I certainly agree with the life's too short bit. I was able to be at home when my 3 other children were pre-schoolers but felt like I missed out quite a bit of their primary years by working very long hours including overnight stays in another low paid job. The only benefit I can see is that it was a stepping stone to where I am now - but at a cost.
There are people in all jobs who undervalue themselves and those who overvalue themselves too. I know what you mean about the frustration of childminder stereotypes, but lots of parents have very good things to say about us too - especially those who have had first hand experience of good and committed ones.
I'm sure you will enjoy it - it's a fabulous way of creating a lovely secure early childhood for not just other peoples children but for your own too.

LMG Self-employment comes with risk. If you want a 'wage' then go and work for an employer.

goosey- what are you doing now? Have you built up a business?

This thread makes really interesting reading!

I'm a childminder who's given up most of my minding as I do feel so undervalued. But I tried charging more and basically I couldn't fill the spaces, there are a lot of minders round here with vacancies charging the £2.50 per hour. As I've said already I'm an NNEB with lots of nanny experience but TBH it doesn't seem to count for much when someone up the road has a lower hourly rate than me.

I really admire all the minders on here so sound so professional and committed and enjoy the job (most of the time!!). But to you all did you go through a period when you wanted to quit? I'd like to go back to minding when my youngest starts school, but I feel the rewards are so low. Don't know what to do.

ssd - I'm sorry you found it so hard to fill your vacancies despite your quals and experience. I know that, at this time, I could not continue to enjoy the same quality of life (and I don't mean just financial, but leisure time too) if I relied on solely a childminding income. I COULD earn good money but the hours I would need to put in and the unreliability of it would not make it worthwhile for me. I would like to childmind as my only job though when I get a bit nearer to retirement age and have paid off my mortgage etc.
Yes I do get days and hours when I think 'arghhhhhh I'm no good at this - I'm going to pack it in!!!!', but the nature of working with children means accepting that there is no such thing as perfection. It's not like I am working on a task with a defined goal, and I usually come to realise (at the end of days like these) that what I offer IS good and that although the work may make me internally stressed at times the children themselves really enjoy coming here and I'm actually quite good at (and, if I'm honest, thrive on) all the juggling that I need to do, as do all childminders, throughout the day.
Isyhan - yes I have a childminding business which I started 3 yrs ago. I also work for the ambulance service.

thanks for that goosey.

can I ask how often you childmind during the week?

My childminding is open between 2 and 4 days per week and also on 4 out of 6 weekends as I provide a lot of weekend and holiday respite care for children with special needs. The weekday care includes a lot of creche type care rather than providing childcare whilst parents work. I do have a complete day off each week and also a long weekend off every 6 weeks too so it's not all work. Because I provide overnight care I still total my 'part-time' chldminding hours as over 40 each week - and that's just the hours that children are actually here and doesn't include all the prep/training(I did my NVQ3 last year)/paperwork/cleaning etc.
When are you open for business now that you have scaled down?

Please please please don't make the assumption that childminders all do their washing and put their dinner on!!! I don't do any housework during my working day, apart from clearing up after meals. I do my "housey" things like any other working mum - evenings and weekends. I am also not available for repairmen/deliveries as we are often out and about, or doing a school run.

Same here, I do ALL my housework when the mindees have left and ds has been put to bed! Apart from clearing the table after meals!

I'm with TP - I don't do any housework while minding - DH does the dishes (& oh boy are there a lot of them) and the housework at the weekends

Never mind the Fridays I can't attend DD's assembly because I couldn't come out as a mindee is poorly (or the mindee who won't go to school - she gets too scared)

I didn't start C/Ming until DD was at f/t school

Tho saying that a parent today was astounded that I only charge £3.20 an hour and that meals are included....so I must be doing something right

i may be at home but i can't always get to school things. i can't drag 3 under 5s to school plays etc. i would never do housework or ironing whilst "working" (i would'nt expect a person looking after my child to) thats all done at the weekend or in the evening. mind you have a great motherinlaw who does alot of my ironing so am very lucky. and hubby does lots of cooking, not so much washing up though....but hey hey, cnt have everything.