What is reasonable pay for a childminder - when they're not looking after your child?

[leroymerlin]

I will be starting back at work full time in September, though my dh is dropping to 4 days. I just wanted opinions on childminders and what is reasonable! Thank you for any input....

I live outside London and my cm is going to cost 3.75 an hour. I have 2 children, ds 2 and dd 4 (in September) so I am looking at paying 9 hours/day/child or 1080 per month.

My daughter will be going to preschool from 9-12 every morning, but I will still pay 3.75 to keep the place.

In the holidays (I'm a teacher) I will be paying 50% again to keep the places.

Is this what everyone does?

Thanks (PS the cm is fab)

You're lucky she only wants 50% during the holidays - many would want the place paid for in full if they couldn't sell it.

Again, the CM can't sell the 9am-12pm hours to anyone else.

That sounds very normal to me, except for the hourly rate which is £6.50 - £7.00 here!

Seems totally reasonable to me, if preschool closed for any reason you would still need the place and holidays are hard to fill with under 5's.

That's what I do. I work TTO - normal rate term time, and half for school hols. Some teachers I know have negotiated TTO contracts with their CMs - I guess it's up to the CM whether they want to be available during hols.

If she is taking your daughter to pre school and collecting her she can charge you full price. If you're dropping her off and she's just collecting her I would question it. 50% in holidays is very generous of her ... I charge full price for child's time off ... nothing for mine.

Thank you so much for your quick responses - I thought it all seemed very reasonable and now I can show your answers to my husband who will have to believe me