Quick Question re retainer for term-time only mindees

[frazzlerock]

I charge half fees during holidays for my term time only mindee. Now and again his parents ask if I can have him for half a day during the holidays, which is obviously fine as they pay to keep the vacancy open and they've paid for half the day so I don't charge to have him.

Mindee stayed for a whole day last week so I charged for just half the day.

Just had a text from the mother to say they didn't expect any charge as they don't use every morning during holidays so she had hoped it would be covered.

Was I wrong to charge the rest of that day? They want to do another full day soon (as well as a few half days) and I'm unsure what the right thing to do is...

If a parent pays me £50 per month retainer fee for example, then i would allow them to have the £50 worth of childcare for that month before charging them any extra money.....however if they only used £20 of the money i wouldn't roll the other 30 over to the next month for them to use it then if you understand what i mean.
Don't know if that's what others do though but thats how i have done it in the past.

Thanks FeelingOld. That sounds like a good idea.

Oh man, now I'm confused.
Childminder friend says I should charge half for full day and half of whatever a half day is (ie 2 hrs for 4) That she needs to know she pays a retainer of half in hols to keep the place open.
I hate all this! It's not something I thought about when writing the contract and I've never had a term time only child before.

I do things a bit different. I have some children only term time. I do not charge them for holidays at all. If I wanted to take on children then I could, but choose not to.

I hope you get this sorted.

You were right to charge them. The retainer is not a form of saving, it is to retain the space. If they want to use the space, they have to pay full fee for that day.