Childminder - charging while own child is unwell??

[StarRose]

I didn't work the week before Christmas as my ds was poorly. I informed parents and gave them the choice, saying I could have their children if they needed me, but all decided not to send them. Now I'm not sure what to do with my invoices. Should I charge as I offered to work, or not charge as my ds was ill?? I was available, but had I worked, their children would probably have caught the bug and been ill for xmas. Thoughts please :)

As a parent I would be very loath to pay.

Erm what did your child have? I'm thinking not charging but I'm assuming you decided he was ill enough to notify parents and didn't just have a cold?

'Twas the season of goodwill. Don't charge them.

It depends what your child had?

I wouldn't want to pay either. It's not enough that you said you were available - you clearly weren't.

Presumably they would have thought they were doing you a favour by not sending their dc. I would be agog to be charged.

I would be annoyed at being charged in a situation where the notification sounds like it made ir pretty clear that you weren't really available TBH.

Of course you can't charge.

Depends what their contracts say.

If your child had a bug you werent open for business- you have to close. So no you dont charge.

Thought it was a cold at the start of the week but turned into full blown flu by the Thursday/Friday, and the Monday off became the whole week...

Just needed another opinion really. I haven't charged yet as I felt it was wrong to. I definitely won't now.

Thanks for the input :)

Claiming that you were available isn't the same as being able to provide the same level of care that the parents expect from you. If your child was ill enough for you to tell the parents then he probably needed quite a bit of your attention. I would have been very unhappy to have to pay you, when the alternative was to send my child with the possibility of him becoming ill.

In these situations I never charged however I once had a family who wanted to know about the slightest cold. In those situations I'd charge as normal colds all part and parcel and they understood that but for any other reason where they were ill enough for me to ask the parents then no, I didn't charge.

I wouldn't charge as you have them the option and I wouldn't have wanted to work.

I wouldn't be happy if you'd charged me. Your son was ill, if my child was ill would you have refused to take him/her?

I don't think you should be charging. You wouldn't be providing the same level of service

I have been in that situation. Some children came and others didn't. I didn't charge the ones who didn't come. If it was a minor cold, I wouldn't have informed them (except in Looney's special case), so they would have been charged as normal.

You would be charging parents to get their kids, and possibly themselves, infected with the flu for Xmas.

Of course you can't charge. A cold or something non contagious would be different. But then you wouldn't have notified them the way you did.

I wouldn't charge if I was you.

I was in the same situation just before Christmas, in that my daughter had a virus and so I gave parents the option of whether to still bring their children or not. One parent chose not to send their child and so I didn't charge them. I don't think it would be fair to charge parents in this situation as it's not their fault that you're not available. It's obviously not great to lose the money but I think you'd lose quite a bit of goodwill if you charged them.