advice

[bmz]

could be looking after a little girl from school in sept but for only 1 and a half hours for two days? what would you charge and do you think it would be worth it? what can you do in that time? mum wants her to have dinner to. regards

So pick up at 3:15 collected at 4:45?

No time for tea (IMO)

I chage £7.50 (for afterschool club) or £4.95 for C/M pd

It's quite easy money (if the child is easy to amuse) or a nightmare if she needs lots of individual attention (esp if you have babies)

Hello bmz, will it be in your home or childs home?

what does IMO mean?
it would be in my house

Im guessing it is 'in my opinion', im not used to all this abbreviation stuff either, and im 21!

In my opinion

In order to get it finished you would have to have tea at 4:15

I think that (could) be too early for a school age child - she would prob need to eat again before bedtime

Sorry BMZ I have my forgottery functioning today rather than a memory.....Do you childmind already?

thanks. yes I childmind at the moment at the weekends so this all seems a rush to me. said this to the mum but she just said 'everything will be fine'. i've just started childminding so this is still new to me.

I wouldn't like to feed her - but I owuld mind her

Do you pick up from that school already?

Otherwise if you end up with 3 under 5 will you still be able to pick up? (that might not matter to you as you could always give this child notice)

yes, i do pick up from the school a boy who i have for two hours one day a week. i was hoping to be able to activities with kids but the ones i'm getting it doesnt seem possible to me. sometimes we don't even get home until about 4pm from school.

So 4pm, shoes & coat off 4:10
Snack and drink maybe 4:30
Reading book 4:45

Then she goes home

SORTED

I would charge for the 1 and a half hours for the two days. I have several part-time schoolchildren, and they all slot in very well together, so I would definitely take this job.

I don't provide meals anyway, and agree with Katymac that there isn't a lot of time to do tea. However, if a meal was provided (and it would have to be a "shove in the microwave" type of dinner), then I would. It would cause me problems though, as the other children wouldn't be able to do their usual arts/crafts etc. at the kitchen table if someone was eating! And all the others would expect dinner too!!

LOL written down it seems easy. but this mum expects a proper dinner. don't know how she thinks i can manage that. what does C/M pd mean? if she's happy about things maybe i should just get on with it.

ThePrisoner: what time do your kids leave you at? i thought all mums would expect the kids to be fed?

I run an afterschool club and I Childmind

C/M implies the childminding rate pd=per day

I would say NO WAY to a full cooked dinner

The child would stave before bedtime

DD (8) occasionally eats at 4:30 (due to ballet) and she always has tea again at 6:30

I do tea at 5pm - if they are paid til 5:30 or 6 they get tea

Otherwise they are to be collected by 5pm

They are my rules (no negociation)

if you do tea at 5pm do you find everything a bit of a rush with activities for the kids? what activities do you do in that time with them? because i'm new with all of this i'm thinking that the time will go so quickly and i've time to do nothing with them.

erm activities.....they kinda do their own thing

Toys/jigsaws/playing with babies/football/trampoline/colouring/playdoh?

What am I supposed to be doing? I cook the tea - keep the babies safe/change nappies make sure everyone takes everything home

sounds enough lol. i'm going to think about this one and let the mum know this week. hopefully get some more calls. everything a bit slow at the moment. regards

Just a note from me. I tell parents of school kids I charge a minimum 3 hours a day.

I have been a bit lenient on this with a parent I like, having said that we have a slightly different payment agreement so I'm better off anyways!

I did dinner at 5 for ds and mindees (and dh and I before I started minding school age ones) and they were frequently not finished when mum arrived between 5.30 and 6, so I would NOT provide a meal for this child.

sounds to me like she cant be bothered to cook tea for her herself why cant she have some fruit to keep her going untill she gets home .

bmz - the schoolchildren I have are collected between 4.15 - 6.00pm. Older children get a snack (definitely not a meal) and drink. The children I have are aged between 5 - 11 years.

(By the way, it's not that I refuse to give a meal, just not something parents have wanted to do!!)

Do you intend to provide/include meals for your mindees usually?

i provide meals for children that are here until 6pm (i dont have any that go at 5.30 but if i did i would feed them) but certainly not if they went before 5pm.

In my portfolio I show parents a copy of 'our routine' (eg 7.30 children start to arrive, 8am breakfast for those who need it, 8.30 leave for school run etc etc), this also shows what time we eat out meals and we sit down for tea between 5-5.15, so if parents are picking up at 5pm then I can't feed kids. Maybe you could do something like this and show that it is not possible for you to feed the child with a proper, home cooked nutritional meal.

Good luck.