cm club what would you do? sorry long................

[dmo]

i have a child who comes to me before and after school mon/tues/fri i charge £3 per hour
she came to me a few weeks ago and asked if i could be flexable with his hours as her days/hours are changing at work so we agreed that i would give him a full week and she would use 3 days.
now at end of term school closed on a thurs so natually she didnt need me fri so used me mon/tues/wed that week (so she didnt need to pay for the fri she didnt use)
during the hols i charge £20 per day and he is here for 11-12 hrs a day (mum is off today) and he has been coming mon/tues/fri but today i got a note saying last week of hols she needs me tues/thurs/fri (this is to get out of paying for bank hol mon)
plus also sent a letter out at beginning of hols saying where we are going what hours we will be out what the child needs ie swim suit and if any spends are needed, well today it was swimming with £1 towards a swim, boy brought swim things but no money (hasnt brought any at all so far and this is 3rd week)
what would you lot do?

by the way they are not short of money
on wed/thurs when he is not here she sends him to kids clubs
mum says she cant cope with him
he is at activitys every night after school and weekends he does a lot
mum will pay just so she is not with him

i would write out all the monies owed, dates and activities and give her a date to pay it all by and if he turns up without trip money again refuse to have him, say it wouldnt be fair not to take the others who have paid but u cant afford to keep paying for him too (as well as your own im assuming) also £20 for 11-12hrs a day is ridiculous, i thought i was cheap at £2.50 per hour !!

i would also consider putting your prices up and charge for everything it costs you while you are out, parking, petrol, treats etc.

meant to ask, whats the child like, if his mum is that desperate to be away from him?

that sounds awful, it sounds like his mum doesn't want to spend any time with him at all!!!
I would be upfront with her and tell her what she owes and what its for and then in future when you plan days out give her a little letter with the details on and how much he needs to bring so then she can't say that she didn't know anything about it.

I would give her an invoice for what she owes for trips. BTW I charge £32 for a full day 8am-6pm and £21 for a short (school hours) day.

Ask her for the money simply as. Also charge 350 per hour so£26 from 8-4

child is ok for me
very loud but enjoys the company of the boys i look after (he is only child)
he arrives at 7am and leaves bout 5.30-6pm
when mum pays per hour after school he does till 4.30pm
i know i'm being used it makes me cross
was temped to let him watch us swim today but not that crual (not kids fault)
had a word with dad tonight says they lost the list (yeh right) but managed to bring swim stuff this morning

today had 7 kids (2 my own)
took them to a work shop this morning
cost £3 car park and 50p each for workshop
got them all a drink 70p each
came home had lunch then took them all swimming £1.50 each and then to the park
so today i asked for £1 towards activitys
i'm not robbing them
friday going to a farm its £6 each in, i will buy drinks and ice-cream and a small £1 gift from shop i have asked parents for £4 is this ok
what does everyone else do?

I don't charge anything for activities we do unless child is coming specifically for that day only. I think that most minders seem to charge something for activities though.

I tend not to buy things like drinks and icecreams though, and we don't buy anything from gift shops.

i do take pack lunch and drinks but they go through so much......
just like buying a little gift from special places we go just a £1 thing to keep

try to keep it to 2 dear activities a week then on other days do something bit cheaper (like today)

your right TP should not buy from gift shop really might not
on our days out (like to the farm) we set off at 9.30am and get back bout 6pm so its a long day but drinks run out
took them to b/pool tower the other day left house at 9am got back at 7.15pm but it was a great day

you are mad imo, for eg. you're taking them to a farm so its £6 entry then drinks and ice cream so the total will be about £8/9 at least and you're charging £4! if the parents took the child themselves they would have to pay £6 for him plus entry for both of them plus a couple of bags of food to feed the animals plus drinks and anything else they wanted like gift shop etc so would probably end up spending about £20 minimum (i know because we went yseterday and did this) i charged mindee's mum £6, i htink it was £4 entry then there was the fact i was paying for me to get in, plus petrol, plus food to feed animals. in total we spent about £20 plus petrol.

i took a packed lunch and enough drinks so i didnt have to buy them there.

childminders don't get paid enough imo so the least we can expect is for it to not cost us more than it is already. yes i would take my own children anyway but that doesnt mean i should be expected to pay for another child (luckily/ unluckily, i only have 1 mindee but can you imagine paying out an extra couple of pounds for each child - when are you going to make any money?

it would be a bit like going to work in an office and being expected to supply your own staples and paper plus buy the boss lunch everyday for £2.50 per hour!

i know
but were expected by parents to entertain the children all day and by going to a farm it takes a bit of pressure off
should put my fees up
think next year £20 per day but children bring own packed lunch what do u think?

charge what goes out of your pocket, they are ripping you off and i wouldnt stand it, you get so little as it is why support that child.

LOL at lovemygirls example. But agree with her. You need to start being firmer. Also your rates do seem to be very low. DS goes to a CM 3 set days a week. For before/after school I pay £3/hr. I pay for 3.5 hours but usually pick him up about 20 mins early. For holidays I pay £2.60/hour and again pay for 10 hours (so £26) but often pick him up 20-30 mins early. She does include the price of trips out but he doesn't go on so many trips and certainly not with gifts from gift shop etc althought she will buy things like ice-pops etc. Trips might be to the park etc and only one paying trip per week eg to soft play, farm etc.

I think make a decision. Either charge reasonable rates and carry on subsidising the trips or start making them pay the actual cost of all trips etc.

why are your charges so low?

my understanding of a childminder is that, we care for the child, we make sure the child is safe, we help the children to learn through play, do provide the children with a variety of activities to keep them stimulated and out of trouble.

For this service that we provide we should be paid fairly for it. They are not being fair on you and you need to tell them.

i really feel for you being taken advantage like this.

lovemygirls. I am being very fair to my CM this week! I am paying her £26/day but sending DS to a Church holiday club 10.30-3.30 for which I am paying an extra £2.75/day and having to provide a packed lunch (she normally provides lunch). And I have only sent him 2 out of the 3 contracted days the last 2 weeks. And she doesn't have to collect him from holiday club on Thursday because he is going on a sleepover.

But the way I look at it, you win some, you loose some and she is winning this week....

sorry bozza wasnt directing at you, took me ages to finish typing post, popping on and off like i do. didnt even read your post before i started typing... Think you are being very reasonable with your cm i was talking about dmo's mindee's family. phew, did that make any sense

oh lovemygirls I am sorry that I have concerned you - I am not at all offended. Think my post was too much directed at you. I think you have given dmo some great advice because she is really been taken advantage of. I am really impressed by all you CMs and how much thought/effort you put in.

Like I say it is just luck of the draw that my CM is having an easy month this time. I refuse to send DS to her just because I have paid for it. So if I fancy taking a day off and taking him to Blackpool with his sister and his cousin I will. Likewise if I decide to take a day off to clean out the kitchen cupboards I will still send him to the CM.

see this is the problem with typing everything it can be taken out of context, confusing, same with MSN but if u hooked a phoneline up so women could chat no-one would get a word in or ever be heard lol

completely agree with you btw, swings and roundabouts but there are limits on both sides.

dmo - it sounds like you are doing a brilliant job and you put me to shame, the only places I take my mindees is toddler groups and the park, sometimes they get to go on the tram but thats about it because otherwise I'd be forking out a fortune in taxis.

I think you should review you prices, if you want to carry on with the sort of stuff you do now put it up to maybe £25 a day, or keep your prices the same, ask them to provide lunch and cut out the expensive acivities you could always ask for £10 a week extra in the holidays to cover outings

Maybe you could also go over your policies and state that if they don't bring swimming money then you can't take them. How many children do you take swimming? I can only just manage with my dd in the changing rooms I couldn't imagine taking mindees

The money side and dealing with parents is definatley the worst part of the job

took 7 swimming (they can all swim bar 1)
2 aged 10yrs
3 aged 8yrs
2 aged 7 yrs

its ok as our swimming pool has mixed changing rooms so as they are all boys i can keep my eye on them and help with lockers etc
2 of the boys are my own aged 10 and 8 so its not to bad

might do as you suggested in adding an extra £10 a week for activitys might even charge £22 per day

I don't charge a day rate, I still charge per hour (which is between 3 and 3.50, dependant on mindees length here/siblings/other factors)

I've never found parents expectting a 'sessional' rate so I personally wouldn't do it, it just seems like yet another discount on childcare which is already cheap!

During school holidays I do a big outing a week, and usually ask for £5 per child. It generally works out around £9, and my stance is parents and I pay half each. I'm making money scrimp a little more these holidays, and spending less on luxuries, and we're getting just about two good outings a week out of up to £10 a child (half my expense half the parents.)

During school term with the littlies, I just go to a drop in (which does tons of activities) and pay the cost myself.