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Childcare
childminders: what do you charge teachers children during school holidays?
justamum · 02/09/2006 13:02
I ask this because my probably soon to be ex cm has told me she has to put my rates up because she doesn't charge another of her mindees for school holidays.
i think this is crazy, afterall she charges me for my holidays. Its really made me angry, i had only considered leaving her for purely economic reasons becasue she's been great so far, but i think she is being very short sighted. I am her biggest client by far and i think it is utterly ridiculous from a business pov to expect your bigger client to pay for discounts offered to smaller ones.
Surely she is perfectly entitled to charge full price for school holidays, afterall teachers get paid full salary for the holidays? Am I wrong in this? Are you not allowed to charge teachers? & if so why do teachers get special dispensation?
Littlefish · 02/09/2006 13:19
Hi justamum!
My cm charges me during the holidays and I'm a teacher. She's available to work, so therefore, I pay her. In fact, I tend to send dd for one day a week (instead of the usual two) in the holidays so that I can get stuff done! She has 4 weeks off a year, and obviously doesn't charge me for those weeks as she is unavailable to work.
My last childminder didn't charge during the holidays because she didn't want to work either. She actively looked for teacher's children to look after so she could do this.
I have to say that I think your cm is being unreasonable.
makemineadouble · 02/09/2006 16:57
theres a thread in teenage asking for ideas for a missing child web site,would all you lovely CM's have a look at it, if just to keep it bumped'add site to your favs incase you ever meet anyone who needs it the woman whoose site it is(Runkid) is a lone mum whoose doing this by herself
Thank you and may God protect us all from ofsted lol
justamum · 02/09/2006 17:29
Nothercules, I know teachers aren't "paid" for hols but you still receive the same paycheque every month, not less during holidays. I think she has been a bit silly in telling me this is why she has put her rates up, she doesn't really need to give me an explanation! If I was a cm I'd go with Katymac's idea, that way the cm makes their money back and the teacher still thinks they are getting a good deal!
ThePrisoner · 02/09/2006 21:38
I don't charge for teacher's children during holidays (and I do have two children from a teacher), and I don't charge a higher hourly rate for them during term-time either.
However, I've been lucky in that I often have other children who come during the school holidays only. It sometimes means that, during the holidays, I can be inundated with children and caring for 8 or more, or I sometimes just have my under 5s.
Justamum - I think your cm is mad for telling you that she's going to charge you more because someone else is paying less!! Putting rates up is one thing, but doing it for this reason is ridiculous.
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