Is the childminder right to charge me this way?

[Fiona2011231]

Could you pls advise?

Since September, for the first time I have been using a childminder. We pay her a full-day fee (8 hours) for fiver days per week.

During the week, there is one day when we always pick up our child one hour early. However, we still pay her the full-day service. Initially we did not know we could have picked up the child early. And when we know that we could, we still pay her the full fee.

Last week, we came a bit late, exactly 6 minutes late. She said that we need to pay her for another half an hour.

This is not about the money. I want to ask if her payment request is normal for a childminder. On our part, we had thought since we always pay the full fee even though we pick up the child early once a week, she would be more reasonable when we are a bit late.

Is my expectation reasonable? From now on, should we not pay the full fee on the day when we can pick up the child one hour early?

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

I can understand her doing this,6 mins today can turn into 60 tomorrow, I expect she wants to make it perfectly clear that any lateness will be met with a fine. I would do the same tbh.

That is very petty and I too would be cross. I know CM's are allowed to charge late fees but if this was genuinely your first ever time and by such a small margin then I think she should have just let you off with a friendly word so you know not to do it again.

I agree to a point scrambled she may have only been 6mins late but was probably another 10mins before she was out the door and unfortunately our day doesn't end there. It does sound harsh however having been in that position myself I would charge in order to prevent bad habits starting

'if this was genuinely your first ever time'

The child has only been there since September. If she'd been there two years and never been late I bet the childminder would have let her off, but starting to be late less than 3 months in....it's a bit different.

Regardless if you pick up early you need to pay whole day as obv cm can't fill the last hour

Late fees should be in contract and fining on 6mins seems harsh on first lateness. A warning should be enough but understand why she fined as well if often has late parents

Some cm charge whole hour or one I know charges per min so if half an hour late pays £30!!!!! Stops latecomers tho

As leeds said a 6min fine is poss half an hour fee so maybe £3.50 tops if higher rate cm or unless does as my friend does Above

Out of curiosity what was the fine op?

Thank you for your further replies. As I said in my second post, I now realize she has done nothing wrong legally. She has the right to charge me for being late.

What may be open to debate is whether it is reasonable to do so. Some would say yes, it is; others may think it is not. Perhaps it is a matter of perception, which can be different from person to person.

First time I think I would let go but I would mention it and say you are late normally I would charge a late fee but as this is your first time I wont
But if happens again I will

Or something like that :)

What did she fine you?

Fiona - can I ask if you have checked your contract to see if the late fees are in there? I would assume they will be, but if, for some reason, they weren't in there, and you hadn't been warned about a penalty for late pick-ups, you would be within your rights to query it.

I love my CM. Ds is contracted to go 7-5 two days per week. I usually drop him at 7.15 and collect at 4.30. However on the few occasions I've needed to collect later she's given him tea and not charged extra. I am very lucky!

As a childminder I have in my contract late fee's. I do used my discretion. We had really major roadworks near us not long ago parents were leaving work early but still ending up late. I didn't charge, had parents late when we had snow but yes new parent I would be more likely to charge esp if you didn't contact me to know you were late.

I like most childminders have our own children we want to spend time with before bed.

My nursery doesn't charge the contracted late fees on the odd occasion I've been late (always due to unexpected traffic / roadworks). I call first if I'm stuck I traffic. It's enough of a deterrent to have him be that last one out clearly holding up other people going home.

I hope you don't give her a Christmas bonus if she's going to be so mean!

They also charge me for a whole day rather than just the hours I have ds in.

Do you like this childminder and are there lots of others in the area? It doesn't bode well that she's not a bit flexible. She's looking at getting many years work out of you if you are on your first, very young dc. I think a warning first time would have been fair.

I'd start shopping around for a cm whose willing to have a bit of give and take.

She's only been using that CM since Sept, a year down the line and she might well have not fined the OP.

I suspect she is trying to nip a possible bad habit in the bud. I think I would have given a warning the first time, a late fee the second. However, is this really the first time you have been late, or the first time she has picked you up on it. Maybe she has noticed a few late pick ups and decided to act this time. Plus, finish time should be leaving time, not arriving time. I find even the nicest parents have a tendency to arrive seconds before their finish time, and then hang around another quarter of an hour. If we didn't periodically have words, they would probably be there half the evening. Worse when they arrive together and start chatting!

"I hope you don't give her a Christmas bonus if she's going to be so mean!"

Is she being mean though, or is she just trying to stick to whats in the contract so people don't take the mick?

I always think its funny when people say - "no Christmas present" or "no bonus" - nooo, you short sighted people! This is the person who has sole charge of your precious child for 40 hours a week (or 39 if you pick up an hour early one day a week ) why on earth would you not want to build up a pleasant relationship and goodwill with the person looking after your child?

(disclaimer - as a childminder I would never discriminate against a child because their parents didn't get me a card/present - and most don't! But I always, always get my dc's nursery nurses/teachers the best presents I can afford because I want to thank them for the care they give to my dc!)

If the CM let it go the first time she's opening herself up to being questioned as to why she didn't charge the first time. She has to start as she means to go on.

If you think about it, if she gives all of her customers total freedom to dictate exactly what hours they want ( eg say 8.45 to 4.15, or 8.15 to 3.45) then her comings and goings and admin/ charging will turn into a nightmare, aside from the fact that if a parent wants a 'full day' then she has the right to charge for that and not minus an hour just because you can pick up early ( how will she recoup the loss of the hour from that days space).

I have always used nurseries and often pic kip early, most days in fact at 4.45 to 5 pm, I also have to pay for an early start, half an hour per day despite only needing to drop of 10 mins early!!!

I have also never ever in 8 years Ben late for pick up, I just don't allow that to happen and would be mortified if I was!!!!

The hour early thing is irrelevant. If she's there and available to look after your child for that hour, it's not her fault you come early.

I agree with her about the 6 mins late thing too. If she just let it go, next time you might be running late and you might think 'oh a few minutes won't hurt' and it would escalate. Whereas now, you are less likely to turn lateness into a habit because you won't want to charged.

And some CMs charge a pound a minute for lateness!

But ultimately, if this has annoyed you, and you think it will affect your relationship with CM, find a new one.

If I was a self employed consultant, who was allowed to leave an hour early from my work 4 days out of 5 but was still be paid my contracted salary...and my boss asked me to stay 6 minutes late on the one day I worked my full contracted hours.... would I say I'll have to charge you an extra half an hour for that?

Technically, it would be within my rights to do so and within the agreed contract terms. But would do that? And then claim being allowed off work early 4 out of 5 days is irrelevant?

agh, bloody phone (apologies for incoherent post with words left out)

In this case she only picks the child up early 1 day out of 5. Not 4 out of 5.

It's largely irrelevant what would happen with a self-employed consultant tbh because it's a completely different job.

Firstly, the childminder won't be finished for the day because this child goes early as she'll likely have other children. So, in your example the consultant can't actually leave early once a week, she just has her workload slightly reduced.

Our imaginary consultant knows from experience, that if she works an extra 6 minutes without charge, chances are it's likely to become 10 minutes and then 15. Or it's likely to become 6 minutes every night. She want's to start as she mean to go on as she's only been there since September and put a stop to this.

Finally, the 6 minutes late she leaves mean she's now late to collect her children from nursery and faces a big fine for being late. Or she's late to drop her daughter to a football match or whatever.

Would she charge? I think she'd be a mug not to tbh.

It is not about the money. Most childminders would prefer to have the children collected on time as they have their routine for their own children once the last child has left.

Asking parents to pay is demonstrating that she is professional woman doing a very valuable job. One would not ask a solicitor to do extra hours for free.

A conscientious parent who values the childminder wil respect the rules. As for picking up children early, ask yourself this. If your boss Said you could go home early one day, but then deducted the money from your salary, how would you feel?

Florentina-glad you mentioned a solicitor,they charge by the minute iirc!

You're right, she IS being professional and should be treated as one.

I hate late collection fees in my contracts but have never had to use them yet I'm happy to give a few extra minutes here or there

Also you wouldn't expect a teacher to hang around when the bell goes at school, you need to be there on the dot!

Ah, I misread. Well sorry but a childminder is self employed, as is a consultant so if you're going to talk about contracts and setting a professional precedence, then you can't backtrack with but but but...

Outraged, you're making a lot of assumptions - you don't know if she does have other children (they may be picked up at 3 or 5pm) and if the OP says she was late the first time by 6 minutes, it's hardly a pattern or indication that the OP will begin to start showing up late regularly.

At the end of the day, she's pissed off her client and her client may think twice about renewing her contract, if she continues to be this petty.