CM CLUB:i feel awful 8-(

[PinkChick]

part time mindee's mum just rang, he is spiking temp and has runny nose, generally not well.
he was due very early till very late tomorrow night so she has cancelled work and wont be bringing him.................at wht point would havebeen acceptable to discuss money???

i said that if he was ok, id still have him, she said its ok as it was such a long shift and hes really not well..i then said well you know you still have to pay if he doesnt come so if you want to bring him even for a few hours that will be fine...mum says yes i know but its ok....i say well instead of paying what you were going to pay tomorrow(extra charges for late/early)i will just charge your normal fee..ok thankyou...ok well i hope hes feeling better..ok thanks bye.........now my first concern is, i hope the little treasure is better soon as hes a little star and well miss him, but secondly, when am i going to be paid????..sorry for sounding like a cow, i brought it up, but didnt have the hard face to say, So when are you bringing it roun then?

I would be expecting to be paid on the next day you have him really.

well that's fair enough, she's paying for the place. why are you so worried about when she pays though, has she been late before? when is her child next due with you?

no shes never late, she pays the day he comes, i pay it all in(all mindees pay cash at min) on following tuesday to make sure its all in(so tomorrows would be paid in tuesday coming), mindee isnt with me again until a week on friday.
we wont go bankrupt, but we have the moeny allocated to pay things this weekend coming..now i feel really bad, as hes poorly and im talking about money

Send her a text or phone and explain you have a direct debit that you need to cover; can she pop money in for you.
She'll understand, we've all been in this position.
Good luck EM

Thanks for reply Earthymama, spoke to dp and hes said we can manage without it until next week, really dont want to have to badger her, even thouhgh I would make sure i had everything paid and coverd i KNOW there are not a lot of people that would do that.

i may have to update my policies or at least re-issue copies to parents cos i had one parent 45 mins late tues night(and she wasnt collecting till 10pm anyway!) and now this, i think it has to be made clear what happend again so then i can say to refer to policies

I understand your predicament but TBH as a parent who uses a childminder I would not be happy to be expected to trail out with my poorly child to pay her. But then I would not really want to pay weekly in cash either.

Have you considered getting all parents to pay monthly at the beginning of the month? Then if there were any sick days, they would already have been paid for? My CM issues me with an invoice at the beginning of the month with it all worked out week by week, whether DS is at school or on hols (obviously pay different amount) and whether she or I have taken any holiday weeks in which case we pay half fees. But then if DS is sick it is tough, if the CM is sick she knocks it off my next month's invoice.

i didnt expect her to bring me her fee right now, just a mention of when would be nice.
its the parents choice to pay cash and weekly, i said i prefered direct apyment into bank, but they would have to put money in three working days before so none where that keen and after one bad experience of a parent promising she would pay it in, it didnt go in until 4 working days later(she forgot!) and i went over drawn, bank said i CANT set up a standing order, the parent would have to ring each week to do transfer as the amount varies(wildly)

i don usually mind geting paid the first day of care for that day or the coming week, but this hasnt happend before, so may have to look at it now?, problem is most of my parents dont know what their shifts will be until 1-2 weeks before they do them so its tricky?

I see where you are coming from pinkchick. It sounds like you are being very flexible regarding hours etc, so the parents do need to respond to that with being good payers. Hope you get it sorted.

chhers, its a very steep learning curve when you first start out