"Parents need childcare around their schedule not yours!"

[gooseegg]

This comment came to me yesterday via a rudely composed email, after an initial telephone enquiry followed up immediately by a professional introductory email including my information booklet as an attachment:

?Your shift pattern doesnt really make any continuity possible or common sense to be honest when parents need child care around their schedule not yours! it seems ridiculous to me?.

My childminding business is open to a six week rota pattern based on 7 days /week.

It?s a pay-as-you-go service and very popular. I have recently taken on an assistant to help meet the extra demand of parents who don?t work weekday office hours and who value not being charged for hours they do not actually use.

DH said I should have told her to f * off.

You should have! You could also have told her that until taking on your assistant you were full so obviously not everyone feels the way she does. People are so rude. Lucky escape perhaps......

It would be galling I know, but why not go back to this person and ask for clarifiaction? Just because she is rude and insulting (which she clearly is) does not mean that she does not have a point. Maybe she's spotted something in your timetable that you haven't thought of?

I do take a little bit of joy in being exceptionally professional and nice to rude people as I know it will show them up and annoy them.

If it turns out that she is just horrible then at least she can see that you are professional enough to look at every suggestion and comment.

Then you should tell her to feck off. But I suspect that she would be so shamed that she would be falling over herslf to apologise. Hopefully.

Good luck

Be glad you weeded that one out before they wasted any of your time proper. Very rude. Hope you forget it asap.

I was talking at the w/e to some friends who do non-conventional hours and if they aren't working they can't afford to pay for care. If only more people offered what you do.

Thanks Gess - that's what I thought too re lucky escape.
All my current parents are sooooo lovely

xoxo - I did keep DH held away from the pc and fired off a coolly professional email right back at her.
I will always look at polite suggestions and comments, especially from current parents, but it was the rudeness of this one that has so p* me off.

It may have been a rival childcare provider, who wanted to have a nosy at the info you send out to prospective clients.
Or it may have been a rather unpleasant and rude parent.
Or both!

Eight, I hadn't thought of that.
If she is another provider and is always as rude and unpleasant as this, I doubt however that she will be much of a rival.
My prospective parent stuff is very specific to my service and gladly sent out to anyone who asks.

I wouldn't waste another second thinking about it. Why waste your precious energy on such a rude and negative person.
Sounds like you are providing a great and different service that clearly people need. Good for you.

send her an email back saying "thankyou for your comments on the way i run my child care business. However as i have been in this business now for xx years and i almost never have any vacancies, i dont think i need to take your comments on board, i hope you DO find what you are expecting..best of luck with that"

SofiaAmes - you are absolutely right, why indeed? Right, that's it - I have had a vent, bought some udder cream from ebay for my itchy leg thanks to another thread, and am now off out to walk the dog through the woods.
Thanks.

very good pink

The really daft thing is that you appear to offer a service that most childminders don't - pay-as-you-go, unsocial hours, weekends etc.

Perhaps this parent works 9-5?! Maybe she thinks you don't cater for that!!!

I think you are right TP. She probably hadn't considered that not all workers, including childminders, work 9-5.

Nice reply PC - a bit meatier than my reply, but good!

Where are you based, Gooseegg? Your service sounds brilliant!

Thank you diplodocus - I'm in South Devon.

Gooseegg when dd1 was little and I worked, long commute and DH worked shifts I used to feel why don't childcare providers think not everyone works five mins down the road, on partime, with flexitime, you provide a fantastic much needed service in this 24/7 culture we now live in.

seb1 - that's also one of the reasons why I decided to become registered myself.
I was working full time 24hr shifts and had so much trouble finding suitable childcare for my 4mth old after mat leave, that I decided to work part-time instead and to become a childminder for people like me.
I hope to be able to offer more childminding hours in the future, but do also enjoy the variety of my other job and for now really can't afford to give up the pension/sick/holiday pay that comes with it!

Goose egg are you in ivybridge by any chance? If so i think I've heard of you and I wish there were a few providers like you in Exeter. I have even considered using the ivybridge provider when I've had to work in that town for a few days.

wow gooseegg sounds like a great timetable, second all the others plus maybe she just does work 9-5 and isn't used to looking at shifts etc

Hi UniSarah - Yes, that's me!

Tell her ' Go employ a Nanny ' .

Your service sounds great wish I had access to something like that when I worked shifts.

Can I just add that Goosey is fab. We went to Devon on hols last summer and used her a couple of nights when DH and I went to dinner in peace. She brought out a stack of qualifications I didn't even know existed. She was very professional, the kids had a great time, and this person who was so rude to her obviously does not understand that childminders are free to run their business however they so choose. Someone who wants to dictate the hours and availability of their childcare quite frankly needs to embark on employing a nanny.

eleusis - thank you!

'tis all true.

Hey, has your DD found an au pair job for the summer? (I don't need one I'm just being nosey)