CM CLUB: Reserving spaces for January - Paperwork, deposit etc. questions...........

[looneytune]

Right, I am back from my weekend away and not working til Thursday so I've given myself a kick up the ar*e (ouch) and I'm all ready to sort paperwork out!

I have 3 people who have reserved different days to start in January (when ds goes to school). What do I do to make it all official? I know I need to get their deposits but what about the paperwork?

Questions:

1. Do I do a full contract at this stage or just an agreement which we all sign?

2. IF I do a contract, should I just write the start date on it?

3. I presume that when it comes to the deposit, I just write something like '£x deposit paid, this amount will be deducted from the first month's invoice, if the agreement is cancelled prior to starting, the deposit is non-refundable'? Anyone got any good wording?

4. Obviously I give a receipt. Is there anything else I should be thinking about?

TIA

I would do a contract for each with the settling in period starting now (maybe?) & the full start date (bottem of first page) as end of Jan?

Isn't the thing about the deposit on the NCMA contract?

Oh Katymac, I should have got the contract out and looked first shouldn't I! Just that I was on here anyway and thought I'd ask - very lazy of me! I'll go and read about the deposits etc as you're probably right, I've just never done deposits before.

As for settling in...........that's raised a couple of questions for me now as I don't have any room for them until the start date. Suppose the only one that really matters is 1 of them who lives round the corner as out of the other 2, 1 is an extra day for baby I already have and the other is a friend who I see regularly and whose children know me well. Although as baby doesn't like mummy leaving, i'd still like to have some kind of time with her without her mum

What would you do in this situation? Would you just have baby round with her mum so doesn't affect numbers? If so, how often and what if mum doesn't want to? Don't really know what other options I have?

Sorry, when I asked what you'd do in this situation, I mean about the new baby round the corner who doesn't know me

That is really tricky isn't it?

Erm how long will you have baby when s/he starts?

I can't remember how old your children are?

Could you farm them out for a few hours?

My baby is doing settling in a couple of mornings while the 4 year old is at school.

meaning the 4 year old will go to school 9.00-12.00 sept - January so baby will be coming in on the mornings she will be at school, so not over numbers. Does that make sense?

Katymac - yes, tricky. Baby will be with me 2 full days a week and will be 10 months old in January. Problem is that although ds goes to nursery every morning so I have a space (although didn't know we could do that tbh), the babies I look after are both so young still. Mon-Wed I have the 2 yr old and her 7 month old sister and on Thurs and Fri's I have the double pay baby who's only 5 months old. I did wonder if I could have a word with her mum as technically I have a space BUT I know she's not keen on even a couple of hours with another mindee PLUS they'd both be under 1 anyway and I'm not allowed that. Same goes for when ds is at school on the other days, the baby isn't 1 until Dec. I did then think well maybe baby could come in Jan whilst ds is at nursery in the mornings (doesn't start school til 14th) but then realised that he doesn't return after Christmas until 14th when he goes straight into full days!! So it's a case of always having an under 1 with me, rather than having the full under 5's iyswim.

Shoshable - yes, makes sense. I could do the same if only these babies weren't under 1. What the hell am I going to do Dh would NOT be impressed if I said we could do it at weekends.

Having said all that, this lady did say she may not need me til Feb/March (so would pay retainer from Jan if that happens) so I could possibly do settling in from Jan HOWEVER she may want me in Jan, just don't know yet.

None of my other babies (started at: 7 weeks, 8 weeks, 5 months, 6 months, 6 months) or older mindees had settling in sessions, maybe started with the odd shorter day but that was it, all because I was needed to start almost straight away each time. I'm just aware that a 10 month old starting could be at that clingy phase couldn't they

I have never had any settling in days where the child stayed without a parent as I couldn't always do it because of numbers.
I do ask the parents to make regular contact with me (come to mine for a coffee and play) either once a week or once a fortnight depending on how long it is before child starts.