Childcare when childminder on holiday

[Seriously79]

I'm due to go back to work at the beginning of April and have managed to secure a place with a lovely childminder.

She has sent me a list of her holidays for the coming year, and I have e mailed both my supervisor and line manager, but I'm just a bit worried.

Between us me and boyfriend will obviously try to cover/ book holiday where we can - he isn't able to (well it's very difficult) for him to get days off/ holiday in the kids holidays - which is of course when the childminder is off too.

My sister in law can help out, boyfriends parents could at a push but they are an hour away, my parents are reluctant to help out (that's a whole different story 🙄) so I'm thinking if my holiday application for these dates isn't approved I will take them as unpaid - my work can't stop me taking 'unpaid' days - can they? Is it frowned upon?

What do you do in these situations?

I don’t know. This is exactly the reason why my children go to nursery. No holidays to cover, no sick leave to cover.

Well work don't have much choice if you don't have childcare. You're not taking the piss so it should be ok. But of course if you can't get the holiday from them then it will be unpaid

You could ask your childminder if she meets up wth other childminders regularly. If she does your wee one will get familiar with the other childminders and their mindees. Some of the childminders she meets up with may have availability some of the days she is on holiday and could cover your childminders holidays. At least that way your wee one will be going to somebody she knows and someone who knows her.

Childminders will often provide back-up for one another, so the advice given above is well worth following. They’ll often have vacancies in the School holidays, as some of their clients will be teachers or other school/college staff.

I’d be wary of putting too much trust in the notion that nurseries never close. Sure, some are reasonably reliable, but that’s far from universal. You can se a lot of days at work because nursery children get sick more often: there was a thread running here very recently about that very subject. In my area, childminders often get calls from distraught mums needing last-minute childcare because their nursery has closed for some sort of 'emergency' or turned away children at the door.

I'm a childminder and take 5-6 weeks a year - I think my parents usually just take annual leave or have family members cover.

Where I am generally childminders are all full so unlikely to be able to offer cover for each other - however as someone mentioned I do have some term time only children so have more flexibility to offer cover in the school holidays.

If you're really stuck though you are entitled to take unpaid parental leave in one week blocks.

How many weeks does she take? Most cms will publish holidays 6 months to a year in advance so parents split their holidays in part ....if they have 4 to 5 weeks each that means 4 weeks covered by each taking 2 weeks then the remainder as family holiday plus any help they have from friends and family. Plus as others say many network and can offer possible cover.

How many weeks is she taking

Can you book a temp nanny - yes cost is more then a cm but assume you won’t be paying cm for those holidays

You need to price up other kinds of temp childcare - for example, temp nannies, creches etc - and then see if you're going to be better off paying or taking unpaid leave. Your work will have an unpaid leave policy. You could also look at sharing the care with another parent, ie if the CM is off for two weeks, you each take a week off and look after each others child.

But I agree - this is why I used a nursery. Particularly as I didn't want to take time off during school holidays with a pre-schooler, when it's so expensive.

I’m a childminder and would be able to recommend some other childminders who would know your dc and be able to cover for me. I appreciate you don’t know them, but they know your child and probably their likes/dislikes/basic routine, so it tends to work out.

Thanks for all your replies. We have bit the bullet for this year, but tomorrow I'm looking at nurseries to start next January.

My concern was that as I work 9.30 - 3.00 didn't want to have to pay for nursery from 8 - 6 when daughter wouldn't be in there that long. Luckily I have found a nursery locally that does a reduced day rate from 9 - 4. Obviously it's more expensive than a Childminder but it's open all year (apart from BH and in between Christmas and new year) the peace of mind this brings me is such a relief!

No childcare is perfect but I'm a nanny and in my experience, I would say that my friend's children have more days off sick from nursery than I have holiday..that is not an exaggeration. If your child is sick at say 10am on a Sunday, they can't go back to nursery until gone 10am Tuesday, they pick up every illness going at nursery which means a lot of time off. I don't necessarily think it is a negative thing as it build their immune system up, I'm simply informing you because I think people find nurseries more reliable when actually it isn't because kids get more sick.

I would be careful with the assumptions that nurseries mean less days off - i walk past one on my way to the childminders, and they are closed quite a lot (about 8 -10 days a year from memory, seems to happen almost once per month: staff sick so can’t get ratios, plumbing not working, heating not working, d&v in the setting requiring deep clean, etc.
Plus you pay every day - i go on holiday when my childminder does which saves quite a bit of money.plus my childminder is ok with a later pickup if i get stuck in traffic - nurserys charge £15 for ever started 5 minutes period