Accidentally paid my childminder over Christmas

[takeasadsongandmakeitbetter]

The agreement with our childminder is that we pay her weekly. She takes a few weeks holiday a year and does not charge during this time. If we take holiday or DS is sick we still pay. Previous years we have not paid her over Christmas- I do get her a voucher and card every year for Christmas.

I forgot to stop the payments so have accidentally paid her the two weeks over Christmas she has been off- what do I do?!

Shall I just not pay the first couple of weeks of January?
Is that really rude? Should I speak to her about it?

I can't help but feel awkward talking about it. What do other people do? Part of me thinks she deserves holiday pay too! Part thinks that it's her choice being self employed?!

Just as a side note- even though she was not able to have DS in first lockdown we did pay her two weeks- I chose to and it felt like the right thing to do. We don't really have the money to pay her two extra weeks now though. Am I overthinking this?

Should I speak to her about it?

Yes, of course you should speak to her.

I would just send a friendly message saying.
Hi childminder, hope you've had a lovely Christmas! I've just realised I didn't stop the payments for the 2 weeks over Christmas putting us in credit by 2 weeks. Which 2 weeks next month work best for you for us to take as the credited one. LO is looking forward to seeing you again on x date.

Simple, to the point and friendly

Thanks ParmaViolet mum... I'll do exactly that! This whole year has made me a bit of an anxious mess!

Great advice ☺️

Tell her you’re just sorting out finances for Christmas and so you’ve paid her in advance for the first two weeks of January. Hope that’s okay, etc etc.

Thats OK @takeasadsongandmakeitbetter
I think it's got a lot of us the same, & sometimes you just need a bit of an outsiders opinion to see it clearer :)

Hi, I am a childminder and one of my clients is term time only so I often get the vouchers paid to me during a holiday especially over the long summer holiday as it’s all automatic. I just credit it to their next invoice and write on invoice credit of ... from August’s etc vouchers. This way I have covered myself to prove they have been credit it back, so they can’t turn round and say we over paid and never had refund etc. I would just drop her an email to say you have put pay through early for first couple of weeks of January .