What are the odds of being charged by a nursery for a 9 day fortnight?

[HopefulQn]

If I did compressed hours so that I had (say) every other Monday off.

What would a nursery’s likely response to that would be?

Would they say, you have to pay for five days a week every week, or would some be flexible and would be okay with charging us for five days one week but just four days the next?

I know I need to ask them but just wondering if this idea would be a non-starter?

they are unlikely to have another child that would just slot into a day every other week so I don’t think the chances of them agreeing are high.

Oh, that’s a shame. Makes me wonder what the point of compressed hours is if you can’t benefit from it like that!

Depends on the nursery. Certainly the one my children went to would have been fine with this.

One of the nurseries we looked at would have let us put the kids in around my partner's shift patterns, so it's possible some nurseries would let you do the pattern you want.

It was too far to travel to, so we went with a closer nursery instead. They are not flexible at all and we have 2 set days a week instead and work our shifts around the nursery days.

It depends on the nursery and there capacity. My child's wouldn't of been able to accommodate this as there were plenty of children wanting a place. But you may find one that does. Just ask and see what they say. Though if it were me. I'd still send my child and enjoy a day to myself every other week 😂

I think some people do a mix of nursery and family/informal childcare, or both parents do 9 days so regular day with a parent for the child, or children are at school.

The only likely way this would work is if the nursery has a day underbooked,.e.g. Friday, but my nursery gave a discount for 5 days anyway so barely a saving on 4 days instead of 5.

Take the day off and enjoy child-free time.

Here's an alternative that might work depending on your circumstances/family and if your nursery offer this.

Book in for a 4 day every week and then add an extra day if they allow you to book adhoc extra days. They might have capacity to do on a quieter day of the week like a friday. This would only really work if you could manage juggling things if they didnt have the space one week, perhaps a grandparent could take them on those occassions or between you and your partner you could manage it with annual leave. I guess it depends on how flexible you could be if one week they didnt have the extra space.

You never know. Nurseries don't charge parents whose children attend only 4 days for a 5 day week and I can't see that this is materially different, other than they'll have an extra child on one day every other week. Is that day a Friday? If so I'd think they may well be glad to accommodate this as Fridays are often quieter for nurseries anyway.

Some may, always worth asking. Childminders will often also be more flexible with this.

You might find that the price for 5 days isn't that much more than 4 days anyway.
The nursery may be more accommodating depending on which day you want off. Wednesdays are often the busiest day so someone having a Wednesday off may be worth it for them; a Friday, less so

Hmm, some food for thought here, thanks all for the ideas, lots to think about.

Unfortunately we won’t have any grandparent support - all in their 70s and a 1.5 hour drive away.

The ad hoc days idea is a good one but wouldn’t work for my line of work - I book things up to eight weeks in advance so need to know if I’m definitely working or not.

I would have the Mondays off as it would work out much better from an A/L perspective so I am led to believe.

Monday isn’t an easy day to get ad hoc as it’s a popular day for part-timers.

More chance in nurseries near big hospitals. Ours offered shift patterns as lots of medics used it.

Of course it's different - no they don't charge for 5 days when you do 4, because they'll have another child booked in for the 5th day. In OP's situation, it's highly unlikely they'd find another child to come in the every other week day, so they'd be losing a space.

OP, unless it's a nursery linked to a hospital, which tend to be more flexible, I don't think many nurseries would allow it. Unless they're really not busy, which is a bit of a red flag in itself tbh, but not many would willingly give up a space every other week, especially in the financial climate of nurseries at the moment.

(And no nursery will be happier to have a quieter day as a previous comment has said, they're a business, of course they want it to be as full as possible)