Advice for Overnight and weekend fees from parents, childminders and nannies

[EvaLongoria]

I would like to ask all parents and childminders or even nannies how much you would ask for caring for a 2 year old and 5 year old from Sunday morning until Wednesday afternoon.
I am a childminder and i had an enquiry for a parent that is going away for a few days. If I go on my normal rates it works out to £366 per child excluding food charges as I would have included that. At first the parent wanted from Friday morning to Monday 12pm and wanted to pay me £200 for the whole period. I am not willing to do that as i am missing a friends wedding and my family time.

Any opinions please

Thanks

Hi, I am a childminder (fairly new)and I would charge a total of £640 for both including food. I would take an offer but no less than £550. I think that frankly their being cheeky. I don't offer overnight care so would assume the hourly rate is the same and what they have to bear in mind is the disruption to your normal family life not to mention the fact that you'd miss a friends wedding. Its always hard to turn someone down as you don't know the repercutions (as in if they say something to someone else) but in this instance i would give them my fee amount and ask for it in advance and say that unfortuently that is how much i charge and in the interest of being fare to any other parents you may childmind for that you charge everyone the same fee. Hope that help, i know its hard to say no as you don't want to let anyone down but if their not prepared to pay you the correct amount i personally would unfortuently say i wasn't able to help. Good luck

i don't know if this is helpful but on our hols, our nanny joined us in the second week and we all flew back on sunday, which inevitably meant that she worked sat/sunday

she is paid £350 net per week so i assumed that was £350 nett/5 days = £70 per day so i paid her £140 extra. technically, probably should paid the grossed up figure but she had quite a bit of downtime during that weekend anyway and she seemed to agree that this was a fair rate.

Is the £366 what it works out on a per hour basis? i don't know, if they're asleep in the night, maybe charge half rate?

i'm sure somebody will be along shortly with hopefully more similar experience

Thanks for replying,
I am in Oxfordshire and the average hourly rate is £4 for full-time childcare or £4.50 part-time. Ad-hoc childcare is charged different rates but I am still charging her only the £4 per hour. I normally include lunch and breakfast and dinner is additional which in this case I am not even charging.
Not a lot of childminders offers overnight care and those that does only does it for £60 from 8pm-8am.
all these rates are for 1 child only.

She now wants to offer me £50 per child which means £100 per day. And trying to dictate me. she asked me 2 weeks ago and been avoiding it. I left a message saying that if I dont hear from her I take it she no longers want childcare and I would therefore continue doing my own thing. She now called this morning and its for this Sunday. By the way I am even asking her normal rates for Sunday....

I am waiting for her to call me back and just say £400 take it or leave it. But I refuse to do it for less than that. They will need to be entertained, eat and my time... I called a nanny and she said she would do it for £450

I wouldnt call her again. She isn't treating you with respect by not sorting things out sooner. It isn't up to her so say what she wants to pay - it is for you to say how much it will cost.

as a cm you obv charge per child

where as a nanny i charge per family

though my hourly rate works out roughly the same as you as a cm per child x2 iyswim

for proxy parenting work i charge £200 per 24hrs regardless of how many children i have - thats is £10ph 7am-midnight and then a sleepover fee £30 till 7am

so if i did it it would be 3days worth and then £10ph till they came home in afternoon

so £600+ £10 times the hours left

You are self-employed with your own business and your own rate. You can negotiate if you want to but don't do it because you feel bad, just do it if its worth it to you.

as a nanny i would charge £150 / 24 hours and probably £8 / hour for the rest.

so Sun 9am - Wed 3pm so £498 but id call it £500. (per family).

Obviously i would be at there house and i would be eating their food, and not them eating mine.

As a nanny I charge £175 per 24hrs so say from 8am sun to 8am wed would be £525 then would charge my hrly rate of £10 an hr for the extra hours so if til 6pm would be another £100. so around £600 would prob be agreed for the time.

I guess it what you are happy with and as you say £400 i would stick with it.

hi,

dont know if rates are different in various parts of the country but i know that my childmindr charges 3.20 pr hour midweek. at a weekend its time and a half and she charges till 9pm startign again at 6am. for the 'sleeping bit' she charges £30.
I make it to be £302.80 inc food.

personally i dont think id do it for her messing you about, she knows what you charge and think id rather go to a wedding x

I assume you are registered to care for two overnight, but I understand very few are due to the stringent safety requirements, so I expect she would struggle to find someone else able to do it. I would not therefore be inclined to drop my rates very much, particularly in view of the lack of consideration shown.

Hi

Thanks for all the replies.
I didnt call her again and the morning she called me asking me again. Initially it was suppose to be for sunday pass and never heard back until Sunday morn.
She could hear that I was very peeed off because she never got back. I then gave her my price and said nothing less as its a really good deal and to be honest she didnt even question it as I think she realised that it was very reasonable.
But she does wanted it now for next week instead. I said to her I would do it only if I have dates in advance and half deposit before or at least £100. She is just waiting for "her friend" to confirm if he is willing to pay it. But this time I am not waiting on her or calling.
I did look after them for 4 hours on Monday last minute.
Oh and have spoken to OFSTED re overnight care for 2. But they have said shouldnt be a problem especially with kids ages and should fax something at least 2 days before the time to get it confirmed.

I have been asked to look after one special needs child and his sister who also has special needs but no diagnosis at present and no help. I was going to charge tie a half and had a rate for waking night (if they woke and needed assistance) and my flat rate hourly charge. the parent has said this is too high. I also charge a call out if i need to assist them during the day. any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm setting up my won special need scare agency. the family is based in wiltshire