do people pay by the hour or only by the day? Just wondering, have child to be minded for 5hrs...

[gigglewitch]

Just wondering if there's a "norm" really. DD is needing a cm from the end of her school nursery class til 4.30, possibly 5pm. Which makes me wonder which way to go about it for the best, both for cm and us

I would charge by the hour, but all settings are different. Some charge for 'sessions' but not many that I know.

Contact your local FIS and ask them to send a list of available cms in your area, which will include details of their charges and how they charge.

Good luck

How old is dd? Sometimes for under 5's cm's will be less inclined to offer a few hours as it means if they might not be able to take on a full timer. But they are all different so you'll need to ring round.

My cm and a few others I din't use in the end were quite happy with my needs which are school hours 3 days a week. I'd imagine you'll find someone that's able to help, it might take a few calls so don't get disheartened, like I did, just try everyone.

that didn't really answer your question I pay per hour. I did find quite a few cm's that would only agree to school hours for a full days fee as ds would be taking up one under 5 space and not be there for many hours, but that just wasn't financially viable for me, so I searched until I found a few cm's that would take ds for an hourly fee not a daily one.

I charge by the hour and do a minimum of 4 hours per day but times can be difficult if it is only a part day as outings are usually in the morning or afternoon.If its for a part day I ask for 9am or 12/12.30pm starts just so it doesn't cut short an outing,does that make sense. I'm sure you'll find someone, why not ask at the nursery class to see if any cms do a pick up from them.

thanks all - the under-5 thing is something I didn't know about. plenty for me to think about.

Is your DD's nursery class in the morning or afternoon.

He's how I do it if it helps,

If we drop off and collect it's charged hourly for the full day

If we collect only we charge from the end of the nursery session until pick up time (morning sessions only)

If your DD is in nursery for the afternoon session and you will drop off so dd would only be minded from 3 - 4.30 it's not something that I would be able to provide care for, as others have said it just isn't viable and I would loose a full time under 5's space.

she's going to her grandparent's in the morning for breakfast, Grandpa will take her to school, CM to collect at 11.35 ish and mind her til 4.40ish.

we've just gone through the exact same thing. dd2 will be dropped at pre-school by dh and then needs to be picked up by cm at 12 and then i am back from work at 3.45. it actually proved to be a real problem to find a cm who only let us by by the hour, as effectively the hours dd takes up covers both a morning and afternoon session - so takes up a full time place. think i phoned virtually all cms in our area before finally finding one - we start the new arrangement in September, big change for dd who is used to nursery and keeps on saying she will not go to the cm - a whole new thread i imagine in a few weeks!

Right - I think I'm going to resign myself to paying for full day. Well it's going to be cheaper than nursery anyway isn't it...

no don't! that's how I felt after the first few calls but stay postive give all the cm's a call telling them what you need and see what they say. There may well be a few that say yes to those hours. Just try not to get disheartened if the first 20 say no!! Very hard, but just keep going. Al cm's are self employed so they can decide what they prefer.

Eddas is right, if the cm is new or in need of the business then yes they may agree, or it might just fit in with what they need iykwim.

I hope i'm not waffling on too much but when I picked ds up this afternoon my cm mentioned how lots of the cm's where she is are losing children atm due to the recession so infact it might not be as hard as usual to get someone to be able to help.

ooh, thanks eddas & SMM