Is this okay? Childminders

[MUM2BLESS]

I childmind several children. Today two siblings will be coming, along with other children. One sibling will be picked up at around 5pm, the other is staying with me as my son has invited him to attend boys brigade. This will the first time it has happened.

When the sibling is picked up at 5pm I will not be charging the parents for the other sibling staying and being dropped off with my son. This is becausse my son wants him to come, as its invite a friend evening.

Am I ok to do this as I will not be charging the parents. My husband will be taking them both and dropping the friend off after it finsihes. We are both happy with this arrangement.

I can't see a problem with it. Technically your contract of care has ended by 5pm and the child is having a playdate with your son. My DD often has mindee friend over on W/end as they have grown to be really close friends, to me this is an ordinary playdate.

thanks so much.

Its entirely your own choice whether you charge or not. If you view this as a playdate beneficial to your son, then just make sure the parent understands that.

Just a word of warning though - some children are very good at inviting themselves on playdates. As long as you can draw the line between your son's invitations and the family's requests for extra hours it should be fine.

One of dd's friends used to get collected at 6pm, mum would chat til 6:30 (while my dinner was drying out in oven) during this time every week the mindee would chat with dd who would then ask me if she could stay & play for a bit. When you clock off childminding you want to be free to have a glass of wine or whatever; if the mindees are still there its just not quite as relaxed as when you're not childminding, you still feel like you're on duty iyswim.

Thanks for your advice I will use wisdom concerning this.

It can work really well, and is lovely that mindees can become friends of your own children. As ayla mentioned, do be careful about drawing lines, I used to do a similar thing with a little girl going to brownies at the same time as my daughter, only to find because I took them the parent assumed I would be also picking them up, even though I stopped charging when I dropped them off, it became a bit of a grey area.