Thinking of becoming a childminder but want to work term-time only. Is there any point?

[emkana]

I'm from Germany and it's very important to me to be able to spend the school holidays in Germany. Would love to become a childminder, but will I get enough people if I offer term-time only?

Ideal for teachers? You could advertise on Education sites. Do you think there would be enough teachers in your area?

To state the obvious, I would not have wanted a CM who didn't work school hols as our family hol would still leave a chunk of the hollidays to be covered. Also, people with pre-scholers like to go away out of the expensive school hol period.

I only use childcare termtime although my childminder is very flexible and will have my DD on odd days during the holidays which is mega helpful.
Agree with Blu, very helpful for those working in schools.

There are certainly a few childminders out there who do this, teachers, lecturers, admin staff in education places would all love that.

My CMing friend only does term-time. She's never had a problem getting mindees. Her parents generally work in schools/colleges or (iirc) one worked from home but had family who were free in the holidays to take their DC.

She used to do school holidays, but as the age gap widened between her own DCs and the average age of her mindees it started to impact too much on her family life.

Hi

You can have term time only. You have to know what suits you. (that so important)

I have less children during holiday times which works out better as I can give my four children more time and also childmind my two little ones, they come two days each but not together at present.

My cm is term times only. Suits me as I'm SE and so tend to work much less in hols anyway/often go to family/away. If I need cover, mine are getting old enough to do local holiday clubs (which there are loads of)
Fwiw, of the other mums who use her, one is a teacher (ds's teacher in fact!) and one has negotiated to work term time only.

My mum was a cm and she only ever took on children of teachers. Worked well for both parties.

Quite a lot of my regular mindees are TT only now, some employers are becoming a bit more understanding I think and allow parents to work more flexibly.

I know minders that only do TT, seems to work well for them, also a couple are trying out TT only but also doing the first 2 wks of summer holidays which may be a good compromise option if you are concerned that your market may be affected by only offering TT care.

thanks all

Most of my mindees have been teachers' children so by default (and cetainly not on purpose) I have ended up with term-time only contracts. You should not have a problem if that is what you want as there will be some childminders who would rather have year-round children and not just for 38-39 weeks per year.

I'm a CM and only work term-time only. My parents all work in Education and it suit me and my familly.
In the long summer holidays I offer one or two days a week care, but I can only give two weeks notice of when it will be.
I have my own two children and we all like to do our own thing during the school holidays as I have quite long days and feel that sometimes they miss out (my own kids) during the term time.
As I only do term-time, I don't charge any retainers and I don't work Bank holidays.
Do whatever suits you and your familly.
Some CMs that I know have not had a week off work for over 2yrs, but that suits them.

I have children who only come term time for a variety of reasons, but because I am avaliable in the holidays I charge them a half fee retainer so they would probably be happier with someone who didn't work in holidays and therefore didn't charge at all for that time!
Good luck with your childminding