First enquiry - need advice please!

[JenB]

I have just registered and recieved my first enquiry yesterday from a lady wanting after school care for her sons aged 4 and 7, tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays from September.

My problem is this, I have 3 under 8's of my own and the reason I want to childmind is that my youngest is going to nursery in September and I want to fill my newly empty days. If I take on these two little boys, I will be restricting what other work I can take on in the future because there will only be space for one extra child between 3.30 and 6, tuesday to thursday.

Is this a problem? How likely is it that anyone would want me to care for a younger child and collect them before the afternoon school run? If I turn this down in hope of a bigger committment round the corner will I be "cutting off my nose to spite my face"?

I'm incredibly indecisive at the best of times and hate saying "no", but I dont want to let this lady down at a later date if I find that I need my numbers for bigger jobs. HELP!:panic:

[moggy]

I decided not to take any after school work because it is the daytimes I want to fill, like you. After school is the most stressful time of day- I do not want to add any children to that!
There will be other clients, decide what you want your set up to be- all little ones, or little ones plus after schoolies...? Also, remember you can terminate a contract (not nice but can be done) if you can not fit in the work coming to you. Likewise, a family may terminate a contract so even if you take someone on they may well be gone again in a few months, who knows.
This is a really tough part of the job, it is a bit of gut instinct (do you like them, do you think you could get on well, could they want more hours in future?) and also important to decide what YOU want to do. If you do not want after schoolies then say no... there will be others!

[JenB]

Thankyou for your advice, I really appreciate it. I'm glad it's not just me - I just feel like why do all that EYFS training only to sit on my bum all day waiting for the older children to come back from school?

The lady is coming to chat to me tomorrow so I think I'll just be really honest and explain that although I have currently got spaces, I've only been advertising for a few days and I need to give preference to daytime work at the moment, which might mean that I have to let her down (which I don't want to do). I will try to help by offering to put her in touch with other local childminders who have more spaces and might be able to offer a better commitment. Its a shame for her little boys to get settled somewhere if they'll just have to move in a few months time.